Amazon Marketplace & E-bay Integration - Lags Behind X-Cart, Opencart, Magento, Prestashop, etc

My retail clients are finding the majority of their sales, even with good Google rankings is coming from Ebay and Amazon now. It appears CS-Cart lags behind other shopping carts as far as integration with these services to the point even though we think CS-Cart is the superior cart, excluding these services, we may not be able to wait any longer. It appears to be a increasingly glaring hole in the product. For those interested in our research so far…



We thought since Magento is so popular and has these services available as add-ons, it would be the solution. But although I had already heard this when examining Magento a year ago, it appears the Magento Community Edition has not made much progress as far as ease of customization and upgrading. In fact there are many horror stories from developers. Yet many small-mid size businesses are still choosing Magento because they see the larger companies use it and so they consider it “the standard” and see Community is free so they think, look, we can run the same Cart as Samsung, for free! Not. Lack of support, bugs fixed to slowly, 3 times more time consuming to customize all equals a HUGE ongoing support cost. So we are scrapping Magento for now. This Blog post and the comments says it all:



http://www.mywebtron…-to-my-clients/



I would now only consider Magento for a company that is willing to fork out $14K per year for Enterprise but even then, you will need to be prepared to pay developers for many hours of work if you want to customize the code. And upgrading after customizing sounds like a nightmare.



But the point still remains, many other carts are integrating with Amazon and Ebay, and even integrating with the backoffice systems like Microsoft Dynamics RMS (which we also need.) It seems X-Cart, being more popular than CS-Cart is now possibly the best alternative to CS-Cart for these features if you throw out Magento. There are many similarities with the two due to the history the CS-Cart developers have with X-cart. I think the code and product is better with CS-Cart (this is why we actually changed our decision 3 years ago to CS-Cart shortly after starting to do customization on X-Cart and didn’t like the code.) It now appears we may have to go back to our original decision of using X-Cart.



Even OPENCART has E-bay Integration just like everyone here is screaming for!



http://www.opencart…tension_id=4220



SAAS model may be an option (supposedly http://www.exportyourstore.com anyone actually using it?? Fact their website is having issues as I write this doesn’t bode well.) There’s also http://www.trusky.co…inventory-addon (not SAAS) but there’s no information I’ve seen here yet from any CS-Cart users successfully using these. And problem is SAAS means no customization, you have to wait for the developer to add the features you need which can take a LONG time.



Just look at all the other solutions for the other carts. It really seems CS-Cart has fallen asleep at the wheel here and are not in-touch with trends/developments in online retail industry? There is talk that since the top features in uservoice haven’t been implemented, no one can update their vote to these other features - is this why this is delayed/ignored? These things are not rocket science to implement. We could do it ourselves, time permitting, but we aren’t going to risk spending many hours doing something and then right after we finish we find CS-Cart is releasing the feature as a built-in module so our work was for nothing.



http://www.kosmoscen…integration.php



http://www.kosmoscen…rms-integration



[url=“http://prestabay.involic.com/”]http://prestabay.involic.com/[/url]



http://blog.common-s…-pour-opencart/



http://www.opencart…fied&order=DESC



This is just scratching the surface. I’m concerned that Simbrisk is too focused on the product at a nuts and bolts level and not staying abreast of larger trends in the E-Commerce industry and implementing features to address the needs from those trends. Do they wait until many people have migrated elsewhere?



The other thing that makes me curious is that I thought the CS-Cart Community was as big if not bigger than Prestashop or Opencart? Guess I’m wrong as typically whether someone develops a module or not is related to how big the pool of developers is and how big the demand is. This may be the pitfall of having a superior core product but not very good marketing to get a larger slice of the pie?



We are trying not to move away from CS-Cart but prefer an integrated solution.

I have to admit that if I was faced with the choice between CS-Cart and Magento today, I would probably go Magento this time. Not because I don't like CS-Cart, but because of the lack of multichannel capabilities in CSC. I much prefer CS-Cart over Magento, but some movement needs to happen where multichannel is concerned.



As it stands, many of you know that I have signed on with ExportYourStore. As an early adopter, I am paying a rather large sum to get the integration developed to my liking. Also there will be a monthly fee. I still feel risky about the engagement, but someone has to take the first step and I can't be left behind without something for ebay/Amazon.



