Shopping Cart Community

The only important thing from a store managers perspective is whether using ISC will maintain profitability. Currently, if nothing breaks and you are happy with the functionality then stick. However, many of your competitors are improving their store by the day - so it is only a matter of time before you fall behind and profitability starts to become a significant issue. No one using ISC can become complacent...

babyREFLUX wrote:The only important thing from a store managers perspective is whether using ISC will maintain profitability.

It's certainly still profitable and despite all the aggravations has been worth it weight for me, but without any support unless you know a lot about code or have in house developers to fix and mod it then really its a no brainer ... you've simply got to move on.

scruffydoo wrote:

babyREFLUX wrote:The only important thing from a store managers perspective is whether using ISC will maintain profitability.

It's certainly still profitable and despite all the aggravations has been worth it weight for me, but without any support unless you know a lot about code or have in house developers to fix and mod it then really its a no brainer ... you've simply got to move on.

That is exactly my point. For most of us the store is fine and working - thus business is fine...but what if something mission critical changes or goes wrong. Not only do you have the pain of having to build a new store but the income lost is potentially crippling.

A scary prospect...

scruffydoo wrote:...but without any support unless you know a lot about code or have in house developers to fix and mod it then really its a no brainer ... you've simply got to move on.

babyREFLUX wrote:That is exactly my point. For most of us the store is fine and working - thus business is fine...but what if something mission critical changes or goes wrong. Not only do you have the pain of having to build a new store but the income lost is potentially crippling.

A scary prospect...

To be honest... even with the necessary PHP skills, I'm well aware that it could all come crashing down thanks to an undisclosed exploit (case in point the Paypal express module) or just the usual timing a la Murphys Law that would mean focusing resources and time on fixing code rather than running the store and putting orders out.


That said, I am pretty confident that I now know the system well enough that I can resolve most issues for my specific modules, given that I've had to write or rewrite them to make things happen.

I guess I should start having a look at what's out there, CS & Magento are the only two I know much about, any ideas for others that are worth a look? May need to start a new category for migrations Martin ...looks like it'll get some use

The last thing you want is a problem with no backup support heading into a busy period (like Christmas).

Personally, I'm about to start evaluating a few different alternative products with the aim of changing sooner rather than later. If Christmas is a busy period to your store you want to get moving soon so that Google can pick up your new URLs and redistribute your link value.

For those of you with simpler needs, Open Cart is worth checking out - did an install the other month, went smoothly, and seemed feature rich for a free product

Martin do we need an 'official' thread where everyone can contribute to their findings with other carts?

Would be sensible to collate the collective knowledge...

babyREFLUX wrote:Martin do we need an 'official' thread where everyone can contribute to their findings with other carts?

Would be sensible to collate the collective knowledge...

Already ahead of you... I've added a new forum space for alternatives and moved this thread in...

*ESP module developed through need generated by Interspire lack of communication and other cack-handedness*

I thought of it first