Business and Marketing Tips

For many businesses, starting a e-Commerce website is a must but many choose to simply ignore the idea because of the complexity of setting up an e-Commerce website for their products or services.  In addition, the cost of setting up a e-Commerce website can cost thousands but there are open source e-Commerce solutions that can help even a business with small budget have an online presence.  Below, you will find lists of open source e-Commerce shopping cart software.

1. Magento – Magento is one of the most advanced open-source e-commerce scripts available online.  It is extremely rich in features and very easy to use.  It comes with basic shopping cart, catalog mangement, search, checkout and admin functions.  There are tons of extensions that can help both shoppers and site admins.  For example, there are tools available that can help site owners migrate from other shopping carts to Magento.
2. OsCommerce – OsCommerce is another shopping cart script that is widely used by many shopping websites.   Oscommerce has been around for a long time and has thousands of developers that contribute to the open source code.  Furthermore, they have tons of addons to help improve the functionality of the website.
3. ZenCart – Zencart is another open source e-commerce shopping cart solution that offers tons of flexibility.  ZenCart is based on oscommerce platform and the goal of the project is to make it a little easier for users to install and manage their online store.  However, one can be expected to spend a lot of time going through php files when it comes to customization.  ZenCart also comes with tons of addons and modules to help admins enhance the website experience.
4. VirtueMart – VirtueMart is a shopping cart script designed to work with Joomla which is one of the most used content management systems.  Key features include ajax-powered product overview to quickly add products to the cart without taking the customer away from the Product, customer groups to offer different prices and discounts, rss feeds for products and ability to offers virtual goods like ebooks etc.
5. dashCommerce – dashCommerce is an ASP.NET Open Source e-Commerce Software which is  built employing several of the most up to date solutions, dashCommerce is concentrated on offering a powerful e-commercce program which is secure as well as remarkably functional. Furthermore, the dashCommerce online community is definitely among the list of most lively groups within the open source / .Net environment
6. CubeCart – CubeCart is a cost-free internet commerce shopping cart script, developed in order to enable professionals to offer concrete along with digital items via the internet. CubeCart is not an Open Source application, however 100 % of the actual source code is obtainable at absolutely no fee, plus the customized licensing version enables the modification of the program code.  CubeCart main features consist of web theme models independent from HTML code as well as PHP , XHML and CSS functions, state and country tax, limitless items and class placement and a Text HTML editor.
7. Ubercart – Ubercart is a powerful open source e-commerce alternative which is thoroughly bundled with the top open source content management system, Drupal. This is actually a great combo for any individual wanting to develop a online community around a product or service, offer accessibility to high quality content material, and deliver paid document downloads. Ubercart makes use of Drupal’s main core models, giving web page end users with shopping cart features which integrates with various other areas of your own organization as well as online community site. Designers can easily include or modify Ubercart code for any level of e-commerce solution. Finally, Ubercart can easily be improved by utilizing a wide selection of contributed Drupal modules and themes.
8. Prestashop – PrestaShop is a strong e-commerce choice that is both absolutely free along with open source. The software is offered under the Open Software License and officially released in 2007 for small-scale to medium-sized organizations. The application has got roughly 24,000 live online stores.  The script offers 40 different languages but only English and French support is available in the new version releases.  When it comes to support, users can visit the forum for assistance from other users.  The script comes with many priced modules and themes which can easily add to the price of running an online e-commerce website.
9. WP e-Commerce – WP e-commerce has over 500,000 downloads and comes with full WordPress integration.  The plugin can be installed by simply uploading the file and activating it through the admin panel.  One of the interesting features is the ability to ping when a new product is added.  This way search engines and users who subscribe to the feed will automatically get updates.  It comes with social bookmarking features, tons of payments options, one page checkout, usage of WordPress PHP template system.  There are also paid modules available to extend the functionality of the script.
10. Substruct – Substruct is probably the first Ruby on Rails e-commerce project.  The project itself is open source and it’s very easy to use.  The code is implemented on Rails Engines which makes it easier when sharing code.  The script utilizes XHTML, CSS for design.  Key features include content management system, blog, product and order management.
11. Oxid eshop – OXID eshop community edition is an open source software but also comes with professional editions that offers ERP/SOAP interface along with support plans.  Key features includes unlimited products, sales promotion such as upselling, web 2.0 package, product invidualization, search engine optmization, smarty templates and B2B/B2c feature.  The community version doesn’t include rights management, WYSIWYG editor, multi-client capabilities, and ability to use multiple servers.
12. OpenFreeway – Freeway is another open source ecommerce platform that comes with both CRM and CMS features.  Advanced fearures include support for Point Of Sale (POS), support for services such are bookings, support for events and subscriptions.  Furthermore, it comes with single page checkout, Joomla intergration, AJAX support, newsletter support, promotions, gift certificates, SMS marketing and more.
13. Digistore – Digistore is also an open source ecommerce solution which is already configured for businesses in New Zealand.  The script comes with content management features and support is mainly provided through their forum.
14. Satchmo – Satchmo is a open source application that is based on Django.  The framework offers scalable system, url mapping and out of box admin capabilities.