I believe many of you could benefit from this integration that is being developed with ExportYourStore. To support our cause and keep CS-Cart cutting edge, I would encourage those complaining about monthly fees to stop whining and reconsider signing on with ExportYourStore.



Guys: we have a solutions provider that is already working on something that can be extended to others within this community. Given that CS-Cart has decided NOT to develop this integration, this may be our only other alternative. Seize this opportunity!



EXYS has demonstrated a willingness to make it happen. Put aside your petty price issues and think of the bigger picture. If you run a half-decent business, I'm sure the profits from multichannel will outweigh the minor integration expense.

Good and valid points. Each of these solutions cost around US$200. If cs-cart can sell amazon and ebay addons separately. It can be quite a nice piece of revenue.





http://www.opencart…tension_id=4220

[color=#333333][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=3][right]£100[/right][/size][/font][/color]



[url=“http://prestabay.involic.com/”]http://prestabay.involic.com/[/url]

$199



http://www.opencart…fied&order=DESC

[color=#363636][font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=3]$225 for initial setup + $19.95 per/month.[/size][/font][/color]

Wow, thanks for that ! I've been wanting to write almost the same message to cs-cart for quite some time.



I'm also super happy with cs-cart, but now that we are growing I am seeing it's limitiations that all come from a lack of integration with other services. The cart simply seems unknown to so many third parties - they support opencart, prestashop, magento, and so on, and when I ask for cs-cart they ask me: cs what? This seems to be changing a little bit though cause I see cs-cart pop up more and more since a couple of months.



CS-cart you NEED to get out there and aks these integration companies to work with you. Or contact services yourself and say you'd like to build a connector add-on. This will be the best PR you will ever get: companies like Xero, Freshbooks, highrise, Capsule CRM, and so on are growing like CRAZY and if they show your shopping cart as a compatible one… what do you think this will do for your sales?



If cs-cart wants to stay ahead & keep up, then we NEED more ways of connecting our shops to external services:


  • Xero for accounting & inventory - why this one - cause it's powerful, easy to use and a full quickbooks replacement unlike apps like freshbooks (even though I love that one too)


  • A good CRM that shows us who is mailing us, what they ordered and allows us to make notes. Or if that's too diffucult, let's us simply click to the customer



    Some extra info: I am working on Capsule CRM integration - together with google apps this will be a simple but very powerful support and mailing tool with mailchimp integration!


  • Amazon / Ebay



    If cs-cart can make these three things, i am absolutely sure it will boost sales like crazy and imho this is what they should have focussed on before going to version 3. The cart was fine already!



    I for one would be happy to fork up around $500 or so for these 3 integrations, and a monthly fee to keep things going. I wouldn't think twice about it actually, but I need to know they will work well cause i've been burned too much - ending up importing csv's again.



    CS-cart, I guess we are all hoping you will respond here… are there plans on doing stuff like this?

CS Cart team it is polite to provide your paying customers with an answer, you have marked this addon as planned as consultant stated this puts others off developing a solution for fear that all that hard work , time , effort will have been wasted the minute yourselves include the features as a built add on or paid service.



There would be more uptake for multichannel service than the twigmo service, which was nice but for the money I can live without it.

Hello everyone,



This is an official statement: Amazon & eBay integration will be developed.



After taking a closer look at this task and accurately weighing all the pros and cons we have eventually come to the decision no to drop the development of this functionality as we have earlier.



We would like to apologize for the long delay we had to take in the development. Developing CS-Cart 3 was a real challenge and we had to prioritize properly in order to succeed with it, so Amazon & eBay integration had to be put off.



The details will be disclosed later. It will probably be a paid annual subscription-based module.



We have started working on the scope statement, and as soon as it is finished we will be able to announce the estimated release date.

Sorry, but even if you badger me and make statements like…

[quote]I would encourage those complaining about monthly fees to stop whining…[/quote]

…that doesn't encourage me to take on yet another monthly fee that is way off base! I will still “complain” and “whine” as I feel their pricing is WAY too high and it does not match the service. I guess I should mention that Export Your Store quoted me $299 for setup and then $99 a month. Wow, seriously. $1500 for the first year? Yikes!



