Open Source ecommerce solutions

ecommerce solutions

Ecommerce (more specifically electronic commerce) is the online version of the commerce that comprises the buying, selling, distributing and other business and commerce related activities over the electronic system like internet, intranet, and other computer networks. With the extension of the electronic devices, the ecommerce is done over the technologies like mobile now-a-day and is known as mobile commerce.


Ecommerce involves pretty much everything that a real business requires. For a physical store, a store owner requires a physical store, products or services offering, option to let customer browse and pick their products, shopping cart, checkout, payment, product pick up, tax etc. For an online business the store owner requires an online store, products (physical products are represented with the product images and other description while virtual products like e-book are downloadable), a shopping cart solution, checkout, payment options, shipment process, tax setup etc.

The ecommerce solution means a platform or software (already built or should be built from scratch) that facilitates the intended store owner to design the online store (ecommerce website), add products/ category/ catalogue, create content, setup payment options, shipment options, checkout and shopping cart feature and let admin track the orders. From business owners’ point of view ecommerce solution is an application or the result of developers/ designers output that facilitates him/her to deploy and run an online business. From customers points of view, the ecommerce solution id the website (or similar technology) that let them compare products, add them to shopping cart, pay for the products mostly using credit cards, and then finally receiving the ordered  products to the address mentioned for shipping.

The ecommerce solution comprises many parts including the store designing, product showcasing, setting up tax, shipping integration, discount integration, shopping cart solution, checkout, and payment & shipping processes.

Now the ecommerce solutions have their own variations and intended for different ecommerce business owners type. For instance, some ecommerce solutions are intended for B2B (Business to Business) while others are intended for B2C (Business to Customers). Apart from that there are lots of other variations.
There is a range of different ecommerce types and based on these type the solution provider offer different ecommerce solutions:

   
• B2B:  Business to Business
• B2C: Business to Customers
• B2M: Business to Managers
• B2E: Business to Employee
• C2B: Consumer to Business
• G2B: Government to Business
• mCommerce: Mobile Commerce
• fCommerce: Facebook Commerce

eCommerce solutions provide the entire ecommerce website design, development, payment system integration, product listing, Order processing, statistics, inventory tracking, and lots of other ecommerce related features and functionality. 

Following are some of the ecommerce solution variation types and the list of the best solution providers:

Open Source ecommerce solutions:          

There are several open source ecommerce solutions and they are used by enterprise business owners. Being open source, it offers significant improvement, lots of features, readymade modules and easy to use options.    

Magento: Look at the client list of Magento and you would instantly know that this is probably the best ecommerce solution available. Easy to use, multi store facility, stunning designs, rapidly growing of the client base makes it one of the best open source ecommerce solutions available.

Click to view who are using Magento?
Download Magento

VirtueMart: This shopping cart solution has been targeted to work on Joomla!, and it’s a really neatly designed ecommerce solution. Rich administration and plug-in based extension makes it one of the prominent ecommerce solutions ever.

Download VirtueMart
Ubercart: This shopping cart solution is intended to work with another market leading CMS Drupal, and
offers many powerful features to deploy and run a successful online store. If you are a drupal user and your website is built (or if you are planning to build) in Drupal, the ‘Ubercart’ would be the best solution for you.

Download Ubercart  for Drupal

Zen Cart: A really powerful and open source ecommerce solution that you should pick to deploy your online store. This ecommerce gives you every feature you need to implement your online store no matter how big it is.  It’ easy to develop for newbie developers and is manageable by the store administrator.

Download Zen Cart

OsCommerce: A notable and significant clients denote the power and robustness of this ecommerce solution. A lot of payment gateways and shipping integration is implemented in this ecommerce platform and it gives a lots of marketing and product related features.  Unlimited product creation, multiple currency support, support for physical and virtual products, web based installation and maintenance makes it one of the best open source shopping cart solution.

Cube Cart: A neatly designed powerful ecommerce solution that offers a range of payment merchant vendors, template driven webs store, order history, checkout and many more features. If you are planning to deploy your online store in a open source ecommerce platform, Cube Cart can be a really optimised solution for you.

Main features of Cube Cart:

• Intuitive User UI
• Sales Reporting 
• Built in SEO features   
• Module based feature extension etc.

Cube Cart Demo


OpenCart: One of the main powers of this ecommerce solution is its scalability.  You can create unlimited products/ categories; accept payment in multiple currencies, use multiple languages, choose different payment and shipping options, SEO feature, enable customer review feature etc. 

Advantageous features of Open Cart eCommerce CMS: 

• Unlimited Category and Product creation 
• Multi-Language and Multi-Currency Support.  
• Downloadable Products 
• PCI Compliant 
• Backup and Restore Tools
• Sales Reporting
• Multiple Tax rates
• Shipping Weight Calculation 
• Printable Invoices
• etc. 

