Thread

I am trying to get a good comparison of these two add-ons for EE.  I have a new project I am working on for a client that will be in need of ecommerce.  The client does have an old site however that contains many product details in a MySQL db and I can extract that info to a CSV file.  This site is a bit tricky as it will be selling jewelry and will have many color and size combinations.  The color and size variants are contained in a separate table and linked by a “product_id” field.

Which solution do you think would be best for this type of site?  Do either of them have a data import function? Any advice is greatly appreciated as I have not used either of them previously.  I have used EE on about 8 projects however.  From what I can gather CT and BR integrate quite differently with EE.

Thanks, Bryan

It looks like CartThrob may be to early in the Beta for production use, but I am still looking for some advice on this one.  Thanks in advance.

I’m interested in any advice on this as well, but I’m new to EE and haven’t really looked at either yet. I know at least at one time, the devot-ee.com site used CT. I would think they are using EE 2.x on that site by now.

I do have a question for you on your post:

From what I can gather CT and BR integrate quite differently with EE.

In what ways do you see are they different? To me, this is a pretty important consideration.

Thanks!

CT uses EE channels to hold data and BR does not.  That is one MAJOR difference I have seen.

I too am very interested in specific differences.  It seems Brilliant is developed based on substantial e-commerce experience in major venues outside of EE and doesn’t have the enormous burden bringing over the EE1 CT users.  The CartThrob developer is A+++.  The EE based e-commerce competition only helps EE and different users may benefit from one over the other.  Chris

I have been exchanging emails with Chris at CT and he has been very responsive.  I have about 10 sites I am looking to convert so I may get to use a little of each one.  I am trying to see if anyone has used both of them with EE 2+ and can explain specific differences.  Both look nice.  BR looks a bit easier out-of-the-box, but CT looks easy to customize with channels.

I think both systems have there place in the EE community.  Both look extremely flexible and fairly easy to integrate.  I have a products CSV file I need to get inported so that may be a deciding factor.

Thanks for the update. Keep us posted about your experiences!

I thought I’d weigh in on this conversation with my thoughts/feedback.

Both platforms have pro’s and cons - having used CarthThrob on EE1, it’s very extensible and the use of channels for products means that it’s easy to add additional fields/content with minimal fuss. However, clients in the past have been confused between which areas are content and which areas are commerce, resulting in me having to spend more time educating the clients.

That said, I haven’t had the opportunity to use CartThrob on EE2 as of yet, but if EE1 was anything to go by, it’ll be a great piece of software and will work as expected.

BrilliantRetail on the other hand is a newcomer to the market - having not been around in EE1, it’s decided to stay away from the channel route and employ a stand-alone solution for storing product data. Contrary to popular belief however, this *does not* restrict it’s use, since for any product you create, there are limitless options and attributes that you can assign to the product to create the same level of extensibility as CartThrob. Generally, I would argue that keeping content away from commerce is definitely a good thing - most content producers will not be interested in the commerce and vice versa.

The next issue it relationships with channels. Given the fact that CartThrob uses native channels, it’s relatively easy to integrate between other channels - however, BrilliantRetail also provides the BR FieldType - a playa style fieldtype which allows you to associate channel entries with one (or more) products in an easy to use interface.

Aside from the way the data is structured, both systems offer reporting - feedback from other CartThrob users tell me thats one of the areas that it’s let down at the moment, but I’m pretty sure they’re already on the case. Brilliant Retail comes with a starter selection of reports and analytical data with more coming on a regular basis.

The UI’s are different - CartThrob chooses the default channel/tab approach to products whereas BrilliantRetail is self contained in it’s own series of modules views. Personal preference means that I and my clients can differentiate between adding *content* versus adding *products*.

As of writing this, CartThrob is still in BETA, whereas BrilliantRetail is currently at stable version 1.0.2.5 - not particularly sure how this makes a difference, only you can make your own mind up with that.

I’ve tried to make this post as neutral as possible - which is extremely difficult given that we, at Hippo, work with the guys at Brilliant2 on the core development of BrilliantRetail (http://www.madebyhippo.com/herdspeak/view/ecommerce_has_a_brilliant_future), so I apologise in advance.

If I ever get the time, I would purchase a license of CartThrob and try to do a proper comparison matrix - time just doesn’t allow for this at the moment, but if anyone is prepared to do one, I’ll certainly help them compile a functional list of BrilliantRetail features.

Carl,thank you for your valuable review. It really helps to finalize our decision.

I’ve done quite a bit of digging into both although my experience with cartthrob was early in the release on EE1 so may be outdated

BR is very quick to get up and running and works well out of the box - similar to using a product like Interspire shopping cart or a hosted solution like Shopify. The flexibility of EE on top means I’d pick it over both of these. It also has an excellent layered navigation similar to Magento, and a reasonable promotions/discount system

The product modelling - what variations each product has, is great and is obviously inspired by Magento also.

The decision to not use the channels at all is sometimes frustrating though when you try to do something you would expect to work in channels which doesn’t work and needs more development of the equivalent BR tags.

CT on the other hand has more flexibility. More of a toolset than a product, but that also means doing more yourself, particularly in the realms of order processing which BR does quite simply, CT seems to leave you to build your own order processing screens which really put me off. If this has changed I’d love to know

My view is that the ecommerce platform that wins out will be one that does the following:

1) Uses channels as much as possible so that existing EE add-ons can be brought into the project (e.g. Solspace ratings?) CT wins out here.

