Group: Member Post Group: Newbie
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Hey there. I have been running Softaculous for the last 4 months through my domain host. While Softaculous is the backbone of every majour (and good) PHP based website, including WordPress, I have a bone to pick with your Ecommerce templates:
OS Commerce/CE Phoenix
-Old and outdated, it looks like a junky mom & pop shop computer tech joint selling used RAM and old 1980's mac computers out of the garage. This template is barebones and would have worked 20 years ago when PHP was first introduced.
-Impossible to manage customer accounts. No option for CREATING A GROUP and assigning customers to that group. It basically makes the entire template USELESS
-NO OPTION FOR APPLYING DISCOUNTS?????? This is by and far the DUMBEST design decision I have ever witnessed in my life. And the big solution, at least for CE Phoenix, is to install some sort of backyard module that turns everyone into a wholesaler? So your customers all become retailers and your retailers become wholesalers. Only THEN can you apply a discount
-Imagine going to a website to buy a single widget for $20 and the thing says "Welcome! Register to become a retailer or contact us to become a wholesaler!". Like WTF? This template is useless garbage
AbanteCart
-Gross, too much flashy stuff
-You need a team of graphic artists, sound engineers and web developers just to add a single product to the template. You have 100 different images that all need to be processed, groomed and curated just to be uploaded and work. And that's just the desktop version
-Completely overboard with how you have to adjust about 20 different modules just to say "hello" on your main page. Every module relates to the next and they are all interconnected, and you can't actually see what the hell you are doing. Good luck trying to modify just a couple things on your site. You need to adjust 30 modules just to get rid of the 150 different floating social media buttons. This theme is just over the top
And last but not least
PrestaShop
-This template is the nicest looking, the most polished, easiest to use of them all. It is packed with all the features you could ask for, everything is seamless, your site is up and running in minutes
-Or is it, because what happens is there's TOO MUCH going on at the same time. In fact your install of PrestaShop is recommended to have at least 1 gig of dedicated memory just to handle the PHP requests. IT'S INSANE
-PrestaShop constantly causes memory overloads on the server side and crashes. You get a 508 error and it jacks your entire website. No one, anywhere, is able to actually call it up because there's a dozen PHP processes that are all trying to chug their way through on the server side with no way for the back end administrator to clear the jam up without having to call up the damned hosting company.
-PrestaShop is a total dumpster fire and there's no "hey here's a LITE version for those with limited memory/processing ability". Oh no, it has to come with 100 different modules, up to and including an achievement system for your shoppers? Like WTF? I just want people to come in and buy stuff.
And then you have the rest of the ecommerce shopping carts, that are so barebones, lackluster, half-baked, it's not even worth mentioning their names here.
How could you solve this? Well let me make it easy: By creating an ecommerce platform that is LOGICAL.
Here's how I would do it:
1) Take CE Phoenix. Add a ROBUST customer functionality, including customer groups, group discounts, retailer accounts, ability to put things on sale, that sort of thing.
2) The lightweight, fast operation of CE Phoenix is the best overall. It's not bloated to the hilt with unnecessary printouts, readouts, tracking systems, etc etc etc etc.
3) The features of PrestaShop. And I'm not talking about the modules. I mean the overall layout of the backend. The ease of use. The ability to just go straight into something and there it all is. All of the options you could ask for are available. And I guess, if you really want to go for the full gusto, add in a couple of basic charts and graphs that you are greeted with that show you the last 7 days of sales, which things are selling the most, etc. But NOTHING NEAR what Presta Shop is now with the over the top, completely unecessary things like the customer achievement system. (LOL)
4) Demand that all eCommerce platforms adhere to the following:
-That Customer information, data, groups is configurable
-That shops are able to customize products, product groups
-The template offers and feature limited "lightweight" version and a "full" version of all templates, allowing customers to run the templates on a less robust hosting package if they choose
-The ability to change any of the wording, vocabulary or otherwise edit all text on the website, easily, through the back-end, that allows people to perform spelling corrections without having to dig 50 folders deep into the PHP structure through FTP
-Strict enforcement of policies that ensure all templates are able to be run by most hosting options and adhere to the rules of having a certain level of configurability
Yeah that would fix it. But this is all going to go to the wind anyway. Like I said... this is a rant. I guess I'm goign to have to go back to CE Phoenix because after running the demo for every package you offer, CE Pheonix, despite its flaws, is still the best commerce platform you offer. Even though the configurability is a throwback to the damn STONE AGE. But still. At least it's a throwback, and not an impossibility thrown to the wind (like PrestaShop)
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