On-line shop recommendations?

[LoonyBalloony]

Sorry if this has been discussed to death already but I am very new to this forum and have confused myself with the research I have done so far!!

What I want to find out is if anyone has any recommendations for a good low cost / free on line shop software that I can integrate into my existing website?

The biggest problem for me (that I can see anyway) is that I plan to sell balloon models to be sent through the post (UK based btw) and I need to be able to set a maximum number of orders the system will accept for a particular delivery date as there is only so many I can make in a day. Also I need to be able to block entire days out if I have an all day job booked in for the other side of my business.

I assume Florists and other service / delivery based businesses must have something like this but all the open resourse software I have found so far seems to be firmly aimed at those selling a physical product that they buy in ready made.

Any recommendations would be gratefully recieved and if this subject has come up before would someone point me in the right direction?

Many thanks.

[Andy c]

I think it is personally up to you as I would recommend zencart /oscommerse  ,others would recommend wordpress & other would recommend others that they are used to
Take a look here (google search)
http://webtecker.com/2008/04/22/8-best-open-source-shopping-cart-solutions/
see what they are like ,see what options they have for you that you will need

[scotserve]

You could set the amounts you can make via a stock level that way people cant order more than you can make at any given time.
Set your delivery times at realistic levels so you can spread out in case you get too busy.

I have been putting a lot of people on this plan http://www.scotserve.co.uk/shared-hosting/entry-e-commerce-plan  and it gets good reviews - feel free to contact me to discuss if you want, I also do most of the opensource carts and some commercial ones as well.

[LoonyBalloony]

Andy C thanks for the link but I have looked at the majority of these and can't work out if they do what I need which is why I was asking for recommendations.

Scotserve - Not sure if I had the right end of the stick with what you are suggesting? From how I read it you are suggesting that I perhaps limit the stock to say 10 items per design? I am not sure this would work seeing as I plan to start with 20 designs so could potentially end up with 200 orders all for the same delivery date. Whilst I could make that many in one day at a real push I'm not sure the post office would like me very much! I also don't want to have to limit the number in stock preferably as potentially I could get a day when everyone wants to order balloon people but all for different delivery dates. BTW if this is not what you meant I am sorry.

Really what I could do with finding out is what independent florists use as they have pretty much unlimited products and large portfolio's for delivery bouquets but there is obviously a limit as to how many orders they can take per days deliveries. I know they will be further limited than I will in the first instance as I just have to make sure I get my packages to the post office before they close rather than physically delivering them myself (although for another branch of my business, Balloon Bouquets, I will have this issue but that is to come later).

Trouble is I know what I need but don't know how to find out if particular carts have that capability. I have downloaded several only to uninstall them again as I couldn't find a way to do this or an add-on that would.

[Andy c]

most of them need ftp and a little learning to get yourself going.. I ended up using zencart as there are a lot of free addons for them . I still have to ask every now and them as to how to do something and I always get a reply and figure it out and do it ,or get help & they do it for me (thanks to those who have )

[LoonyBalloony]

Cheers Andy I'll have a look and see what add-ons Zen cart has. I know use ftp to upload my site and have taught myself a certain amount of css and javascript (although with javascript it is more luck if things work!) so I should be able to manage getting it up and running (I hope  ).

[Rainee Bows]

At last she lands ..................


Hello  there Loony ,

right here goes, knowing what you are up to i would do the following  ....

What you are doing is very similar to the way florists work , so you need a next available delivery date ....... currently there isnt a cheap or open source solution that does that "out of the box" ,  i know ive been hunting for months , so this is how we are tackling it , i have a zencart set up , we are currently re-writing a modification to handle a next available delivery date , giving you the ability to specify a lead time ..... it will give you the chance to advance plan however many days in advance that you need ..... so unless you get really really sooper busy ( not likely at the start tbh)  or run out of breath you wont actually need to limit the amount of orders you can recieve .....

 if you would like to discuss this further drop me a pm, and i'll be more than willing to go into more depth on the modifications possible to wordpress and zencart  :o)



Rainee x

[altteam]

Hello, LoonyBalloony!

Hope you've already found a solution but just want to share my thoughts. I would recommend you to choose any shopping cart which you generally like and affordable at price and ask for custom development works to implement all necessary functionality if it's not provided (you may contact the company directly to learn if their shopping cart has necessary features). Actually, every online store owner has its own preferences and it's almost impossible to develop one shopping cart software with all possible features (but it should be a goal). That's why all shopping cart developers and resellers offer custom development service to adjust a shopping cart to every person business needs.

Kind regards