e-commerce solution : Cartweaver ou WebAssist ?

[peetk]

Hi,

My site is currently based on Interakt products (MX Kommerce etc) and as all support from Interakt has now ceased and since most of their products have been discontinued, I have to look around for an alternative solution. Some people on the Interakt forms recommended Web Assist which does seem to have an impressive list of products designed to replace Interakt's. However, I have seen quite a bit of negative feedback from others who say Web Assist's products simply do not work. Are there any Web Assist clients here who could give me their point of view ? Another possible solution is Cartweaver which is cheaper to buy and appears to be simpler. But Cartweaver appears to be geared towards simple sites with few categories, products and product options whereas my site has many. Again I'd be interested on hearing from Cartweaver customers and also to see some Cartweaver-based sites.

I like the idea of a simple, eg Cartweaver, solution but it shouldn't be too simple meaning I'd have to add loads of custom code to make it suit my needs -I'm no programmer !).

Cheers

[Newsgroup_User]

peetk wrote:
> Hi,
>
> My site is currently based on Interakt products (MX Kommerce etc) and as all
> support from Interakt has now ceased and since most of their products have been
> discontinued, I have to look around for an alternative solution. Some people on
> the Interakt forms recommended Web Assist which does seem to have an impressive
> list of products designed to replace Interakt's. However, I have seen quite a
> bit of negative feedback from others who say Web Assist's products simply do
> not work. Are there any Web Assist clients here who could give me their point
> of view ? Another possible solution is Cartweaver which is cheaper to buy and
> appears to be simpler. But Cartweaver appears to be geared towards simple sites
> with few categories, products and product options whereas my site has many.
> Again I'd be interested on hearing from Cartweaver customers and also to see
> some Cartweaver-based sites.
>
> I like the idea of a simple, eg Cartweaver, solution but it shouldn't be too
> simple meaning I'd have to add loads of custom code to make it suit my needs
> -I'm no programmer !).
>
> Cheers
>

I have built 2 stores with Web Assists eCart, http://store.dmcworld.com
and http://www.aclighting.com/shop

I had to get my head into the code to get what I wanted out of the
tools, and I found several bugs which were quickly fixed by the
excellent support. What you have to remember about eCart is that it is a
tool to help *you* build your shop that you *you* want it. You need to
know what pages go where and how you want them to work, you then use the
Web Assist tools to help you create the shop.

Web Assist suffers from the same marketing problems that Dreamweaver
does, it makes people who know next to nothing think they can use it to
make an all singing all dancing shop without any hand coding.

I have helped people in there forums, and have seen the number of
frustrated users who expect the software to do it all for them. It
doesn't, but with a bit of research first, you will make excellent use
of the tools and create some really nice shops.

Before the 2 I made I had never even thought about how a online shop
should work, but I still managed to make successful shops. The first one
has been online for about 3 years now, and is doing very well, the
second on is only 3 months old and its got some way to go yet, there is
much more that we are going to do with it.

Steve

[vanroojdotcom]

Web Assist is OK if you are prepared to follow the tutorial, not waver from it and are happy to buy every product they sell including their own design templates.

Their support and help is non-existent buy the product and you're on your own.
The frustration implied above is from Web Assists support - there's hardly any manuals to read - once you do something different from the tutorial it all falls apart and the silence is deafening. I have got most information on how to use Web Assist from the defunct Interakt Help site!

[peetk]

One of you says the support is excellent whilst says its non existant. Oh dear. Web Assist's forms seem to be busy as do Cartweaver's so that should be support enough but I'm a bit surprised to learn that Web Assist doesn't come with any manuals !

I favour Cartweaver but can it handle multiple categories and subcategories ? I thinking of the demo admin site where products are listed alphabetically and not per category. As my site has hundreds of products, it would be pain finding and updating them! I would like to hear from someone who uses Cartweaver !

