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

osCommerce (available as free download from http://www.oscommerce.com) is the most comprehensive and popular open source Shopping Cart system in existence. It has a huge list of features and is probably the most versatile shopping cart solution and offers vast range of customization choices for the on-line storefront owners depending on their need at a very affordable price.

If you are looking for setting up an e-shop, you should definitely consider osCommerce
osCommerce is an online shop e-commerce solution that offers a wide range of out-of-the-box features that allows online stores to be setup fairly quickly with ease, and is available for free as an Open Source based solution released under the GNU General Public License.
osCommerce is a complete online store solution that contains both a catalog frontend and an administration tool backend, which can be easily configured over web.
What are the Requirements :
With no special requirements, osCommerce is able to run on any PHP 4.1+ enabled web server running on Linux, Solaris, BSD, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows environments.

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).
– Most Hosting companies include installation as Readymade Scripts. One of the main benefits of osCommerce is that If your hosting company doesn’t install osCommerce you may still be able to install it yourself or have someone 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

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.
– osCommerce is one of the most full featured and configurable shopping carts available, but if you aren’t comfortable with modifying files you may want 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 get stuck with few things in the beginning. But if you browse thro’ the forums or the knowledgebase, you have the solution. You can Write to me : shop@oscommerceindia.com

Happy Shopping !

About the Author :

Teeyes Siva is a Consultant at osCommerceindia (http://www.oscommerceindia.com), a Company offering osCommerce Related Services. He can be reached @ siva@aalphanet.com or 00 91 93441 05858.

The above article can be re-printed as long as the bio lines stay in place.