Add a shopping cart to my website (no payment gateway).

If you install Wordpress: Woocommerce, Jigoshop, and WP-Ecommerce are all free, can manage all the aspects of the store, and can be set-up to not require payment via a gateway.

(you can set the payment terms to "COD" or "Check" or "local pick-up" or something).

This will give them all the ability to track inventory (if they want), manage orders, print packing lists and receipts, handle notification emails, collect customer info -- AND make the catalog very searchable.

They also have APIs so you can customize and integrate to your heart's content.

@Alexander,

I'm new and have a similar situation a friend has asked me to look at. I've search google, but without having installed Wordpress yet it's hard for me to gauge the answers. They currently have an extensive CMS for multiple catalogs. One catalog for each manufacturer, further broken down into categories with multiple subcategories. Their site is essentially for small business where potential clients can search their various catalogs and request quotes for products they choose from the catalog. While I know I can deactivate the cart and instead have an email sent, do you know if it's possible to use Woocommerce or any other plugins for multiple catalogs like this? Catablog was all I was able to find, but I didn't see the option to turn off the cart?

Thanks Alexander!

@juan

No Prob! Good Luck!

@Aimee

The quick answer is yes.

I'd have to know more about the specific situation and what goals they're trying to accomplish (as well as what's 'wrong' with their current system, what their CMS is, and so forth.)

Woocommerce, Jigoshop (et al.) are definitely able to handle extensive product catalogs. Since they are for wordpress, they use WP's category and tagging system, which means that you can tag all products, and apply multiple parent and child categories (several levels deep). Additionally, they handle product attributes, which you can customize (typically, you'd have one called "Size" and under it, a S, M, L, XL etc. -- but if you're creative, you could use that feature to further segment the list). Additionally, they let you make group products, handle digital products, and let you add products from external sources (example: say I sell home-made soap, but I want to sell soap accessories from Amazon that could complement my in-house products. This lets you list amazon products on your site and then collect affiliate commissions).

--THEN, there's the ever-growing list of extensions available for both. Many extensions exist that let you add-on a ton of customization.

-FINALLY, since WP + the shopping carts are free and open source, a WP/PHP whiz can customize the heck out of these to do whatever you want.

By default, those carts all have paypal + a couple other payment options. One of the options is to pay by check and do local pick-up -- the net effect is that the site admin gets an email that they have an order (with details), and the customer gets an email with the order details. -- no online gateway required.

RE: Multiple catalogs --> I'm not sure exactly how you're envisioning this, but usually you would just upload the catalogs from multiple manufacturers into your online store catalog. The terminology to describe your site's products would be "Catalog" -- and your manufacturers' offerings are offered in their respective Catalogs. When you combine them and put them on your site, you'd have 1 catalog, comprised of multiple catalogs (whole or parts) from other companies.

Example: I carry electronics from Sony, Panasonic, and Pioneer. I Tv's, car stereos, dvd players, cameras, and speakers.

My Catalog = (Sony's catalog + Panasonic's catalog + Pioneer's Catalog )

--If Im misunderstanding what you said, let me know. (either way, I'm sure those solutions can handle what you're looking to do)

@Alexander,

Thanks so much for the detailed answer! As far as my friend's site goes, they have a really detailed CMS which from initial glance doesn't look like anything I've come across before. The CMS meets all their needs as far as managing their products, the problem is that the CMS is also used for layout and right now it's in tables. While I could change that, the doc type is outdated and that I can't change without additional 'privileges'. They also strongly prefer to not use their manufactures catalog directly, and instead have their own custom catalogs. From what you're saying though, you don't think it will be a problem to manually create one catalog with multiple catalogs, categories and subcategories correct?

@aimee - not at all!

Based on what you're telling me, it looks like their system, while having a dated doctype and using tables, seems to be something they'd like to keep, or at least something that you cannot easily change.

If you're not going to use Wordpress as the "base" for this, then look into Magento as well. While Woocommerce, Jigoshop, and WP-Ecommerce all have some great features, Magento seems to be universally the go-to shopping cart with a lot of other online services.

If your friend's site is keeping "example.com" you could create example.com/shop - then either do a full wordpress install + one of the 3 carts mentioned... or just install Magento community edition in there.

All you would need to do is export your clients' various catalogs, merge them into 1 CSV file, and use the import feature (native or free with some carts, a small fee for other carts for a plug-in <$40) and it will bulk-upload all their stuff.

If you're a whiz with php, or know people who are, you could create a way to sync the inventory between their system and the shopping cart.

Hope that helps?

@Alexander,

You bring up a great point. Since I'm new WP just seemed like the default choice. I've hear great things about Magento so I should research that more. What I'm ultimately thinking is that I will work along side a senior developer to overhaul my friends site so I can learn more, and be able to deliver the site in a reasonable about of time. Thank you again!

no prob! good luck and post links when done!