I was excited about CS-Cart v3 and upgraded my installation. However, after working with it, I've been highly disappointed. I just gave the order to my server admin to downgrade my installation back to v2.
The main reason is that the check-out interface in v3 is very clumsy. I need a simple check-out process without shipping.
The main reasons I am downgrading are
It's not possible anymore to display the cart content in the checkout page. Something similar can still be done by insert 2 widgets but it produces a very clumsy output.
It's not possible anymore to disable shipping address and shipping options.
These 2 factors alone make the page very clumsy, much more complex and not very usable. Hopefully this will change in the future but I already waited over a month and can't wait anymore. I'm going back to v2 for now.
Also, the “sign in” section takes almost 700px in height. That's over-killing the layout for 2 text-boxes and a button.
I still have not upgraded because no skin choices but just for that reason as well, I can not have issues. I still use 1.3.4 on another site which is the busiest site of the 2 and the last version before 3 is my last upgrade for awhile I really do not know why so many changes per upgrade but they are smarter then I.
None of those things are problems in v3. You can display the Product In Your Order block and Order Summary block on every step of checkout since v3 came out.
Don't you just set the product up as a download, and not choose to enable shipping for the download? CS-Cart Programmers are selling downloads that don't require shipping addresses. I've never had to do this, but I suppose you could just disable all the Profile Fields for Shipping Address values.
The sign in windows is only about 360 pixels height. If you use SSL for sign in, it's on it's own dedicated page anyway.
Instead of skins, you need to edit your own CSS to change the store design/colors, but by using Blocks, you can easily move around blocks of content so you can get just what you want. I was able to stop paying for skins, and do my own designs easier. There are guys that make skins for v3, but you SHOULD INSIST that they use the my_changes and hooks function in CS-Cart Addons, and that they provide the Layout XML for the block designs. I've seen at least one very sloppy skin made for v3 that wouldn't last thru one upgrade.
But since you've waited this long, you might as well wait until v3.1.1 comes out.