[thelist] Looking for a simple CF-based catalog/shopping cart

.jeff jeff at members.evolt.org
Mon Dec 10 14:58:05 CST 2001


judah,

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> From: Judah McAuley
>
> I'm looking for recommendations/warnings regarding
> simple cold fusion based catalog/shopping carts.  I
> need something that I can easily deploy for multiple
> clients, has relatively low pricing structure (say
> <150 per client or 600 per server), and preferably
> will be able to be embedded within an existing design.
>
> I don't need anything fancy (upsells and cross sells,
> variable discounting schemes for different user classes,
> etc) and I don't actually need it to support online
> payment gateways.  Just something to allow the client
> to create a catalog and allow visitors to add items to
> a basket and then figure out a grand total order.
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sounds to me like the most economical solution with the least amount of
hassle would be to roll your own.  i know that's what you're trying to
avoid, but when it comes to shopping carts they all have complexities built
into them.  the only true way to get what you want in the slimmest, most
efficient package is to build it yourself or contract it out with a spec of
exactly what you want.

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> I've also briefly looked at http://www.cf-ezcart.com/
> and http://www.quickestore.com/
>
> I liked the fact that ezcart was custom tag based, which
> would seem to indicate that I could easily embed it
> within a design.
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be careful with that assumption.  i'd find out how much of the page the cart
wants control over and how much of it's coloring is controlled by variables.
then you have speed issues for the sake of having a configurable look and
feel.  prebuilt carts are *very* difficult to integrate into a design.
about the only way to pull it off so it's seamless is to build the design of
the site around the design of the cart which usually leads to less than
ideal results.

you also wanna be careful about choosing setups that are custom tag based,
as they will be slower than one that's not custom tag based.

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> Anyone have any experiences with either of these
> solutions or have recommendations on any others?
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i have experience with quickestore.  it's a *serious* pain to integrate into
a site's design.  take a look at some of the sites they list as quickestore
cart users and you'll see what i mean.  it doesn't help that the cart's
design is downright ugly.  i wouldn't recommend this cart to anyone unless i
was recommending that they ditch it.

good luck,

.jeff

http://evolt.org/
jeff at members.evolt.org
http://members.evolt.org/jeff/






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