Web Developer needs help - what are best, easiest, most cu..

If you're a developer, and I assume you mean developer
beyond the graphics that the users sees, and you want a
seriously capable SW package (a.k.a. shopping cart) then
I would look at Interchange. From what I've seen IC is
probably the most flexible of them all. It really isn't that hard
to initially set up and have a close to an out of the box implementation
but if you want to customize then a bit more effort. But if you want
to really customize then I don't think there are any limitations.
Check out icdevgroup.org. There are demo carts for both the
customer and admin interfaces.

Jon

Robert wrote:

 > I'm a web developer: experienced, with a large (1000+ product) ShopSite
 > store, and a similar Yahoo! store under my belt.
 >
 > My web site designs are good (imho) -- and I like to try to bring them
 > across to my stores -- it's a selling point, my design is.
 >
 > I've been extremely frustrated by market out there: I was able to
 > finagle something with ShopSite that was passable, but Yahoo! presented
 > me with the incredible learning curve of learning their template
 > language or simply going with a bare-bones ugly store. I went with the
 > latter.
 >
 > So, I could use recs on the best ecommerce packages out there for large
 > (500+) product stores. Design flexibility isn't the only issue: ease of
 > setup, reliability, features, usability is important. Setup cost is
 > important; cost/month less so.
 >
 > I'm making proposals to potential clients and I'm at a bit of a loss as
 > to the best software out there.
 >
 > I called Earthlink -- as I like them as an ISP -- and talked with them
 > about Miva Merchant -- It sounded pretty bad, and that was the opinion
 > of the person I talked to in tech support. It's very simple, but overly
 > so: all of it's point-and-click, and if I had a spreadsheet with the
 > products in it, no way to upload it. SO it's 500 products
 > point-and-click which isn't all that great. Anyone got any feedback
 > regarding Miva? Earthlink is barely supporting it at this point -- it's
 > so new to them.
 >
 > How about Verio? Shopsite I know -- it's OK -- but template-wise -- I
 > really don't like what they offer, particularly in terms of navigation
 > -- and it's hard to customize. I don't like the look. What's Verio's
 > other package? Feedback most welcome. (On top of that, Verio's customer
 > service is SO BAD -- I've "used" it for years and always been disappointed).
 >
 > Has anyone had any experience with Zoovy? I tested out their templates
 > -- they have code you simply drop into your HTML. It's great! But I
 > don't know anything about the company. And their setup cost is LARGE.
 > Feedback?
 >
 > In short, I'm basically a designer with some programming background -- I
 > can handle complexity, but would rather find a simple off-the-shelf
 > ecommerce provider who will allow me to get the job done quickly and
 > predictably (so that I can get a good idea of how long the job will
 > take) for my clients, and will hopefull allow me the flexibility to get
 > a good design without learning an arcane scripting language or having to
 > spend 40 hours deconstructing templates.
 >
 > Any feedback MUCH appreciated!!
 >
 > Thanks!
 >
 > Robert<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Web Developer needs help - what are best, easiest, most cu.. 

Robert <robertanthony9.DeleteThis@earthlink.net> wrote in message news:<3F1F043C.8090600.DeleteThis@earthlink.net>...
 > I'm a web developer: experienced, with a large (1000+ product) ShopSite
 > store, and a similar Yahoo! store under my belt.
 >
 > My web site designs are good (imho) -- and I like to try to bring them
 > across to my stores -- it's a selling point, my design is.
 >
 > I've been extremely frustrated by market out there: I was able to
 > finagle something with ShopSite that was passable, but Yahoo! presented
 > me with the incredible learning curve of learning their template
 > language or simply going with a bare-bones ugly store. I went with the
 > latter.
 >
 > So, I could use recs on the best ecommerce packages out there for large
 > (500+) product stores. Design flexibility isn't the only issue: ease of
 > setup, reliability, features, usability is important. Setup cost is
 > important; cost/month less so.
 >
 > I'm making proposals to potential clients and I'm at a bit of a loss as
 > to the best software out there.
 >
 > I called Earthlink -- as I like them as an ISP -- and talked with them
 > about Miva Merchant -- It sounded pretty bad, and that was the opinion
 > of the person I talked to in tech support. It's very simple, but overly
 > so: all of it's point-and-click, and if I had a spreadsheet with the
 > products in it, no way to upload it. SO it's 500 products
 > point-and-click which isn't all that great. Anyone got any feedback
 > regarding Miva? Earthlink is barely supporting it at this point -- it's
 > so new to them.
 >
 > How about Verio? Shopsite I know -- it's OK -- but template-wise -- I
 > really don't like what they offer, particularly in terms of navigation
 > -- and it's hard to customize. I don't like the look. What's Verio's
 > other package? Feedback most welcome. (On top of that, Verio's customer
 > service is SO BAD -- I've "used" it for years and always been disappointed).
 >
 > Has anyone had any experience with Zoovy? I tested out their templates
 > -- they have code you simply drop into your HTML. It's great! But I
 > don't know anything about the company. And their setup cost is LARGE.
 > Feedback?
 >
 > In short, I'm basically a designer with some programming background -- I
 > can handle complexity, but would rather find a simple off-the-shelf
 > ecommerce provider who will allow me to get the job done quickly and
 > predictably (so that I can get a good idea of how long the job will
 > take) for my clients, and will hopefull allow me the flexibility to get
 > a good design without learning an arcane scripting language or having to
 > spend 40 hours deconstructing templates.
 >
 > Any feedback MUCH appreciated!!
 >
 > Thanks!
 >
 > Robert

Robert,

you don't specify whether your store is to be B2C, B2B, or a mixture
of both.