This could also be because the only thing we really want is to be able to list items easier on ebay and amazon. We do not really need orders imported back in to CS. I'm not so sure that it makes sense to do this as we track the information in Quickbooks as to where all orders come from. All we do is download a file from ebay, amazon or one of our websites and then we use Shopping Cart Assistant (from writeitonce.com) to easily import it into Quickbooks. Takes a few minutes in the morning and it does not cost a monthly fee. We do pay for upgrades or custom scripts from writeitonce, but we do not get killed with uncalled for monthly fees. I am not saying that all monthly fees are uncalled for, I am saying that what Export Your Store is charging is uncalled for. Even a $20 a month fee would make more sense, but $99 is just too much?



Shoot, it would make more sense to just switch to Magento Go, pay the $65 a month and get their ebay program for FREE! I'm sorry, but Export Your Store REALLY needs to rethink their pricing. I'm not trying to offend them, but their pricing is just off base.

[quote name='kmolchanov' timestamp='1339597566' post='138617']

Hello everyone,



This is an official statement: Amazon & eBay integration will be developed.



After taking a closer look at this task and accurately weighing all the pros and cons we have eventually come to the decision no to drop the development of this functionality as we have earlier.



We would like to apologize for the long delay we had to take in the development. Developing CS-Cart 3 was a real challenge and we had to prioritize properly in order to succeed with it, so Amazon & eBay integration had to be put off.



The details will be disclosed later. It will probably be a paid annual subscription-based module.



We have started working on the scope statement, and as soon as it is finished we will be able to announce the estimated release date.

[/quote]



I do hope this is accurate and it does happen! It has been so long and we have been told this before, so it is difficult to get our hopes up.

Wonderful! This actually should not take that much time to develop. All you are doing is importing order information and exporting inventory information using well documented APIs. Keep in mind though, some sellers may have complex business rules as far as which products they can sell on E-bay and Amazon and at what prices. Some brands won't allow resellers to sell their products on Ebay and Amazon at all. Some only at full list price. Some merchants like to markup their price 5-15% to offset the Ebay and Amazon fees (this is technically against Amazon Seller Central Policy though.) Most importantly, some sellers use a dynamic pricing service that automatically adjusts their Amazon price based on their competing sellers price. So here are a few features I would suggest including in your scope aside from the basic core inventory export, order import functions.



#1 - Ability to flag which products are eligible to be fed to Ebay and Amazon. You should be able to flag it on a per item, or per category, or per brand (supplier) basis if possible.



#2 - Ability to specify an alternate Ebay and Amazon price (separately) either a fixed price, or as a percentage (negative or positive) to be added to the normal price.



#3 - For Amazon, ability to enable gift wrapping and gift message options on or off for all products with override capabilities on a per item basis



Note that each time a product or multichannel site-wide setting is changed, inventory details on Ebay or Amazon may also have to be updated or products removed.



Actually, now that I think about it, this could get a bit complex depending on how complete and full-featured the implementation is. Here's a few of the possible more difficult issues you may have to deal with, off the top of my head:



Issue #1 - Maping CS-Cart Categories to Ebay and Amazon categories. I'm not sure how the other solutions address this. With our current solution, (this is running on a non CS-Cart system) we had to manually build our own cross-reference file that maps our store's categories to corresponding Amazon categories.



Issue #2 - Reconciling payment since checkout occurs outside CS-Cart. No problem for Amazon as order only comes through if it is paid for. I would assume Ebay's API provides payment status but that would only be for PayPal. Some merchants (the minority) use third party checkout outside of PayPal. I suppose in that case the merchant has to manually maintain payment status within CS-Cart. This issue could be eliminated if the merchant's listings are all Buy-It-Now with immediate PayPal payment required. Then the order only comes through when it has been paid for.



Issue #3 - Auctions. You can't cancel an auction within 12 hours of ending. If CS-Cart supports auction format, the inventory qty would have to be decremented either at the beginning of the auction or at the 12-hr to go mark. Otherwise the merchant risks overselling by selling the item directly before the auction ends. It would be nice to have the option to choose between Buy-It-Now and Auction format as Auction format is good for Clearance Items that need to be liquidated. But I would be fine with only BIN listings as supporting the auction format would make the module more complex (starting bid, reserve, starting time, auction duration, etc.)



