While many bloggers are cashing in on paid advertising and affiliate fees, the options for setting up small shops is limited by “plugin” store solutions. WordPress is great for building community, the ideal way to target your customers, but when it comes to adding a simple solution you are limited to the three main options available now:
MicroShop
by Owen Winkler (RedAlt) which is currently down. It is the shopping cart I use on Websitetology. Current link: http://www.websitetology.com/wp-content/uploads/microshop.zip
Paypal or checks only, it has some issues with data entry in the phone field, and has limited tax, shipping, and notation options.
Note: June 08 This solution was pre WordPress 2.0, it’s highly unlikely that it still works.
WP-Shop
http://cregy.net/small-business-software/wp-shop/
Last time I installed this, there was no payment gateway. It was the nicest integration of the three, but without checkout, it was worthless. Since I haven’t tried to use it since June, I can’t tell you what the status is now.
UPDATE: June 08, this plugin seems to be abandoned.
WP e-commerce lite
http://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/
We’re using this on www.londonbaystationery.com. It has no way of setting tax per order, or shipping charges. The only included gateway is PayPal, for a fee you can add authorize.net and dps.co.nz
UPDATE: Jun 09 This plugin broke again with 2.8. It’s been a constant headache.
We broke down and purchased the Shopp plugin http://shopplugin.net/ it works flawlessly with 2.8.
We also looked at e-shop, http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/eshop/ but, we failed to rename the product page, and were in limbo for a while. It requires a page per post, which may or may not be a graceful way to handle things.
E-commerce with a WordPress shouldn’t be that difficult. While most of these solutions are limited to using WordPress with a PayPal solution, the ability to use other payment processors like 2checkout.com or google checkout should be available. WordPress is the easiest way to build a community- so shouldn’t it be just as easy to sell to your community?
A more complex option is to build a ZenCart site and add a WordPress blog to it with this module:
http://zencart-module.s-page.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id
JUNE 08: Another open source option that looks good for a cart is Magento: http://www.magentocommerce.com/features
There isn’t a WordPress module- or integration- but, it’s getting rave reviews as a well written piece of code.
There must be other shopping cart plugins out there- but this is what we’ve found. If you have any others, please leave a link in the comments.
UPDATE: Jun 09 found this link with 10 shopping cart tools for WordPress http://speckyboy.com/2008/10/23/10-powerful-shoppingecommerce-plugin-solutions-for-wordpress/
UPDATE: Apr 8 2010: Here is a comparison chart of carts: http://www.briggs.net.nz/log/2009/09/13/warts-and-all/
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WP-Ecommerce is certainly a powerful plugin, especially if you have a lot of products you want to sell. If you are only selling a few products (less than maybe 20), or want a simpler plugin, check out PHPurchase http://www.PHPurchase.com
Unfortunately WP-ecommerce is blowing up on a clients site again. It’s been a major headache. And while Dan keeps offering to fix it- you have to wonder if the code base is just borked from the getgo. We’ve never had as much trouble from a plugin.
David thats a shame mate because its working for us. It worked on the wordcamp.org MU server. All we did was put the files in the correct location and click activate. BAM it worked and New York WordCamp sold over 700 tickets…
I would argue that the new code base is freaking awesome. If it was bad then the wordcamp organizers would not have chosen WP e-Commerce and pakt publishing wouldnt be able to release the WP e-Commerce Plugin book.
I have not got an email from you in months so I have no idea what you’ve done wrong or what you’ve done. I get the feeling you’re using an older version OR you’re judging our Plugin on one or two features that you want that don’t work 100% the way you expect them too OR you have other conflicting Plugins / themes. Without looking god knows…
I’m pleased to annouce a few more sites though.
People keep making stable strong and kick ass sites with WP e-Commerce Plugin. And here you can see a few good ones in action.
New site launched today:
http://www.pedalplay.co.uk/
Other recently launched:
http://www.altsurfshop.com/
http://revpar.nl/webwinkel/ (dutch store using idea)
http://barcodes4books.com/
http://www.icondock.com
If you want a hand then let us know
Opps. I meant a store using the iDeal payment gateway. Not the “idea” payment gateway – sorry to clutter up your comments!!!
Turns out- it was a theme issue that was interfering with WP-ecommerce. We had built the site a long time ago- with what was then the state of the art in themes- K2. Unfortunately- K2’s developers haven’t always been keeping current with the latest changes in Wordpress (or we haven’t updated the theme). Dan had one of his people identify the issue- and we’re back up and running. We still use Wp-ecommerce on this site- and it does the job.
Thanks David. We try our best
I used to be a big K2 fan but yeah they stopped developing it. Now we use Thematic for everything – in fact I’m about as fanatical about Thematic as I was about K2 back in the day!
Ciao, Dan
Short 5 minute install demo of doing ecommerce with WP-ecommerce:
http://wordpress.tv/2009/06/08/create-an-ecommerce-website-with-wordpress-in-under-5-minutes/
interesting to read the comments.
Updated this post again: Here is a feature comparison chart for WP e-commerce plugins:
http://www.briggs.net.nz/log/2009/09/13/warts-and-all/
We’ve switched our Theme to Thesis on this site- and switched the e-commerce to Shopp.
It is a real shame that you moved. That comparison chart isnt full by any means nor does it reflect the latest build of WP e-Commerce.
I think that the latest version released last week is cool, like way cool. But the upcoming 3.8 version in the SVN blows shop to smithereens. It uses posts for products uses WP 3.0 taxonomies for cateogories etc. It is very very nice.
I think that the comments on the wp.tv site reflect most popular pieces of OS software – when there are hundreds of thousands of users of course a small handful will get it wrong or wish for a feature that isnt available!
Anyway I like your new design David. Well done.
@Razaq
Nothing stopping us from going back. I’m pretty sure that sooner or later e-commerce will make it into the WP core. The new 3.0 architecture is something that makes a lot of sense.
What I really need is a way to sell an event-
Here is the event- and here are the multiple dates you can buy it-
Shopp is planning it pretty far out- haven’t seen it in WP e-commerce-
but, for now- what I have works.
Thanks for the comment- look forward to trying the new version.
No e-Commerce will never make it into WordPress core. You’re dreaming on that one – in the same sense that events won’t be core. Twitter Plugins won’t be core. Mail forms will never be core.
Automattic is talking about supported / core / canonical Plugins – I forget which term they are using today. I’d say that because of the latest 3.0 integration in WP e-Commerce and plus the fact that WP e-Commerce is already being used to sell tickets to WordPress events right now you’re probably better off in the long run sticking with them. If anything is becoming close to core its WP e-Commerce.
Reading your comments it looks like you already have a relationship with Dan. Why don’t you ask him about the TikiPress Plugin that is already being used. See it in action on the wordcamp site:
https://2010.sf.wordcamp.org/tickets/ (sell tickets)
http://2010.sf.wordcamp.org/attendees/ (view attendees)
And I know from reading online that it gives you tools to manage your event. Like ticket generation and visitor lists etc and apparently there is some pretty mean BuddyPress integration underway too!
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