We're planning to shift from a wordpress plugin based platform (Cart66) to a full-fledged e-commerce store. So far, we're keen to switch, and yes, we're looking for designers, but
Would we need to design and then redesign once version 3.0 comes out?
When's the ETA for version 3?
How much extra customization is needed? And what should people like us do in between?
Are there any design agencies that can design for us, and then upgrade the design once v3 is released?
Also, we're planning to have it on a semi-dedicated (hosts 25 shells max) or a cloud host. What do you think? We're currently doing about 300-400 visitors/day as a brand new store (4 months old)
The following are opinions/guesses only since the V3 code has not been released yet and cs-cart has stated that they have changed the way 3rd party addons will be incorporated… This could mean that the manner in which template changes are supported has also changed.
My first question is do you really want/need the multi-store capabilities of V3 and have you verified that the multi-store implementation coming in V3 will meet your needs?
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Would we need to design and then redesign once version 3.0 comes out?
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Design no, re-implement, more than likely.
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2) When's the ETA for version 3?
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Last I heard was end of Feb, but I wouldn't hold your breath. And if you're going to use this in a real commercial environment, you should wait probably 6 months until after it's released for it to stabilize.
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3) How much extra customization is needed? And what should people like us do in between?
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No one knows… Could be that your changes fit right in and won't need anything further. Could also be that you have to completely re-do the majority of changes you make. It's a crap-shoot right now.
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4) Are there any design agencies that can design for us, and then upgrade the design once v3 is released?
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Need to separate design from implementation. You can design all you want. But once you put it in code you will have to maintain it. “Agencies” will do anything you want while you're paying time and materials. But I doubt you will find anyone who's willing to give you a fixed price bid on site customization for V3 at this point.
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5) Also, we're planning to have it on a semi-dedicated (hosts 25 shells max) or a cloud host. What do you think? We're currently doing about 300-400 visitors/day as a brand new store (4 months old)
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Stay away from cloud unless you have a non-cloud strategy or a hybrid cloud implementation for supporting the database.
Am not sure about Multi-vendor's capabilities for CS-Cart v3. And yes, it's a crap-shoot situation now, but our current WP based cart just don't cut it.
Hmm, why stay away from cloud based hosting for database as well? Would it be unstable? VPS or Semi-dedicated would look more interesting then =)