What should I do with osCommerce?
Not long ago, I expressed doubts whether osCommerce has a future. While osCommerce is widely used by thousands of sites, and incidentally the only shopping cart I've ever put into production, its development cycle has been painfully slow for many of its open source contributors and users. As I've said before, when the 3.0 version of osCommerce is released I find it unlikely that the new osCommerce will have many of the Web 2.0 features that the new breed of shopping carts currently have now. I have personal doubts that osCommerce's future is as bright as its past has been.
Harald Ponce de Leon recently wrote at osCommerce.com an article that would counter my opinion and the opinions of naysayers such as me.
The osCommerce community were extremely busy throughout 2008 with over 700 new add-ons and features being made available for osCommerce Online Merchant v2.2. That includes over 2,500 updates made by over 1,200 community members in 2008 alone!
There are currently over 5,200 add-ons for osCommerce Online Merchant made available for free by the osCommerce community!
Probably more exciting is Harald's announcement that the new core for osCommerce 3.0 will be ready next month.
2008 has been a great year for osCommerce Online Merchant v2.2 and look forward to making 2009 an even better year with osCommerce Online Merchant v3.0, with a production-ready release of the new core engine being made in February.
So since there is a chance that osCommerce will prove me wrong with the 3.0 version is released, osCommerce will remain in my top 30 CMS list for a little longer. If osCommerce is better than I expected it to be it will remain under focus here at CMS Report. However, if it disappoints then osCommerce may just have to be moved into our Hall of Fame.
About this CMS Enthusiast
Bryan Ruby is the owner and editor for CMS Report. He founded CMSReport.com in 2006 on the belief that information technologists, website owners, and web developers desired visiting sites where they could learn about content management systems without the sales pitch. Outside of his late night blogging hours, he is the Information Technology Officer for a field office in the federal government.
Comments
#1 Very interesting article.
Very interesting article. Thanks
#2 reply for 1st
very simple answer here:Increase your sales through cross-selling and up-selling - Offer custom discounts and support the use of gift certificates - Incorporate your own RSS feed to enhance the content of the site - Use and control banners to market popular or profitable products within your store - Customize the osCommerce code to make your site more robust, eliminate bugs, and increase flexibility and customer appeal Understand the security technologies involved in e-commerce and develop your own security and backup strategies - Build your business by utilizing various advertising techniques, search engine optimization, affiliate and drop-shipping schemes - Learn the principles and methods used by professional programmers to empower you to continue creating and building your online business