I'd suggest you post a little more information, including details of
what products you're selling... whether you have inventory issues etc,
as it can all have a bearing on the product chosen.

We use and recommend two different types of solutions:

1. Actinic Catalog, Actinic Business, Actinic Developer

These are software solutions and there are more than 10,000 online
stores using the Actinic product range. Let me know what kind of
business you are in, and we can provide you some examples of stores in
your line of business.

<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.aaabusinesshosting.com/actinic_hosting/" target="_blank">http://www.aaabusinesshosting.com/actinic_hosting/</a>

2. OsCommerce MySQL/PHP solution. Our servers are configured for
OsCommerce, and we offer a free installation of OsCommerce at the
moment at:

<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.aaabusinesshosting.com/oscommerce_hosting/" target="_blank">http://www.aaabusinesshosting.com/oscommerce_hosting/</a>

Examples:

<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.sunlawn.com/catalog/" target="_blank">http://www.sunlawn.com/catalog/</a>
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.grandmasmountaincookies.com/catalog/" target="_blank">http://www.grandmasmountaincookies.com/catalog/</a>

These stores both have a basic OsCommerce installation - we are now
installing a distribution with Gift Voucher purchase/redemption,
discount code issue and management and many additional features
installed.

The choice is up to you - Actinic is much easier to change the design
of the store - OsCommerce is harder to alter the design, but has no
cost - it's a free software solution.

If you want to call me for some advice, I'm more than happy to talk
about which I would recommend - call us on 970-266-0195.

I've not come across Zoovy - but we've been deploying ecommerce
solutions for about 6 years now - regular websites for about 7 years.
We've been an Actinic Partner for many years (since before they had an
office in the USA), and we've developed a lot of stores using both
their products, and the OsCommerce toolset lately. Some of the
features in each make them an obvious choice when we have a little
more information - I'm happy to share my knowledge if you need more
info.

regards

Greg Hewitt-Long<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Web Developer needs help - what are best, easiest, most cu.. 

On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 21:52:41 GMT, Robert <robertanthony9.RemoveThis@earthlink.net>
wrote:

 >I've been extremely frustrated by market out there: I was able to
 >finagle something with ShopSite that was passable, but Yahoo! presented
 >me with the incredible learning curve of learning their template
 >language or simply going with a bare-bones ugly store. I went with the
 >latter.

Howdy Robert,

There is no such thing as "easy" for setting up an ecommerce site. However,
there is a wide span of "flexibility" available and tech support that makes
it feel easy.

Hit <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://bizycart.com" target="_blank">http://bizycart.com</a> and look at the Ready-To-Run Demonstration. That's
a set of template pages I provide to web designers. It's fully operational
and you can order things with a fake card number or by check. It's not
difficult to adapt the get-started data base to whatever you want.

Then try the "BIZyCart Manual" link. All of the How-2's and specifications
are on-line and searchable. There's even some computer tip pages your
clients will find handy.

Then try the "Designer Samples". When you click "Web Design Tour", that
will take you to a bunch more sample pages I'll provide copies of and you
can adapt the appearance to suit.

Open <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://bizycart.com/BIZyCart.asp?ACTION=Manage&CLIENT=Demonstration" target="_blank">http://bizycart.com/BIZyCart.asp?ACTION=Manage&CLIENT=Demonstration</a> and
log in with "Guest" and "1000" to look at the management options.

Hit <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://bizycart.com/BIZyCart.asp" target="_blank">http://bizycart.com/BIZyCart.asp</a> and you can take a look at many of the
sites using BIZyCart. They are all very different. Some have over 10,000
items in their catalog, others less than a dozen. Some don't sell products
or services and use BIZyCart for information sites the ower can update
themselves.

If you are going to do all of the web page design, we charge $165.00 to set
up the site, install the templates, and help you lay out the data base and
get your pages operational. Sites that don't work well don't do BIZynet any
good so if it takes some extra time, that's a no cost item.

Basic BIZynet/BIZyCart hosting is $24.95 a month which includes fixing
things on your web pages and data base within hours. I normally do the
fixes and tech support myself.

BIZyCart is the only solution that can truely call itself an "Ecommerce
Server". There are no scripts to install. BIZyCart is a complied program
that runs only on the BIZynet server and takes care of all the BIZyCart
sites. When I install a new version, everyone's site is instantly upgraded.

