Which eCommerce System?

Good evening everyone.

So I have a pretty good IT background, but my web design experience is still limited. I have started working with a client to introduce an eCommerce system into their website. They are a fish distributor/seller, and are wanting to have an accurate listing of their stock on their website. They target people locally/regionally for sales, and also other pet stores, etc.

So currently they have a page that has pictures/info of fish, and they update the status as available or not. Very simple, but it's not what they are looking for. I am currently looking into Open Source eCommerce platforms to help them out. I am not looking for a full checkout system because filling your cart up and making a payment is not what they are looking for. However, a nice system that would allow a user to create a cart with the fish they want, the amount, and then email that list to one of the breeders with the customers contact information is exactly what I would like to see.

Does anyone have a recommendation for this? They use Web.com for their hosting, which I have full access to. Let me know if you need any additional information.

Thanks!

Woo

I recommend going with one of the WordPress templates that is fitted to run with WooCommerce - you would then install the WooCommerce plugin-

Elegant themes has a good template to start, I believe it's called E-Shop that they just retrofitted to work with WooCommerce, but there are plenty of options out there, just be careful with 'free' themes as they often have encrypted footers.

Not sure exactly how Woo would work with your 'email list to supplier' deal, but if your a programmer you might be able to figure something out, or they might even have a pre-set for that.

Good luck

So you do want a cart just not a payment gateway.

it always amazes me as to why people want to do e-commerce half-arsed.

not only is it counter intuitive and customers abandon more than you'd care to realise, and those that do continue with it assume it's probably not a real order and forget about it, so you'll probably end up with incomplete orders of fish that they ended up buying elsewhere, like the better setup "Tropical fish online" store from the next town, which they can pick up the next day without the whole hassle of email toing and froing and then still having to cough up the funds at the store itself. And it actually makes the administration of the shop a hell of a lot more difficult. but enough of a lecture...

I'm sure any plugin will work. just instead of it going through to the payment gateway it'll fire off a quote to the customer and initiates a workflow with an admin who then will need to then communicate with the breeder to get the order finalised, or something to that effect.

The website is already active and not running Wordpress, so using any plugins with Wordpress isn't really an option.

Condescending comments aren't needed either. Maybe I should say we are looking for a inventory tracking system that is customer facing, instead of eCommerce. We aren't looking for a checkout option simply because prices are't always set. Price varies on how many a customer buys, how large of an order the customer places, the size of the fish, sex/color, etc. Also, my client doesn't ship fish like "Tropical Fish Online" would. We wouldn't want someone to place an order and pay for something that may not be available. My client has over 10,000 fish in stock and that number changes daily and also imports fish on special order. This is why I am looking for a "half arsed" eCommerce system. It will fit the NEEDS OF MY CLIENT, which is always the goal when doing work like I do. Also, this website is not the only place a customer can go to for ordering as they can call, email directly, or stop by. With the amount of different species, it can be hard for a new customer to know what he/she is looking for by coming in and asking when he/she can look at the pictures on my clients website and create a virtual shopping list of what they want.

So please, don't waste your time posting if you are just going to crap on me.

Thanks.

Not a 100% sure but Magento with the customer request quote plugin should do what you want. However these things tend to need tweaking which is OK if you are used to that but a world of pain if you are not. The workaround to that is to pay for support which starts @$15 a month.

"eCommerce" or so-called "shopping cart/basket" systems ALL consist of THREE or four components integrated into a single package.

1: An 'online' catalogue for visitors to browse the available goods or services.

2: A 'cart system' where customers can put their chosen goods until payment is made.

3: A 'checkout' system where monies can be exchanged in payment for the goods.

4: A inventory control system where goods that have been paid for are removed from the catalogue or the available quantity is reduced by the quantity purchased.

Just like it is in ANY and EVERY shop, supermarket or mall in the ENTIRE WORLD.


So out of those choices, choose the combination you require, bearing in mind that eBay and Amazon or NOT necessarily the vendors, they simply act as an agent for the vendor to list their wares, which seems to be what your client is doing.

The 'technical term' for such a transaction is 'drop shipping', where the agent takes payment then passes the order and payment, minus the agent's commission, on to the supplier who then completes the transaction with the customer.

No, my client isn't doing drop shipping. They have the product, they sell the product themselves, but they don't ship. The fact that they don't ship is the main reason we aren't looking for a payment gateway, as previously called.

Thank you for laying out the 4 components of an eCommerce system. That makes it a little easier for me to understand.

I have been looking into Magento, osCommerce, and OpenCart. I am looking at theses because they have a free or Open Source distribution, but I also want something that has a community along with it. All in all, I would guess that my client will have under 10 categories, with around 250 items.

I'm going to spin up a new Virtual Machine in my home lab and install all three of these and give them a try. Is there any others I should be looking at? Is there anything in particular I should know about the three that I have mentioned?

Thanks.