Cheers

[Newsgroup_User]

vanroojdotcom wrote:
> Web Assist is OK if you are prepared to follow the tutorial, not waver from it
> and are happy to buy every product they sell including their own design
> templates.
>
> Their support and help is non-existent buy the product and you're on your own.
> The frustration implied above is from Web Assists support - there's hardly any
> manuals to read - once you do something different from the tutorial it all
> falls apart and the silence is deafening. I have got most information on how to
> use Web Assist from the defunct Interakt Help site!
>
>
>

I totally disagree about the support. The forum isn't brilliant, but you
get free support incidents which they refund if it is a bug with the
extension. They call you from the states (I am in the UK) and talk you
through what you need to do. I have not had better support for an
extension anywhere else. They even remote control your desktop and look
at your code and database and work out what your doing. I personally
think they are great.

Yes the documentation is poor, but they are working towards sorting that
out.

I think it all depends on your background and experience.

Steve

[Newsgroup_User]

Re "they refund if it is a bug with the extension"

Its all down to what you call a bug, and were you to find a bug you might
have wasted many many hours yourself trying to get things to work which is
not taken into account when you report the bug in the first place.

I feel webassist extensions have been totally over stated in what they can
do. And I have wasted loads of time using them.

regards

k







"Dooza" <doozadooza@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:fhevru$e77$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> vanroojdotcom wrote:
>> Web Assist is OK if you are prepared to follow the tutorial, not waver
>> from it and are happy to buy every product they sell including their own
>> design templates.
>>
>> Their support and help is non-existent buy the product and you're on
>> your own.
>> The frustration implied above is from Web Assists support - there's
>> hardly any manuals to read - once you do something different from the
>> tutorial it all falls apart and the silence is deafening. I have got most
>> information on how to use Web Assist from the defunct Interakt Help site!
>>
>>
>>
>
> I totally disagree about the support. The forum isn't brilliant, but you
> get free support incidents which they refund if it is a bug with the
> extension. They call you from the states (I am in the UK) and talk you
> through what you need to do. I have not had better support for an
> extension anywhere else. They even remote control your desktop and look at
> your code and database and work out what your doing. I personally think
> they are great.
>
> Yes the documentation is poor, but they are working towards sorting that
> out.
>
> I think it all depends on your background and experience.
>
> Steve

[Newsgroup_User]

twocans wrote:
> Re "they refund if it is a bug with the extension"
>
> Its all down to what you call a bug, and were you to find a bug you might
> have wasted many many hours yourself trying to get things to work which is
> not taken into account when you report the bug in the first place.
>
> I feel webassist extensions have been totally over stated in what they can
> do. And I have wasted loads of time using them.

I do agree, they are marketed to the wrong crowd, and do seem to piss a
lot of customers off. I wouldn't say my time was wasted, I learn't lots
on the way, but many feel they shouldn't need to, and based on the
marketing I agree.

Steve

[peetk]

Thanks everyone. I hope someone will be along shortly with some comments about Cartweaver and some example sites (the sites on Cartweaver's site are very simple and don't answer my questions).

Cheers

Pete

[Newsgroup_User]

"peetk" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:fhf91b$qbl$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> Thanks everyone. I hope someone will be along shortly with some comments
> about
> Cartweaver and some example sites (the sites on Cartweaver's site are very
> simple and don't answer my questions).

but you also said you wanted simple because you're "not a programmer". What
are the CW examples not doing that you want them to do?

[peetk]

Hunter,

I mean simple but not simplistic. The Cartweaver admin section is fine for sites with few products and few categories. In the Interakt MX Shop admin products are sorted by category so all you have to do to find products belonging to the same category is to filter the list so all you get are those products. In Cartweaver's admin, products can only be found via their name or id and the result just gives you one product, not all the products belonging to the same category. Now, it must be possible to develop this but I'd like to know before I take the leap.

Also, in Mx Shop, you have the option to show categories "horizontally", meaning the way they are shown in Cartweaver, ie photo of each product + description and price or by "default", default in Mx Shop meaning a list, ie table, of all the products belonging to the same category. This is the way I display most of my products (I market greenhouses : a particular greenhouse, lets call it "greenhouse A" has several different lengths, each length having its own price and its own options - colour etc. When I dsplay greenhouse A, I obviously don't want to show a different photo for each length). I'd like to know whether this can be achieved in Cartweaver.

