20 Responses for "Wordpress eCommerce / Shopping Cart Plugin"

1. Dan January 31st, 2008 at 10:51 pm 1

   From all I have read about that plugin, it’s buggy and the support is not there when you need it. I’m checking this out currently

   http://www.quirm.net/page.php?id=39

   Good luck! I’ll check back to see if you have made any progress since I am in the same boat!

2. Herrin February 3rd, 2008 at 9:41 pm 2

   This plugin has great potential and does live up to it to some degree but as commented before, it is buggy and the support is sad. The install instructions are so trite and cheerful that its infuriating when you are trying to solve any problem. The sad truth is that in Wordpress at least this is the only real option. I’m amazed that there is no real competition.
   What has been your experience with this shopping cart?
   Thanks for the article.

3. Michael February 4th, 2008 at 1:27 pm 3

   My experience with this plugin is the same as Dan’s and Herrin’s. While building a website for a client, I switched on "Grid View" from the "Gold" feature set only to find that the "Grid View" module calls a function which doesn’t exist in the latest stable release (3.5.1).

   A little searching revealed that <a href="http://instinct.co.nz/blogshop/forums/topic.php?id=4&amp;replies=8" rel="nofollow">others have experienced this same problem</a>; however, I couldn’t find any solutions.

   So, on a hunch, I downloaded the 3.6 Beta 8 code and I was able to track down the function. Trimming down the function for backwards compatibility and adding it to the 3.5.1 code made "Grid View" work; however, since my client paid for this plugin, this type of defect is unacceptable.

   In case anyone else is looking for this patch, here is the post: <a href="http://michaelwender.com/2008/02/01/fixing-grid-and-list-views-in-wp-e-commerce-gold/" rel="nofollow">Fixing Grid and List Views in WP e-Commerce Gold</a>.

4. Laurens February 14th, 2008 at 3:58 am 4

   @Dan:
   I looked at eShop for about 1 minute, and that might do if you sell 3 eBooks, but as a real shop, this is no option.
   1 product per page???? You must be kidding…
   No Categories, no brands, no option for me.
   Funny that the developer of WP eCommerce is also called Dan

5. the english guy March 7th, 2008 at 7:15 pm 5

   I’ve been working on a theme design for a client of mine who insists on the grid view module too. Tried version 3.6.8 of the wp-ecommerce plugin w/ grid view and still no luck, the grid just won’t activate. Tried reactivating the plugin too, nothing.

   The support on this product is horrendous

6. Frustrated Wp e-commerce user March 9th, 2008 at 4:10 pm 6

   I agree with above posters.

   WP e-commerce, shockingly, seems to be the only halfway powerful plugin for WordPress.

   But it is extremely buggy, has poor integration with PayPal, and the plugin support and documentation are terrible. So many issues, but they are not really addressed in the support forums.

   I am surprised there are so few alternatives.

   I think WP e-commerce has the potential to be a really great plugin. I frankly wish they would simply make a paid version only — so that they’d have the money and time to develop it properly with documentation and support.

   Either that, or give it open-source licensing so that someone else can start fixing all the bugs.

   I would gladly pay at least $50 for this plugin if it had better support and documentation.

   I don’t mind paying for something if the quality is good, and this plugin has enormous potential, but still seems very “beta” to me. Frustrating because if you are interested in a shopping cart, it means you are trying to run a business and don’t have time to fool around with hours and hours of bug-hunting.

7. bas March 13th, 2008 at 12:45 pm 7

   Hi,
   Anyone using this allready??

   Bas
   Webmaster Motortassen

8. f*ck WP-Commerce user March 13th, 2008 at 10:32 pm 8

   Sadly, you need to be a programmer hacker to get this thing to work.

   Also, we bought the $15 package and up to now we haven’t received the API keys. We’re not optimistic as well since we saw what the Gold Cart can do (even without the API) and it’s just a waste of your money.

   I recommend someone build a real web 2.0 shopping cart like http://www.shopify.com

   Anyone?

9. mccormicky March 20th, 2008 at 3:44 pm 9

   Hi! I agree with all of you.I’m finding the search for a free cart for wp to a howling desert full of bugs and wrecked installs.
   However, I was able to set up the free version of wp-ecommerce with zero problems on one client website.Just sheer luck as i failed on another(same host same database server,php5 etc)It might be a matter of making sure you have wp header and wp-footer in your template files. Also, if you can:deactivate all your other plugins while installing and setting it up.
   Yak cart is another you might consider if you don’t mind repairing tables in mysql. I did it and I am no expert.
   Yak is not that supported either-there isn’t even an onsite tutorial for setting it up and the readme contains nothing about where to put the hooks! I was amazed. There is no way anyone new to wp could ever dream of using Yak–There is a guy who wrote a tutorial in a 3 part blog post and it was not written by the developer and it is extremely helpful because without it you will be totally clueless.Wp-ecommerce has the bells and whistles that make us go ahhh and when it works it is super duper. But I read over and over that folks are getting 0 support which means I will never pay for it as long as it is this wonky.
   And one more thing: sometimes the theme you are using is at fault!

