We were planning to combine our shops and launch with cs-cart ultimate in february. Knowing the first versions would probably be quite buggy, we only started with development when 3.03 was launched.
It looks like we were still way too early and we just decided we won’t be able to launch in the next couple of months.
Cs-cart seriously overlooked some things and at the moment it’s simply not possible to successfully run multiple storefronts as real individual stores (which is the whole point, isn’t it?).
Just some things that are absolutely vital to having multiple store’s with one admin:
each store should be able to turn on and off add-ons individually. For example, a wholesale store needs completely different settings and addons then an end-user store. This is not possible.
Signing up for the newsletter - there is just one list where of course each shop should have it’s own list.
individual status mails. We have nice status mails that say things like thanks for shopping at “shop name”.
In cs-cart ultimate, you can only set status mails once, for all shops. That completely sucks. We use different brand names and company names which we should be able to communicate in status mails.
Simply said: it should be possible to give each individual storefront it’s own settings, newsletters, mails, add-ons, and so on. Otherwise how are current cs-cart users going to combine their various PRO shops into one?
I really, really hope these things will be fixed in new versions because we have invested a lot of time and money in the upgrade only to discover that for now it’s impossible for us to make the switch. I would really appreciate an answer from cs-cart here… and other people’s view’s. Maybe I am missing something?
Totally agree. We had the same plans, but will no longer be combining our already established sites. We also are afraid that if the main store goes down, then all the additional storefronts will go down. We are keeping our stores seperated for now and have decided to start a new domain, fresh install with ultimate and build it. Only problem is, there is no easy way to import just the products and options. All of our options have price modifiers and those apparently aren't transfered over, when doing a regular import in the admin section. So frustrating.
each store should be able to turn on and off add-ons individually. For example, a wholesale store needs completely different settings and addons then an end-user store. This is not possible.
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I postponed my wholesale store for this reason, while I really need it.
The issue with addons I encountered several times and I am currently awaiting fixes from addon developer to get rid of various unwanted side effects.
[quote name='Flow' timestamp='1359048156' post='153546']2. Signing up for the newsletter - there is just one list where of course each shop should have it's own list.[/quote]
Customers are attributed to a store, so this should be possible. I do not know how.
3. individual status mails. We have nice status mails that say things like thanks for shopping at “shop name”.
In cs-cart ultimate, you can only set status mails once, for all shops. That completely sucks. We use different brand names and company names which we should be able to communicate in status mails.
Order status emails and registration emails need to be branded and have links to related information / help on the related storefront.
4. Payment and shipping options should be presented to the customer much clearer like it was in CS Cart 2. The customer should have a one clear overview of all available payment and shipping methods on one page which shows a selection function, an icon and an explanation text.
The payment page should not show payment gateways/processors, but should show payment methods.
The customer does not know the difference between the various payment gateways/processors. (2Checkout, Gate2shop, 365billing, atos, etc)
All the customer cares about is whether which button they have to click to pay with credit card, online banking, the available e-wallet(s), bank payment, COD, etc.
Customer confusion on the checkout page results in lower sales, so this should be avoided.
COD is both a payment method and a shipping method. Therefore it should be possible to have one page to select payment methods and shipping methods.
I really hope the above issues get reviewed and addressed by the CS-Cart team. Asides these oversights, CS-Cart is great software.
each store should be able to turn on and off add-ons individually. For example, a wholesale store needs completely different settings and addons then an end-user store. This is not possible.
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And this should be tied to (or support provided for) individual domain/storefront licensing. No reason a merchant should pay for 20 licenses for an Ultimate 20 storefront configuration when they are only planning on using the addon on a few of those storefronts. But right now, have to charge by “count” of storefronts since there's no internal support for having an addon active in one store and hidden in others (and operate correctly on data for those stores when in “all stores” mode- which is the biggest shortfall and very awkward/difficult to handle within the addon itself).
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3. individual status mails. We have nice status mails that say things like thanks for shopping at “shop name”.
In cs-cart ultimate, you can only set status mails once, for all shops. That completely sucks. We use different brand names and company names which we should be able to communicate in status mails.
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Absolute business need and amazed it was overlooked. But once again, cs-cart is a company of developers, not merchants and they rarely consult with merchants (or addon developers) to validate their development ideas before they go off and implement them. This is a classic example.
Personally, I think implementing Ultimate the way they did was shortsighted. It should have been a separate admin product that would administer individual stores. So if you had an action that affected all stores, it would do that action once for each store (in the context of the store). This could have been provided as a hosted service giving an ongoing revenue stream and the opportunity to expand it to provide other crucial 3rd party integration services. But…
The payment page should not show payment gateways/processors, but should show payment methods.
The customer does not know the difference between the various payment gateways/processors. (2Checkout, Gate2shop, 365billing, atos, etc)
All the customer cares about is whether which button they have to click to pay with credit card, online banking, the available e-wallet(s), bank payment, COD, etc.
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This can actually be done quite easily. You can add multiple instances of the same psp (say skrill). Then inside the psp config in cs-cart, for one choose just creditcards, and for the other just choose something else. Let's say Sofort Uberweisung.
This can actually be done quite easily. You can add multiple instances of the same psp (say skrill). Then inside the psp config in cs-cart, for one choose just creditcards, and for the other just choose something else. Let's say Sofort Uberweisung.
Now give them each their own icon… et voila.
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Yes, it is possible to add payment methods as multiple instances of the same PSP. But you can not limit a payment method to countries like you can do for shipping methods. The result is that customers see a very large number of irrelevant payment methods.
For example: if we take your example for skrill, which offers 50+ payments methods for 30+ countries, then a customer will see about 40 irrelevant payment methods on the payment page.
If you use multiple payment processors or a payment processor that has a wider range (eMerchantPay or G2S) then there will be 100+ payment methods for 200+ countries on one page, while the customer can only use 2-10.
This would make the payment page much too confusing for any customer.
Have all the other items been changed for cscart 4? Is there a fix for version 3? I have exactly the same issue as many other people in the forums, my main one being that i cannot turn off/on addons independantly to each store.
This is causing major layout and configuration issues from store to store. Especially when you add third party addons into the mix.
Why has this not been looked into with so many people having issues with it? Apologies if this has already been rectified in cscart 4 however i am on 3 and this is still a major issue in my eyes.