Download Open Cart
Open Cart Demo

Great looking commercial eCommerce CMS websites

E-Commerce has become the most important part of the web in terms of business and each business owners own (or should own) web presence in terms of reaching to the on-line customers. E-commerce stores are convenient for both the business owners and customers. From store owners point of view running an ecommerce store requires very less effort, cost and man power. They can reach to the target customers without putting so much extra time and efforts. On the other hand, customers get plenty of options to choose from when they want to purchase a product or service. They no longer need to visit physical stores, carry their goods and get through other cumbersome processes for buying products. From online stores, they can simply compare price, get details of the product, pay for the order in a convenient way and get the products delivered to their home. With the increased mobile phone users and Internet  users, the process has become even more convenient. All it requires are some mouse click or tap in the cell phones to make a purchase.

Building and running an ecommerce store requires some programming, designing and business knowledge. And for this process, they need to hire designers, developers and other staffs to build the Ecommerce website. But this complex process has become really easy with the facility of content management systems. Ecommerce CMS offers very easy way of designing and running ecommerce stores without concentrating the platform and putting all efforts on business. Ecommerce CMS gives the flexibility of drag and drop store designing, adding products, setting taxes, shipment and other necessary options with few mouse clicks. Open source ecommerce like virtue mart, magento, zen cart, wp-ecommerce, open cart etc, have gained their popularity on their own rights.

Commercial and hosted ecommerce platform like BigCommerce, Shopify, net, WebCommander gives very flexible way of creating pages, adding products, setting up taxes, maintaining inventory etc. The hosted e-commerce solutions are widely used from small to large business owners and have several advantages over open source e-commerce platforms. There are lots of Commercial E-Commerce solutions and some of them have really impressing website. Since they are intended to give other business owners' website solution, it's pretty evident that their websites should reflect the attractive designing and functionality. Following is a list of very beautiful websites of commercial e-commerce platforms: 

1. http://www.bigcommerce.com

Bigcommerce is a neatly designed web 2.0 website that gives the perfect impression of what it offers. The big banner, easy to navigate menu, hassle free registration form and eye catchy color combination makes it one of the best designed websites among commercial CMS websites. The first impression that his website gives is something that makes it worthy.

2. http://www.shopify.com

What do you expect from a website that offers your e-commerce solution? Look at shopify website and you would have the answer.

3. http://www.volusion.com

Another example of a nicely presented website with an attractive colour combination and easy of access. This websites gives you the impression of what the product itself offers.

4.  http://www.ashop.com.au

Take complete control of your ecommerce business and this is what aShop is intended for. This is possibly the message you would get just after visiting their website. The rich blue gradient colour combination and web 2.0 like design will allure you to own a website just like this one.

5. http://bigcartel.com

Bigcartel is an example of a classic website with an impression that you are visiting a gallery rather than a website. Bringing the art to the cart and they are successful to convey this message right from their website homepage.

6. http://www.webs.com

Webs is possibly one of the best looking websites around. This aesthetically designed website not only soothes your eye, but also gives impression that you are only a few step ahead to design a beautiful website just like this one. 

7.  http://www.webcommander.com

'Command your online business' and WebCommander website is successful to give you this first impression to you. The nicely designed gallery, state-of-the -art functionality impression and colour combination make it one of the best desined website among ecommerce solution providers.

8.  http://www.businesscatalyst.com

Owned by adobe and intended for ecommerce store owners, business catalist is one of the simple yet good looking websites example.    

9. http://www.mals-e.com

Mal's website is a classic example of how simplicity can achieve the beauty. 

10. http://www.cubecart.com

Cubecart website puts everything on the right places. Nothing has gone wrong and their website is just right.

11.  http://www.cs-cart.com

Cscart website offers easy navigation with an alluring designing and you will love the look and feel.  

12.  http://www.foxycart.com

Red is hot! and Foxycart proves it once again. It's not easy to achieve a soothing impression from the visitor of a website specially when you go for something very bright. Foxy cart makes it all possible with the perfect combination of colour and navigation facilities.   

13. http://websiteconsole.com

Say hello to your new best friend and Website Console website will give you this friendly impression with their brilliant design and options. 

14. http://www.powerfront.com

Powerfront is a powerful CMS with some complex website examples. The website renders this impression with in moments the visitors visits their website. 

15.  http://www.shopsite.com

You are here because you are looking for an ecommerce solution. This is exactly what the Shopsite website tells you about. The nicely designed website tells you all about the ecommerce store running with a successful approach of designing. 

16.  http://www.pinnaclecart.com

 "Looking for a cart solution', we are offering exactly this to you". This website will tell you what you are looking for.

17.  http://www.znode.com

znode website is a designer's dream come true. Nice combination of colour and images with a really impressive slider makes it one of the best looking ecommerce website around. 

18. http://www.lightcms.com

Looking for an example of web 2.0 website you want to get inspiration from? Then possibly LightCMS website is the one you are looking for. One page layout design, rich colour and font combination, rich interface makes it an enviable designed websites available.