Thread

...this list of requirements?

• Over 100 products.
• Options: weight, flavour.
• Other custom fields: ingredients, recommended servings, images.
• Bulk update product quantities, prices.
• Related products.
• Product comparisons (e.g. compare ingredients, prices, servings).
• Four main categories each with several subcategories.
• Product bundles/packages (eventually).
• Flat rate shipping with pick-up option.
• Payment options to include eWay, PayPal and offline payments (pay on pick-up).
• Payment gateway charges to be passed on to customers, so different charges need to be applied depending on which payment gateway they choose.
• Member subscriptions with discounted membership fees (with voucher).
• If a non-member customer purchases a certain amount of products, they get an option to become a member for all their new orders and they would have an option to add membership to their checkout. This option would be triggered after they have spent a certain amount and different membership prices could be offered at different price points.
• Members only content includes store with members-only prices, forum, articles and lists of affiliates.
• Non-members browse store with higher prices and ads promoting membership.
• Members area includes personal information, ability to upgrade memberships, purchase history.

I’ve only used Cartthrob before and I know it can handle most of the above (or EE native functionality can) but the areas I’m unfamiliar with would be:

• How to pass on payment gateway charges if there’s different ones they can choose from.
• Product bundles.
• Member subscriptions and the ability to add membership to carts of a certain amount.

So after some advice on these areas please. 😊

• How to pass on payment gateway charges if there’s different ones they can choose from.
- isn’t that illegal?, eg against the rules of the card companies?

• Product bundles
I’d probably look at leveraging Play to create a set of related entries + custom field for bundle price

- isn’t that illegal?, eg against the rules of the card companies?

I don’t think so. I’ve shopped from both physical and online stores that state there’s a surcharge for using credit cards (often just certain types of credit card).

I’d probably look at leveraging Play to create a set of related entries + custom field for bundle price

Sorry, what is Play?

Just adding myself to this so I get notified of any responses. I’m interested in the “collect from store” functionality in particular.

I’m sure there’s a way to fudge this with something like a delivery rule that is free if delivered to a specific postal code. This would work in the UK as our postcodes are only about 25 post-boxes on average, not sure about elsewhere.

Re the credit card issue, there’s plenty of sites (e.g. travel, theatre ticket agencies) that charge an “admin fee” for certain card types, but yes, you need to read the credit card T&C’s.

I think your subscription stuff will be the biggest challenge. Recurring billings have all sorts of security issues which are a right pain.

Sorry Tyssen I meant Playa - http://pixelandtonic.com/playa

The issue of charging for using certain types of card is a minefield, here’s some more reading:

http://usa.visa.com/personal/using_visa/checkout_fees/index.html
http://www.merchantcouncil.org/merchant-account/operation/pass-fee-customer.php
http://www.mastercard.com/us/business/en/common/faq.html#211

Thanks Rob. This seems to be the most sensible approach:

In order to charge customers for credit card processing fees you must create a dual pricing model. To accomplish this, raise all prices to offset processing fees and then offer a discount on cash purchases that’s equal to the price increase.

except in this case there may not be any discounted cash option (possibly for CoD orders but not sure whether the client wants to encourage those or not). So in other words, just raise prices enough to cover any potential fees.

I think the only alternative in EE to CartThrob would be BrilliantRetail if I’m not wrong?

Don’t know if they have more of the cool functions and nice features you seek compared to CT… but I still think CT is the best solution for EE so far (besides the absolutely horrible name!)...

To me it sounds like you want Magento Enterprise Solution stuff at a whopping $10K licnese! with all those extra funcionality you desire only Magento could do this… then we’re talking about Typo3 as your CMS with Magento as extension with TypoGento…

Why not just stick with CT? just my .02 cents…

Another option is Store from exp-resso.com (http://exp-resso.com/store).

I too am looking for an e-commerce option that includes Subscriptions. The best option I can see so far for memberships is membrr (http://www.membrr.com).

If you’re wanting something more bare bones and customizable, CartThrob. If you’re wanting something more ready to go out of the box, BrilliantRetail. I’m not familiar where Store falls on that continuum, but I did research on this and settled on BrilliantRetail - simpler, fit my client’s needs more easily.

I’ll be releasing a new module based on the Stripe platform soon over at http://lobsterwarmachine.com, might be worth looking at in the future. It follows the simplified approach (e.g. less preconfigured functionality, more flexibility), and will have subscriptions baked right in.  But for the marketplace right now, CartThrob is my favorite full featured solution. Haven’t tried Exp-resso yet, but seems like it might be a nice option.

we have used cartthrob, brilliant and foxy. each of them are good in their own way. with your requirements it seems like brilliant would be good for the vouchers but we need to be tweaked a bit. foxy is best for the subscriptions but lacks in other areas. i think you need to assess what your priorities are an go with the one that meets the most requirements and then plan to do a lot of customization. btw, i do not think you can legitimately pass on payment processing fees unless you state that is what you are doing.

I’ll be releasing a new module based on the Stripe platform soon over at http://lobsterwarmachine.com, might be worth looking at in the future. It follows the simplified approach (e.g. less preconfigured functionality, more flexibility), and will have subscriptions baked right in.  But for the marketplace right now, CartThrob is my favorite full featured solution. Haven’t tried Exp-resso yet, but seems like it might be a nice option.

When will this be ready Jack?  I would like to check it out.

I’ll be releasing a new module based on the Stripe platform soon over at http://lobsterwarmachine.com, might be worth looking at in the future. It follows the simplified approach (e.g. less preconfigured functionality, more flexibility), and will have subscriptions baked right in.  But for the marketplace right now, CartThrob is my favorite full featured solution. Haven’t tried Exp-resso yet, but seems like it might be a nice option.

I see in your tweet it was retired.  Thanks for the reply.

I should recommend you to go with Magneto, it is the latest and feature rich Ecommerce platform, Also your many requirements will fulfill here.