Returning user needs help...

[Hammerhead]

Howdy, folks. Hope you guys can offer your insight.

I need to set up an online store which has the below attributes. I've worked with Miva, OSC, Zen and VirtueMart. All have their pros/cons, but none seem to fit in all the areas which I need.

I've been out of the game for a while, so I'm sure many things have changed, hence my question because I can't seem to find what I'm looking for. Most important is item #1 on the list. I need to be able to support freight calculations based on multiple origin zip codes because I also drop-ship items from other suppliers among the many items I sell myself. I don't want to average freight costs because of the very wide variety of merchandise that will be sold, and also because it will either cause me to overprice freight (and I'll lose the order) or under-quote and I'll go out of business. So freight cost averaging won't work.

Please review and share your thoughts.

• Support shipping from multiple origin zips. One way to do this would be to append a field to each file indicating the vendor source, which would trigger a duplicate shipping module (one for each supplier) when the item(s) are checked out. IOW, it would be like having multiple bills on one tab – kind of like what happens at a restaurant sometimes when they separate the bar tab from the food, but you pay the total amount at the bottom line.

• Automate daily CSV price files by logging into vendor’s FTP site with ID/PW and import into storefront/catalog In both OSC and Zen, there is already a component called ‘EZPopulate’ which does the item import, but the input from the price files must match exactly their field mapping which requires manual intervention every day via Excel. I hope to have a script that will parse and then upload automatically.

• Support multiple ‘storefronts’ for different clients so that the same catalog can be repurposed to many clients and branded to them so the shopping experience is as transparent as possible to the customer. I believe there’s already such a component out there for Zen, but not sure about the other platforms.

Any insight you can offer is greatly appreciated.

[kuroi]

There are already complex and detailed threads on each of each. The summary version is that all are possible, but all require significant custom coding both to add the facilities and also to tailor each to the specifics of your situation.

[Hammerhead]

There are already complex and detailed threads on each of each. The summary version is that all are possible, but all require significant custom coding both to add the facilities and also to tailor each to the specifics of your situation.

I suppose that begs the question of which environment would be best, looking down the road. Might be a dumb question to ask in a Zen forum since the bias will most likely be toward ZenCart, but it would be helpful to know how much such a project might cost, where to seek such a coder to do the work and perhaps some objective feedback on whether to target Zen or VirtueMart for the adaptation. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

In the meantime if you happen to have a couple links to the threads you mentioned, that'd be great!

[kuroi]

Trying to be as objective as I can, given that you want to make three complex extensions (though there is an add-in mod for Zen Cart that does the third, if it does it the way you want to do it), which makes the most sense ...

1. Extend a dedicated e-commerce application or
2. Extend something that in turn is already an add-on to another application

Also, given that complexity, you shouldn't be looking for a coder in the first instance. You really need a business analyst who can tie your requirements down accurately before any coding begins.