Helpful Talk

I have had a couple online stores in the last three years. I built both using an open source software called OScommerce. Back then OScommerce was the best mySql/Php open source solution.

I am helping a friend build a store and took a quick look around to see what has changed. It seems not much has changed with OScommerece, this is not particularly a good thing. OScommerce remains a solid solution, and there are plenty of plug ins to install. However, Zen Cart seems to be more user friendly, it also seems to have a larger contributing community with quit a few pre-packaged plugins.

I found many Zen Cart users that raved about the easy installation. A couple years ago Zen Cart lacked in themes and plug-ins; this is not the case now.

Most the online stores I found that were small business stores used OScommerce or Zen Cart.  My own OScommerce store got about 100 hits a day and sold about $20,000 worth of merchandize and while it didn’t do my job for me, it was still perfect and I was happy with it (but I’m not a demanding person).

As one would expect, both Zen Cart and OScommerce work with paypal, accept text bulk uploads, have categories, themese, order tracking, etc..

I also researched Bid Ware but found a lot of complaints about its limitations and aparent need for a licencing fee.

I will install Zen Cart this evening and report back to you on how the installation goes.

Bottom line, if you would like to sell your own books or any products for that matter, check out both Zen Cart and OScommerce. They are similar and are both free OS online retail store software that anyone could install and use with just a little elbow grease.

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Ethan Online Business Making Money Online, monetizing, Online Retail