Support » Plugins » Best ecommerce / store plugin?

  • OK, doing some research, would appreciate opinions.

    Goal: small, easily managed web store to sell a small assortment of products.

    Prefer: basic inventory management, accounting integration would be excellent, support for affiliate reselling (ie, allow affiliates to resell my products) and associated tracking required to pay commissions.

    4 options I am considering – not sure if any of these support affiliates?

    1) Free instinct e-commerce – http://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/
    2) $55 + add-ons – Shopp – http://shopplugin.net/
    3) $55 – Market Theme – http://www.markettheme.com/
    4) $80 – iTheme’s ecommerce – http://ecommercethemes.com/

    Can I get some opinions? These seem to be the 4 best options I have found so far? Anyone have any others I should consider or know if affiliate marketing is supported by any of these?

    JZ

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 33 total)
  • Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Volunteer Moderator

    Have you tried eShop yet?

    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/eshop/

    Thread Starter johnzimmerman

    (@johnzimmerman)

    James, thanks for that. I actually haven’t tried any of these plugins yet as I am hoping to avoid extra work and simply start with the best option possible.

    Looks like both eShop and Shopp work well with the Tips and Trick’s WP Affiliate plugin (http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/wordpress-affiliate/)

    However, I note that WP Affiliate is designed to be immediately integrated with Tips and Tricks WP eStore plugin

    ( http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/wordpress-estore-plugin-complete-solution-to-sell-digital-products-from-your-wordpress-blog-securely-1059 )

    Do you have any specific experience with any of these plugins? I am happy to use eStore, eShop or Shopp as long as they are easy to set-up, maintain and integrate with both Members and Affiliate plugins for a nice, clean online shopping experience for our customers.

    Many thanks,

    John

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Volunteer Moderator

    I tested eShop for a project once, but funding feel through, so we scrapped everything and I never got to use eShop to its full extent.

    If anything, I highly recommend eShop simply for the fact that its developer is one of the few who answers every support request regarding his plugin here every day.

    Thread Starter johnzimmerman

    (@johnzimmerman)

    That’s great – thanks James. I agree – that makes a huge difference. I have spent a fair bit of time reviewing its documentation though and it doesn’t look like it supports Members? Meaning, it is likely the store won’t be able to allow login for repeat customers? That’s a pretty big hit if not.

    There is a setting which automatically creates accounts at checkout stage is enabled. However it doesn’t require anyone to be logged in to make a purchase, but if they are then they are able to track their orders.

    I agree with the comments on eShop, it’s the best free e-commerce plugin I’ve found.

    I came across this option recently for a premium e-commerce plugin, may be worth looking at too: http://www.phpurchase.com/

    Thread Starter johnzimmerman

    (@johnzimmerman)

    Thanks guys! I don’t mind (at all) paying for a good option to use, as long as it is reasonably priced (as these all seem to be) and does what I need it to do.

    These tips are very much appreciated though. I will look at Phpurchase too but am leaning towards eShop as of now.

    John

    Hi, I’ve been testing both eshop and phpurchase in the last 2 weeks. They are good but very different: eshop has more extensive options, more complete for international users too, but you need some time to really make it work. Phpurchase is well organized and easy to understand, many less options but immediatly working and easier to customize with your graphics. I tried to set up a cart with Paypal with both plug-ins and I hade some problems with eshop, while with phpurchase it worked immediatly (Paypal Express is supported too). Both plugins have a support forum, but the eshop developer is always ready to give you fast and good free assistance and that’s very cool for a free plugin. Phpurchase’s support forum is quite bad as you can check by yourself, developers, even if paid for their plugin, are givin rare assistance: sometimes is better to do not open a forum if you dont find time to manage it. On the other side, I directly mailed them a couple of times and they always respondend in 24 hours. Hope this helps. Peace.

    Thread Starter johnzimmerman

    (@johnzimmerman)

    Wow, Airone – thank-you!

    eshop is good… till you try to improve (or extend) it: I’m so sorry, but the code sucks 🙁
    *PHP-Nuke time :S

    thank you for your constructive criticism. Though I admit to not remembering when you contacted me to ask for filters/actions to be added, I guess I missed the email. Feel free to resend.

    Oops… I was working on it. So sorry by style, you’re right, it’s not constructive… I’m nuts 🙁


    I’ve written a small improvement (I think) based on template html system and a coding standard for PHP (ZF based). In this case for shortcodes functions:
    I like OOP and not too many html tags inside scripts, …even when PHP is a embed HTML script language :S
    eshop-shortcodes.php
    `
    [snipped code blocks – please use http://wordpress.pastebin.com as per the forum guidelines]

    Now, you have 3 arrays of items vars and you can use your templates to apply your html structure.
    You get only Data: $tplProducts, $tplItems and $tplOptions.
    And you can apply your View: your template, e.g. renaming the original template.

    I would work to improve (if necessary and you want) the plugin based in this concept 😉

    One more time, …excuse my previous message :S

    I forgot the most important:
    …and you can use the templates through all system (DRY, Don’t repeat yourself with html code in each function).

    …mmm ideas: att for template.
    e.g. you can set an ol list, and dl
    We only need setup options for $eshopTemplate to use a diferent template. We don’t need rewrite the html tags inside script.

    The code was snipped, too long for the forums here, feel free to email me, or post on the forums over at http://quirm.net and I’ll take a look.

    Ok, sorry:
    eshop_shortcodes.php
    http://wordpress.pastebin.com/DwvksV8S

    Templates example:
    eshop_cart_items.phtml
    http://wordpress.pastebin.com/6KNETzdM

    eshop_default.phtml
    http://wordpress.pastebin.com/bhaERW7J

    Sorry, ATM, I don’t have time to register on forum. I want help you if you need it.
    See you later 😉

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 33 total)
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