Sorry, this is a bit long-winded, and you'll probably say "why not ask the Cartweaver people?" and you'd be right but I may as well finish because I've noticed something else in Cartweaver - there doesn't appear to be any automatic resize of images so you have to upload manually three images per product (for products where you want to display an image).

Any advice would be most appreciated.

Cheers

Pete

[Newsgroup_User]

"peetk" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:fhgs7t$194$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> Hunter,
>
> I mean simple but not simplistic. The Cartweaver admin section is fine for
> sites with few products and few categories. In the Interakt MX Shop admin
> products are sorted by category so all you have to do to find products
> belonging to the same category is to filter the list so all you get are
> those
> products. In Cartweaver's admin, products can only be found via their name
> or
> id and the result just gives you one product, not all the products
> belonging to
> the same category. Now, it must be possible to develop this but I'd like
> to
> know before I take the leap.

Personally, I've not had a problem with items being organized by "category"
in the Admin area. I could always change the SQL sort for that if I wanted
to, but it was never a big deal to me. I can display by category on the
site, which is what I need it to do for the customer.

> its own price and its own options - colour etc. When I dsplay greenhouse
> A, I
> obviously don't want to show a different photo for each length). I'd like
> to
> know whether this can be achieved in Cartweaver.

Sure, if I understand correctly. It's just a matter of having a "product"
and then creating SKUs for the various parameters for it. I have a client
that sells spices and rice products. Let's say I have Creole Seasoning, it's
sold by single can, six cans, 12 cans in 2 different can sizes. You go to
the product type and can select the different SKU options.

> Sorry, this is a bit long-winded, and you'll probably say "why not ask the
> Cartweaver people?" and you'd be right but I may as well finish because
> I've
> noticed something else in Cartweaver - there doesn't appear to be any
> automatic
> resize of images so you have to upload manually three images per product
> (for
> products where to display an image).

You can use various plugin uploaders that may have that option, but it
doesn't have a resizer built-in. but what's the problem with just running a
script or two via your image editor to do batch processing of the resizing
on your own? It would probably take less than a minute or two to run the
resizing scripts.

[Angell EYE]

I quickly read just a couople of these responses. I noticed one guy said their support is non-existent and you're on your own. This couldn't be further from the truth!

WebAssist has the best support I've ever come across. When you buy there extensions they give you free support incidents to get started. Of course, go through the tutorials, but if you get stuck you can open a support incident.

They will call you on the phone, connect via remote help session, or whatever it takes to get you moving in the right direction. They'll walk you through the steps involved and even help you do coding if you can't get it figured out on your own.

I've developed LOTS of sites using WebAssist's tools and I absolutely LOVE it. I have their SuperSuite and I can build an entire e-commerce site with real-time shipping, discounts, and a complete payment processing solution integreated...also an entire administration panel for updating products, invoices, user information, etc. within about an hour.

DW + WebAssist is truly a beautiful thing!

[peetk]

Hmm, thanks for your responses everyone. This isn't going to be easy. Cartweaver is very simple and I haven't yet seen a site built using it which features more than just a handful of products and categories. Don't get me wrong, I have seen some very nice sites built using Cartweaver, but I'm not looking for beauty, I'm looking for an admin section which will allow me to sort products by category and have within a category, sub-categories which will allow me to have multiple products, each product having its own product options etc.. This I have at the moment with Interakt's MX Kommerce. Tom Muck of Cartweaver says it can be done but it looks like I could be looking at a lot of hand-coding and messing around with SQL queries etc. ie the sort of stuff that make me come out in a cold sweat !. Oh dear, what to do ?

I have now come across two other shopping carts, Zen Cart, which has the advantage of being free, and CS Cart which is relatively cheap and which has a demo admin site which looks very complete indeed. Does anyone know anything about these ?

Cheers

Pete