Shopping Cart "Holy Grail"

[JulieA]

Over the last 5 years,I reckon I have tried out almost every cart out there..from A to Z. I've used the OS, I've trialled the commercial ones. About the only ones I've never tried are the ones that are hosted.
Every single one I have tried has good points and atrocious points...every GOOD cart I've tried always has at least ONE atrocious point.
I have fantasised about working with a developer to create the "hole grail" of shopping carts ( there is a bloke out there who actually has a small forum devoted to this "holy grail"....though it hasn't been updated in a while...I guess, like me, he's despaired of ever finding it).
My fantasy is to take all the good/great points of the carts, and combine them into ONE great cart- with the emphasis on Australian eCommerce. One of the biggest failings of all the carts is they just don't consider Aussie eCommerce. (Yes, there's Freeway, but that seems to have degenerated into nothing- a visit to their Forum shows just a huge amount of spam posts.)

If I was 30 years younger, I would jump into this fantasy with both feet...I reckon it's kinda like the "build a better mousetrap....". Unfortunately my knowledge and understanding of the codes used to create a shopping cart is limited to being able to do a little bit of modifying...but not much:-(

So, why am I posting this? The last few days I've been struggling with the "atrocious" points of the shopping cart I've opted to use, and the frustration got the better of me LOL

So, if there's anyone here who'd like to "build a better mousetrap" shopping cart......let me know*grins*

[Chris Bates]

I would be interested, but no idea how I would afford to spend the time devving it, haha!

But I agree with you, there is no "holy grail" at the moment. They're all difficult to set up, and generally bulky and sluggish. Then you get the joys of trying to template it too =)

Perhaps we should try set up an open source community around it?

[JulieA]

Originally Posted by Chris Bates

I would be interested, but no idea how I would afford to spend the time devving it, haha!

But I agree with you, there is no "holy grail" at the moment. They're all difficult to set up, and generally bulky and sluggish. Then you get the joys of trying to template it too =)

Perhaps we should try set up an open source community around it?

Well it certainly would be interesting to try and get a comprehensive list of what people WANT in a shopping cart.
I know what I want my cart to be able to do LOL
I imagine it would take a huge amount of dev time...though maybe the "base" could be one of the OS carts?...not sure on the "rules & regs" concerning developing an OS script though)

[Chris Bates]

You can make a complete spin off of an OS script, no problems. However the software must remain licensed under the GPL.

Which means it CAN be sold for money, but the source must be given to the purchaser. So an OS base isn't going to make it a great IP product, haha.

[JulieA]

Originally Posted by Chris Bates

You can make a complete spin off of an OS script, no problems. However the software must remain licensed under the GPL.

Which means it CAN be sold for money, but the source must be given to the purchaser. So an OS base isn't going to make it a great IP product, haha.

Ahhhhh, okay....that would explain a cart I was looking at recently- well, it was actually a Joomla component, which was supposed to integrate Prestashop...but it all seemed pretty dodgy, and you needed ioncube just to trial it...and from what I could tell, it wasn't even Prestashop...it was something called IQcart. I bowed out of the whole thread, and saw later the moderators had closed/moved it because it was a "commercial" Presta module. It was a pity, because it would have been a pretty good compromise for me.

[FionaFell]

I would be interested in seeing what you want your shopping cart to do?
(or do BETTER that the options available currently)

[bradzo]

Hey Julie

Originally Posted by JulieA

I know what I want my cart to be able to do LOL

Can you put up a web page somewhere that lists all of what you want?

Originally Posted by Chris Bates

Perhaps we should try set up an open source community around it?

Lets get cracking!

I'm up for helping out with an OS version.

Anyone else? How do we go about it - on SourceForge maybe?

[ray_223]

Originally Posted by JulieA

So, if there's anyone here who'd like to "build a better mousetrap" shopping cart......let me know*grins*

Being a software developer (and an Open Source enthusiast) I would recommend NOT trying to build another shopping cart. Find an Open Source one that is the best fit to your requirements and then help the developers make it better.

Unless you are a rock star developer with rock star marketing and selling skills (I mean totally awesome - not just great) you won't make a dent in the shopping cart market. There are far to many competitors (commercial and open source) that have huge market shares and user bases already.

It would be like someone trying to compete with Oracle with a database product or Microsoft with a word processor.

Now if you have something "different" to all of the competitors (not just better) you may have a 1% chance of breaking into the field

[Chris Bates]

You're right Ray, it would be a long and arduous journey.

It would need something more distinctive other then just "we do things RIGHT".

I'm sure thousands of ecommerce shop owners will go "man that's brilliant", but only .01% would every go to the effort of moving their shop.

I do see potential in making a system that ties in with other SaaS products, like Xero. Maybe even make a POS front end that can be used offline in a physical shop too.

[bradzo]

Oh I didn't mean build it from scratch!

Embrace and extend, embrace and extend.....