Re: FN-FORUM: osCommerce

date posted 26th February 2008 00:51

Hi Ashley,

At 22:01 +0000 25/2/08, Ashley Harvey wrote:
>I have to give someone a quote for a site and they've mentioned using
>osCommerce as the shopping cart.
>
>I've looked at osCommerce a bit but wondered how long it can take to set it
>up as well as amending the templates.
>
>Is it all pretty straight forward, well documented, easy to do? When you
>guys set it up for the first time how long did it take to do?
>
>Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I use Zen Cart regularly, which is a fork of the eCommerce project
and very good indeed.

As it's your first use of the system I'd suggest trying to work to an
estimate rather than a fixed quote. Equally though you may want to
make some allowance to the customer and treat some of the time as
'training' if you think you'll want to use it again.

Setting up a shop with a custom configuration of it's built-in
functionality is easy. Bear in mind though that you'll still need to
agree the precise business functions with the customer (which may
require them to compromise to fit their budget) and then actually
configure it.

Likewise you'll need to add the company's Terms and Conditions and
Privacy Policy (the later of which they may not have thought about
yet). Actually adding them is easy using the built in editor - but
it's the details that nudge up the cost.

Customizing the templates is essential for all but the poorest of
clients as the default templates do nothing to present product well.
Personally I provide entirely custom design - that's my core skill
after all - as this is essential for the less technical branding,
marketing and sales processes.

Alternatively there are lots of low cost, ready-made templates
available which you can install and apply your customer's logo to.
Just don't trust these to really sell the products though. A little
extra spend on design can go a long way to making the site profitable.

Finally, if your customer requires functionality beyond the default
installation, you can obtain lots of free modules from the Zen Cart
community plus lots of third party products which integrate with it.
These tend to be easy to install and configure - but again allowing a
flexible budget for each will help you get the overall price fair to
both parties.

And if your customer requires bespoke functionality which can't be
provided by the modules, then the open-source framework means you can
add it yourself or get someone on the Zen Cart site or this list to
add it for you. Naturally you'd need to put together a full spec. and
price for custom code.

If you'd like to send an outline specification off-list I can try to
give you an idea of what's available in Zen Cart already to help you
get the estimate right.

Regards

ColinR
--
---------------------------------
Colin Rainsforth, BA (hons)
New Media Consultancy and Design
Web | Print | CDROM

Telephone/Fax: 01300 321 347
UK Local Rate: 0845 838 6790
Mobile: 07515 394162
http://www.rainsforth.co.uk/
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