2) Give some degree of out-of-the box functionality, default templates etc to help get the developer started - many ee devs seem to have design and marketing experience, but little experience in what actually goes on in an ecommerce warehouse - CT leaves too much to the developer in my opinion in this area. there isn’t enough variation here to justify the number of times you have to reinvent the wheel

3)Allows the development of further add-ons by the community, including payment gateways, themes , promotion logic or product presentation - both seem to do this quite well

Support from both teams has been excellent, and I’d have no qualms using either for a store turning over anything up to about £20 orders a day. After that much bigger issues come into play which are probably beyond the scope of a $99 add-on.

The product you are selling plays a huge role in the features you need so some idea of that might help the discussion?

Hi Carl, thanks for contributing! This is just the kind of useful info we need at this moment. I do have a few follow up questions if you don’t mind!

Generally, I would argue that keeping content away from commerce is definitely a good thing

I would agree, so long as I can access the product and its details in a standard EE template and choose where and how those details are presented. Is this a realistic expectation?

BrilliantRetail…employ a stand-alone solution for storing product data.

Does it have a robust control panel for managing products, discounts, promotions and sales analytics? I can see having this separate from content management might be a big plus.

BrilliantRetail is self contained in it’s own series of modules views

Are these flexible enough so you could have a product matrix, a product page, or just a buy button exist standalone in the middle of an otherwise typical EE template page? Maybe with the use of BR fields?

Thanks again for chiming in!

Hi Shine, thanks for the very useful comments…

We’re working on an ecom site (we’re new to EE). One of the things that I never particularly liked about Interspire or Magento or most of the other ecom solutions was that the cart software was the web site instead of the other way around. We love EE so far just because it allows us to control the flow.

So with that in mind, a few questions:

It (BR) also has an excellent layered navigation similar to Magento, and a reasonable promotions/discount system…

Is it easy to separate the store from the navigation? We’d like to plug a product matrix right into a page on the site, that links up to product pages. No navigation, just let the standard navigation, not necessarily controlled by a product catalog, get you to the right place.

I’d have no qualms using either for a store turning over anything up to about £20 orders a day. After that much bigger issues come into play which are probably beyond the scope of a $99 add-on.

That got a little lost in the translation. Is it a concern over the volume of orders or the total revenue per day. If it is volume, I’d love to hear why you have a concern about the limits and what those limits are.

The product you are selling plays a huge role in the features you need so some idea of that might help the discussion?

This site will sell software (some downloadable) and accessories. Typically priced between $15-$200 per order. Order volume is in the hundreds per day.

Thanks!

Hi Carl, thanks for contributing! This is just the kind of useful info we need at this moment. I do have a few follow up questions if you don’t mind!

Of course - I pretty much expected lots more questions 😊

I would agree, so long as I can access the product and its details in a standard EE template and choose where and how those details are presented. Is this a realistic expectation?

Yes absolutely. The BrilliantRetail FieldType allows for you to create a custom field in your channel and have it display the appropriate product data.

Does it have a robust control panel for managing products, discounts, promotions and sales analytics? I can see having this separate from content management might be a big plus.

Yes it does. The control panel is fully self contained with its own navigational system and access to everything ‘commerce’ related in one place.

Are these flexible enough so you could have a product matrix, a product page, or just a buy button exist standalone in the middle of an otherwise typical EE template page? Maybe with the use of BR fields?

Yes absolutely - how you display the content on the front end is entirely up to you - for example, you can use the sample templates provided (a complete, fully working eCommerce package) or interact as complex as you want.

For example - take a look at http://demo.brilliantretail.com which is a traditional ecommerce setup versus http://www.theadman.net which is my own site with a single product sale. No product list/category page there, just a simple ‘buy me’ button.

I think a lot of people stop short of considering BrilliantRetail because of it’s implied limitations with not being a channel - when in fact, it’s as extensible as CartThrob I believe - it’s just done slightly differently.

Regards,

Carl.

I have not used either, but I’m curious as to how both handle the following scenarios, which are the scenarios that I’ve encountered in nearly every ecomm site I’ve been a part of and taken up the majority of development time.

Shipping

How do each handle bundled items, or special items that have to be shipped in their own containers and separate from other products of the same order?

Can they handle multiple shipping carriers to let the customer choose which to use for a particular order?

Do either contact the, lets say, FedEx or USPS APIs to validate shipping addresses and pull back accurate shipping rates? If so, how do they handle international addresses?

Cataglog/Cart pricing rules

Do they have shopping cart price rules? E.g. if my total is over $100, can I set it up for free shipping? What if there is an item that never gets free shipping, will that be taken out of the equation for the free shipping rule?

Can you discount all items, or a select group of items based on the user group? E.g. group 1 gets 10% off all items, group 2 gets 20% off etc.

Fulfillment

I have a client on Magento right now and would love to move them to BR or CartThrob b/c the main site is in EE already. They can get 500 orders a day and have 1 or 2 people fulfilling them. They print off a PDF invoice which they use for collecting items to prep for packaging, then include the invoice in the package itself. How does BR or CartThrob handle the whole fulfillment process?

e.g., a new order comes in, is the CC charged immediately, or does someone have to initiate that CC charge? If so, can they do it in batch mode? After that, can they batch print invoices, then batch update an order as “complete”, “closed”, “shipped” etc. Magento SUCKS at this and I’ve spent hours upon hours hacking the CP to make the process somewhat easier for the client.

How about custom order statuses?