osCommerce - What is it and its benefits?

You should have come across this word ' osCommerce'. What is it ?

osCommerce(available as free download from OsCommerce.com) is the mostcomprehensive and popular open source Shopping Cart system inexistence. It has a huge list of features and is probably the mostversatile shopping cart solution and offers vast range of customizationchoices for the on-line storefront owners depending on their need at avery affordable price.

If you are looking for setting up an e-shop, you should definitely consider osCommerce

osCommerceis an online shop e-commerce solution that offers a wide range ofout-of-the-box features that allows online stores to be setup fairlyquickly with ease, and is available for free as an Open Source basedsolution released under the GNU General Public License.

osCommerceis a complete online store solution that contains both a catalogfrontend and an administration tool backend, which can be easilyconfigured over web.

What are the Requirements :

With no specialrequirements, osCommerce is able to run on any PHP 4.1+ enabled webserver running on Linux, Solaris, BSD, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windowsenvironments.

What are the Advantages :

-It is a very good, full-featured, cart. Uses Php and MySQL.

-Supports a wide range of credit-card processors and shipping services.

-It uses an indexed database and can handle a large number of products (10's of thousands).

-MostHosting companies include installation as Readymade Scripts. One of themain benefits of osCommerce is that If your hosting company doesn'tinstall osCommerce you may still be able to install it yourself or havesomeone install it for you

-osCommerce would be hard to compete with even if it cost as much as the most expensive commercial shopping carts.

-There are a large number of available add-on modules and many more in development

osCommerce - What is it and its benefits? A Quick look at the Bad points :

-Technical support is limited to the osCommerce forums, which are not that much helpful to newbies.

-customizing this store can take a bit more technical knowledge.

-osCommerceis one of the most full featured and configurable shopping cartsavailable, but if you aren't comfortable with modifying files you maywant to hire someone to set this up for you.

-Installing of multiple additional modules takes your manhours.

-It may be a while before an update is available to a payment module. These are done by unpaid enthusiasts.

Note before you choose your Hosting for osCommerce :

Any web host that includes MySql should also satisfy the requirments for osCommerce installation.

So,you can easily get started with osCommerce. You will definitely getstuck with few things in the beginning. But if you browse thro' theforums or the knowledgebase, you have the solution.

Bringing New Perspectives to osCommerce (Exclusive Article)
For a long time, starting an online business was considered a difficult task. It required deep knowledge not in marketing or online marketing but in various tech fields. If you were not a tech guy, you needed a huge budget allowance for design and programming.
Turning Features Into the Meat and Potatoes of Successful Advertising
Learn to present features of your site as benefits to your users. This simple technique will tremendously boost the effect of your advertisement.
Simple Design
Simple web design delivers huge benefits to designer, client and user. When a design doesnt seem to work, ask what should be taken away before asking whats missing.
Benefits of Free Paid Domain Parking
Want to get paid to park your spare domains? Fancy knowing in real-time how many visitors these names receive?
If you have answered yes to either of these questions, you should consider setting up your names with a domain parking service. Here are some of the benefits of a typical paid parking s...
The 5 Key Benefits to Making Your Site More 'Link Friendly'
There are enormous benefits for making your site more link friendly in todays Web marketplace. Well discuss these benefits in just a moment, but first, lets define t...
The Hidden (and Powerful) Benefits Of Frequenting Forums
While most people understand the benefits of forums from a gathering information perspective, many dont think about the hidden benefits of forums. The most common reason for visiting is to ask questions or get advice...
Simple Copy Writing Secrets
According to Wikipedia.org, Copywriting is the process of writing the words that promote a person, business, opinion or idea.
Linking Features and Benefits
Im sure that youve had those Eureka! moments, too. When a piece of information suddenly helped you see or understand something that hadnt been apparent before.
Benefits of Choosing Reseller Hosting
Before going on the benefits of reseller hosting, it is necessary to know what exactly reseller hosting is? As a fact, reseller hosting is a form of web hosting wherein the account owner may split up their allotted hard drive space and bandwidth and resell web hosting.
How Dedicated Web Designers Can Help?
Dedication is the precursor to an honest effort, which ultimately leads to success. This scenario is true for any field, also web designing. You dont really have to look far if you want to know the benefits of hiring dedicated web designers.