10. mccormicky March 20th, 2008 at 3:46 pm 10

    oh here is the url to the successful wp cart I set up..
    http://trishamcbridedance.com/products-page

11. DavidW March 24th, 2008 at 9:59 pm 11

    The truth is there is not a better option out there for a cart, and the good news is that things are improving. Their support has been lackluster at best and nonexistent at times, but now there appears to be a movement towards outsourcing this to Shayne Sanderson who has been very active on the support forum and really is very knowledgeable.

    I was personally unhappy with the seo aspects of the cart and so flounder around until I got it worked out. I’ve posted an seo manual for the cart at http://dewpointproductions.com it’s a free download.

12. bfresh March 30th, 2008 at 12:32 am 12

    I came across this.. not sure if its the same as wp-ecommerce.. looks like it but it looks nicer

    http://www.quixotic-clothing.com/

13. DavidW April 7th, 2008 at 8:56 pm 13

    bfresh,
    Yep that’s a wp-ecommerce plugin running the store. You’re right it’s a nice layout, unfortunately, the likelihood that it will show up without some seo is nearly nill. Hopefully the owner will see our posts and check out the seo documentation I mentioned above.

    Also, check out http://www.precisionsurgicalsupply.com. They have a nice looking site, they took my seo advice to heart and you can see how their page titles change for every page - crucial to ever showing up in the search engines.

14. Shayne April 10th, 2008 at 3:33 pm 14

    Hey guys,

    You’re all correct in the comments made…the plugin is buggy and support just isn’t there.

    But the support forums http://instinct.co.nz/blogshop/forums/ are getting better with more help…also if you’ll follow my link, i have started a site with WP Ecommerce support offered there as well…it’s a great plugin and with the support getting better, that makes all the difference!

15. vlitforlinux May 7th, 2008 at 3:21 pm 15

    Wordpress are a good blog and are full free for any use, the e commerce plugin ave many limitations and costs much. I build an e-commerce full free with many modules and functions the name is OsWAI try it…

16. New Stable WP e-Commerce Release May 27th, 2008 at 5:57 pm 16

    Hey Guys.

    The latest version WP e-Commerce 3.6.3 is very stable.

    First of all I’d like to say that the support for WP e-Commerce is getting a hell of a lot better these days.

    There are the forums for non paying users and $15 license holders. And then Instinct and Shayne (see above) are always happy to help when people need some additional paid support - time permitting we help everybody but we have to make a living too.

    The latest version of WP e-Commerce is pretty bloody good in terms of SEO. It uses WordPress permalinks for friendly URLs and just recently made changes so that the page is now the site name + product name.

    I’d also like to thank Dave for his SEO manual. A lot of the things we’re doing to improve WP e-Commerce are based on his comments and the comments of people in our forums - the recent SEO improvements include:
    - page changing per product
    - categories widget to replace category drop down
    - permalinks modification to allow you to make your home page your products page

    Heck guys you have to remember we’re a small team and we’re mostly doing it for the love. WP e-Commerce means so much to us and we’re always trying to improve it.

    Anyway we are all fairly certain that 3.6.3 is the least buggy and stable version that we have released since the last stable download.

    So have a try and download it. Please understand we’re doing our best and that we do try to support everybody when possible.

    Regards,

    Dan

17. shayne May 30th, 2008 at 3:32 pm 17

    Yeah…this release is the best so far. A lot of fixes in place and very stable. I’m proud of this release!

18. Mark June 20th, 2008 at 2:16 pm 18

    You should maybe look into Market:
    http://www.markettheme.com/

    It’s not perfect yet but it’s better than the Instinct offering.

19. shayne July 1st, 2008 at 12:26 am 19

    For anyone wanting/needing documentation on WP Ecommerce, we have just released the WP ECommerce Bible. Over 120 pages of content, screenshots and easy to copy/paste text files included.

    It’s updated to include the new version 3.6.7 set to be released this week.

    http://www.wpecommercebible.com

20. Orovo Tim August 8th, 2008 at 10:27 pm 20

    I’ve had a ton of success selling off of wordpress. I use the theme from ecommercethemes.com and e-junkie.

    If anyone wants to ask about how I did it, just shoot me an email.