I could ramble for hours on all the things BIZyCart does. Easiest is to
say; you won't need PHP, any kind of scripting, coding, frames, or anything
else beyond plain ol' HTML to accomplish everything a web designer needs to
build a site that looks like thousands of dollars were spent.

Thanks, Chris <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.bizynet.com" target="_blank">http://www.bizynet.com</a>
BIZynet Coordinator cgunn.RemoveThis@bizynet.com
Moderator of biz.general, biz.marketplace.discussion, biz.healthcare,
biz.marketplace.web-design, biz.marketplace.international & others<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Web Developer needs help - what are best, easiest, most cu.. 

Robert <robertanthony9.TakeThisOut@earthlink.net> wrote in message news:<3F1F043C.8090600.TakeThisOut@earthlink.net>...
 > I'm a web developer: experienced, with a large (1000+ product) ShopSite
 > store, and a similar Yahoo! store under my belt.
 >
 > My web site designs are good (imho) -- and I like to try to bring them
 > across to my stores -- it's a selling point, my design is.
 >
 > I've been extremely frustrated by market out there: I was able to
 > finagle something with ShopSite that was passable, but Yahoo! presented
 > me with the incredible learning curve of learning their template
 > language or simply going with a bare-bones ugly store. I went with the
 > latter.
 >
 > So, I could use recs on the best ecommerce packages out there for large
 > (500+) product stores. Design flexibility isn't the only issue: ease of
 > setup, reliability, features, usability is important. Setup cost is
 > important; cost/month less so.
 >
 > I'm making proposals to potential clients and I'm at a bit of a loss as
 > to the best software out there.
 >
 > I called Earthlink -- as I like them as an ISP -- and talked with them
 > about Miva Merchant -- It sounded pretty bad, and that was the opinion
 > of the person I talked to in tech support. It's very simple, but overly
 > so: all of it's point-and-click, and if I had a spreadsheet with the
 > products in it, no way to upload it. SO it's 500 products
 > point-and-click which isn't all that great. Anyone got any feedback
 > regarding Miva? Earthlink is barely supporting it at this point -- it's
 > so new to them.
 >
 > How about Verio? Shopsite I know -- it's OK -- but template-wise -- I
 > really don't like what they offer, particularly in terms of navigation
 > -- and it's hard to customize. I don't like the look. What's Verio's
 > other package? Feedback most welcome. (On top of that, Verio's customer
 > service is SO BAD -- I've "used" it for years and always been disappointed).
 >
 > Has anyone had any experience with Zoovy? I tested out their templates
 > -- they have code you simply drop into your HTML. It's great! But I
 > don't know anything about the company. And their setup cost is LARGE.
 > Feedback?
 >
 > In short, I'm basically a designer with some programming background -- I
 > can handle complexity, but would rather find a simple off-the-shelf
 > ecommerce provider who will allow me to get the job done quickly and
 > predictably (so that I can get a good idea of how long the job will
 > take) for my clients, and will hopefull allow me the flexibility to get
 > a good design without learning an arcane scripting language or having to
 > spend 40 hours deconstructing templates.
 >
 > Any feedback MUCH appreciated!!
 >
 > Thanks!
 >
 > Robert

Robert,

I share your frustration!!! I too am in search of a good solution. I
have been using the Earthlink / MIVA package on a trial basis for
about 5 days now. My experience has been totally frustrating. In my
opinion, the MIVA product is inflexible, awkward, buggy and poorly
designed. I must have contacted Earthlink support more than 20 time
via email. While their response times were generally within 24hrs,
their solutions were poor and often required submitting another
support email. It's clear to me that support is operating from MIVA
flashcards while trying to support this product. The MIVA product that
Earthlink offers is version 4.13. The latest MIVA release is 4.19. So
out of the gate, I was working with a product that was six releases
back. They also have now plans to upgrade to a more current release. I
found several issues that I believe to be bugs in the MIVA product.
After several e-mails with Earthlink support, they through up their
hands and said "It sound like a bug and we can not help you because we
only have a license for 4.13. We suggest that you call MIVA directly."
at which point they offered their long-distance phone number. I called
MIVA and was surprised to learn that their support hours are 12:00 -
7:00 EST! When I called back during these times, they indicated that I
would need to purchase a support contract in order to receive
assistance. I gladly said NO THANKS!
After a week of trying to get something reasonable to work, I have
given up on MIVA and plan to cancel my e-commerce hosting package with
Earthlink.

As for other alternatives, I downloaded a 30-day trial from Actinic
(www.actinic.us). This is Windows software that you own and not rent.
So far (2 days) I have had much better results using this product.
This product is much more mature and seems to have all the major bases
covered. The next 28 days should give me a good feel.

As for Zoovy, I looked at their pricing and was scared away by the
high activation fees. I would hate to by the farm and bail shortly
after I have had a chance to try the product for my self.

Hope this helps. I would be interested in additional software
candidates if you find any that are suitable.

John<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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