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A gigantic leap for e-commerce
Choosing an open source e-commerce application is kind of like shopping in the bargain bins. Everything is a few models old, none of it matches today’s style, a good portion of it is damaged beyond repair, and in the end you get what pay for.
Open source, in many realms of the online world of apps, can mean an incredible application. But for some reason, e-commerce was never a part of that goodness. You have osCommerce, Zen Cart, phpShop, and all the other clones. When they were first released several years back, they were great. But with thousands of hacks and fixes slapped on, no update to the UI or standardization of code, they resemble a war vet covered head to toe in bandages.
Finally…….finally, finally, finally, a new application is joining the game, and in my opinion, will do to it’s market what vBulletin did with forums and Apache with servers, dominate!
It’s called Magento, and an official website and announcement was released a day or so ago by Varien, the company behind it. Comparing it and any of the other open source apps is like comparing apples and oranges. This is a revolutionary app that I’d put my money on.
The first release will be available at some point in August, and will include many features out of the box, that it’s competitors require countless hours for to create or modify.
If you’ve worked with e-commerce or plan to at some point, this is a bandwagon you’ll want to hop onto. The steadily growing community already behind it, will create an endless supply of solutions to exceed any expectations you may have based on the older apps you’ve used.
And no, this is not a paid plug. I’ve been working with my client for over six months on their business, converting it from a brick and mortar to online, and have been stalling them on the development side since Varien first announced Magento in April.
Having started development in Zen Cart a couple months ago, I can say from experience, that Magento is going to reinvent open source e-commerce and the way small and medium sized businesses sell their products.
16 Comments
Eric said on July 13, 2007
I - CAN’T - WAIT!
Verne said on July 13, 2007
Somebody… review… immediately… when… released!
I’ve always been sort of intimidated by e-commerce solutions due to the stories I’ve heard. I’d like to see how Magento pans out though. If it’s what it says it is, it’d be a great value-add for my clients!
Chas said on July 13, 2007
I’ve been frustrated with the selection of e-commerce solutions for a long time. Even the pay solutions are frustratingly difficult to use, customize, etc.
I’ve been very happy with Shopify (http://shopify.com/) which I’ve used for several clients. There are drawbacks, of course.
I’ll be checking Magento out as soon as it’s released.
Mubashar Iqbal said on July 13, 2007
Can’t wait to get my hands on it!
Every ecommerce project I’ve worked on the client started looking at free and even paid options, and eventually always landed at custom developed solution.
The time and effort it requires to customize what’s available pushes everyone to custom develop, unless you need something very cookie cutter.
Mubs
Satish said on July 13, 2007
Looks great, wonder if it’s worth convincing/stalling some of my clients for this thing. Thanks for the tip!
Kym said on July 13, 2007
“You have osCommerce, Zen Cart, phpShop, and all the other clones. But with thousands of hacks and fixes slapped on, no update to the UI or standardization of code, they resemble a war vet covered head to toe in bandages.”
osCommerce is a tried and proven solution used by 10’s of thousands of site including Google store. It has not had thousands of hacks and fixes slapped on. Its UI is a standard “vanilla” layout meant to be modifed to suit each store’s need. But it does represent a war veteran - it has stood up to the tests of time and surived.
So that statement is completely untrue. If you want to promote a new product it is pretty pathetic marketing to try and denigrate the competition in order to do so.
Travis said on July 14, 2007
osCommerce is a good application. You’re right, 10’s of thousands of websites use it. But that’s only because it was one of few available solutions for a free e-commerce app.
Compared to today’s standards in development, usability, expansion capabilities, and whatnot, osCommerce is nowhere near up to par.
It hasn’t done to e-commerce what Wordpress has to blogging, and that’s establish an undeniable lead in it’s market. Every single person I know in this area, still struggles in choosing an e-commerce app. I personally think that Magento is going to step in and own the market.
You don’t have to agree with me. It doesn’t matter to me whether or not you use Magento or osCommerce. I was just sharing my opinion based upon what I’ve seen to date.
osCommerce is not competing with me. I don’t have anything to do with them or Magento other than being a potential user. So an opinionated post on a blog that I co-own, is far from a slanderous attack or “pathetic marketing”.
Loosen up that collar a bit.
Eric said on July 14, 2007
Yep, tens of thousands of shitty osCommerce websites out there. BTW - Google is notorious for hideous or in many cases non-existent UI so osCommerce fits the bill. Not to mention they have katrillions of dollars to throw around so customizing osCommerce to fit their needs is nice and easy for them, but not so much for the small business owner with limited knowledge.
Kym - why don’t you share your osCommerce site with the rest of the group?
Mat said on July 14, 2007
Thanks for the post
I hate Zen Cart but it was the best I could get
Roy Rubin said on July 14, 2007
Travis - thanks for writing about Magento. We’re extermely excited about the product and appreciate your kind words.
In regards to the Google store comment above, take a look at a post on the Varien blog titled “Google International Store Uses osCommerce … and is FULL of bugs”. There is also a screencast to view the bugs in action. Google does a lot of things well, in this case, the execution was mediocre at best.
That said, osCommerce has been and still is a great solution for many online merchants.
Roy
Magento
Travis said on July 15, 2007
Thanks for taking a break, reading this post, and commenting, Roy.
I tried to keep my response as nice as possible. But I agree.
In regards to osCommerce being used by “10’s of thousands of sites”…………..LSD is used by 100’s of thousands of people, but that doesn’t make it right either. :)
Mat said on July 15, 2007
Nice one Travis :D
Dave said on July 15, 2007
This is quite exciting, and I’m really looking forward to it. My online store uses osCommerece, and it is very outdated and hacked beyond belief to get it to SOMEWHAT work the way I want.
I’m counting down the days!
chris.pund said on July 16, 2007
I hope this will take care of product varriants much better than any other system or at least include an easy to use option for it unlike shopify, quick cart, or oscommerce.
I as well will have to try and stall a couple clients to wait for this to be released to use for their stores.
Any exact launch date set that you know of Travis? Or just August for now?
Virgil Viall said on July 16, 2007
Magenta may be the next best thing but who knows for sure. It looks nice and sure others are outdated.
The main problem I have with open source software is its huge vulnerability to being hacked. Sure even the scripts you pay for or design in-house are vulnerable as well but with the source being available to all it is much easier for some hacker to find flaws. If you do not keep up to date on all the latest upgrades well then you are even more susceptible to visiting your site and seeing some hacked page.
As far as security goes with e-commerce that should be job one.
Travis said on July 16, 2007
Roy and his team haven’t given up an exact date yet. But being that they’ve already stated August, I’d assume it’d be in their best interest to use as much of August as possible to get all the bugs worked out.
A safe bet would be 3rd or 4th week of August, in my opinion.
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