Issue #4 - Shipping. I know Amazon Marketplace like the back of my hand. Handling shipping rates is not easy. You can setup shipping bands (based on price) on Amazon that effect all products and then you can upload override amounts. The bands and overrides are specified for many many different shipping options. This doesn't become an issue if the Amazon model the merchant chose is weight based and CS-Cart feeds the weight. Then the prices are all controlled on Amazon. But many merchants use band shipping rates and then selectively upload override shipping costs on oversized items. The override can either be a replacement amount or an additive amount. However the additive amount may not be constant across all shipping methods and destinations so just having one additive amount field probably wouldn't work. Seems you will have to either have the merchant control per item shipping override manually themselves, or, you will need an entire screen for entering delivery-type and location specific override amounts (replace or additive) for various destinations on a per item basis. That's a lot of fields.



I think this page is the best page to foster discussion about necessary and like-to-have feature ideas:



https://openbaypro.u…/142928-general













Issue #2 -




[quote name='kmolchanov' timestamp='1339597566' post='138617']

Hello everyone,



This is an official statement: Amazon & eBay integration will be developed.



After taking a closer look at this task and accurately weighing all the pros and cons we have eventually come to the decision no to drop the development of this functionality as we have earlier.



We would like to apologize for the long delay we had to take in the development. Developing CS-Cart 3 was a real challenge and we had to prioritize properly in order to succeed with it, so Amazon & eBay integration had to be put off.



The details will be disclosed later. It will probably be a paid annual subscription-based module.



We have started working on the scope statement, and as soon as it is finished we will be able to announce the estimated release date.

[/quote]

Consultant dont scare them off : )



eBay API is easy and logical to follow I am sure if you can built a kick arse cart system you will be able to nail this, I have several happy customers :)



Please add in the ability to use HTML templates with eBay listings

Ebay is becoming more a chinese junk outlet, a saturated market where a quality product is forced to bend to lower prices. Amazon is more a open catalog and sooner or later your listing will be used by other vendor, wholesaler or amazon itself.

Online buyers shop smart, looking for lower prices and wholesalers will win at the end. The only way to make some money is on the first wave of new products or designs. Later the competition kill the market.



Now, cs-cart will focus energy and resources on this leaving other aspect of the cart on hold. Ebay and amazon is not for everybody, and there are better solutions outside cs-cart.



I think cs-cart should facilitate for other developers work on this in more efficient way, like preparing API, some core hooks or whatever. But cs shouldn't do it themselves. Just my opinion, but anyway I support this and hope they come out with a great addon, not another twigmo with limited features.

[quote name='colortone' timestamp='1339867882' post='138837']

Ebay is becoming more a chinese junk outlet, a saturated market where a quality product is forced to bend to lower prices. Amazon is more a open catalog and sooner or later your listing will be used by other vendor, wholesaler or amazon itself.

Online buyers shop smart, looking for lower prices and wholesalers will win at the end. The only way to make some money is on the first wave of new products or designs. Later the competition kill the market.



Now, cs-cart will focus energy and resources on this leaving other aspect of the cart on hold. Ebay and amazon is not for everybody, and there are better solutions outside cs-cart.



I think cs-cart should facilitate for other developers work on this in more efficient way, like preparing API, some core hooks or whatever. But cs shouldn't do it themselves. Just my opinion, but anyway I support this and hope they come out with a great addon, not another twigmo with limited features.

[/quote]



Thats the same for all market business is business. You always have to be on the top of the game whether it's a local shop/ internet website/market stall they all have their problems. Any one who thinks ebay/shop/market/boot sale is easy money is mistaken, so to point to ebay is just a bit unjust. Although tempting I sometime reduce our prices but am also willing to hold out for higher prices as some people seem to be making pennies on ites where I want to make pounds. As long as you have good customer service, prompt delivery and are resonably priced people will return and buy of you again.



Any thing cscart developes is better for the end user as it will constantly be developed where a third party could go bust or with the diluted ebay addon sale not keep it up to date or develope further.



It is also third on the “ideas” list (which seems to contain hundreds of ideas) so a lot of people are waiting for it not just the odd couple of people so in my mind is one of the most important things that cscart needs to do.

The ideas page is just not updated yet. They just decided to take this on again.

[quote name='kmolchanov' timestamp='1339597566' post='138617']

Hello everyone,



This is an official statement: Amazon & eBay integration will be developed.



After taking a closer look at this task and accurately weighing all the pros and cons we have eventually come to the decision no to drop the development of this functionality as we have earlier.



We would like to apologize for the long delay we had to take in the development. Developing CS-Cart 3 was a real challenge and we had to prioritize properly in order to succeed with it, so Amazon & eBay integration had to be put off.



The details will be disclosed later. It will probably be a paid annual subscription-based module.



We have started working on the scope statement, and as soon as it is finished we will be able to announce the estimated release date.

[/quote]



I'm extremely happy to hear this. Like others have already said, integration with other channels is crucial in today's ecommerce world.



However, as most small retailers (whom make up the majority of CS-Cart users) would agree, we do not want another monthly paid service. What exactly is a recurring cost for CS-Cart to provide Ebay/Amazon integration? If there are no significant recurring costs, then asking for monthly payment doesn't make much sense. I expect the complains will flood back concerning the Ebay/Amazon integration if the cost for this integration is too much and is recurring.

I see that this idea has been marked started since June 18th:

[url=“http://cscart.uservoice.com/forums/40782-professional/suggestions/500079-ebay-amazon-integration?page=1”]http://cscart.uservoice.com/forums/40782-professional/suggestions/500079-ebay-amazon-integration?page=1[/url]



Does anyone know an ETA on this? Do you think it will be a few months or over a year? Also, do any of you know what it might cost? I'm hoping it would be just a one time add-on fee.

We have been told for almost 2 years that this was going to be a reality. At this point, well, if it really happens we will be happy. At the very least I would give it another year as CS probably needs to weed out the bugs in 3.? first.

Hi guys

ebay integration is good news and believe a logical step towards current ecommerce trends.

I don't agree that it may be a paid monthly service.

This would definitely move me towards BigCommerce or even Shopify.

They offer hosting, ebay integration, mobile, etc



I love cs-cart has been a long time user but right now in the process of starting a new website. leaning towards cs-cart but a monthly paid ebay integration service would definitely move me more towards bigcommerce or even shopify.



thanks

[quote name='ernestor' timestamp='1349097395' post='146100']

Hi guys

ebay integration is good news and believe a logical step towards current ecommerce trends.

I don't agree that it may be a paid monthly service.

This would definitely move me towards BigCommerce or even Shopify.

They offer hosting, ebay integration, mobile, etc



I love cs-cart has been a long time user but right now in the process of starting a new website. leaning towards cs-cart but a monthly paid ebay integration service would definitely move me more towards bigcommerce or even shopify.



thanks

[/quote]



So if cs cart ( one time fee system ) introduces a pay monthly fee for a optional add on you will leave to go to a pay monthly cart system ??? I am sorry but am I missing something ???

Everyone might as well forget about this ever being developed in the time scale people would like.

I asked their helpdesk about this in ideas



"





I have just sent this to cs cart.

It's about time you gave an update on ebay integration.

“You said 13 June 2012 that you were going to develop it and since then …nothing.

On the forum and ideas list it is a running joke and no one at cs cart has actually said a word or bothered about telling us about eta, progress etc.

If you are not going to develop it let us know. If you are we need to know where you are with it.

It has so far been 5 moths with not a word on what's happening.”



THE ANSWER

"

"Thank you for your request. Unfortunately, our technical support service is under heavy load. We apologize for the delay.

According to the information that I received from our engineers, eBay integration is not planned for the near future.

I hope this explains the situation.

Thank you. "



SO technically it's still on the cards but to be honest it seems there been absolutely no movement so far with no planned movement on it for the foreseeable future, and I cant see anything happening within a year if at all. TO BE BLUNT THIS AIN'T GOING TO HAPPEN TO CSCART.

I am being used to being “led on” about the dreams of integration with Ebay, etc. I know CS-Cart means well, but it does get frustrating. Your best bet is to go with the app from Alt Team or get someone else to write it.



Honestly, as much as I would love it, I think I would rather have CS work on a few other core issues with the CS Shopping Cart itself and leave something like this to 3rd party companies.