Why Isn't Cs-Cart Not More Popular In North America?

I'm gonna sound like I work for CS-Cart, but I've tried using so many of the other "cart" software, and none of them compare to CS-Cart in features, customizability, and ease of use. Because it's not as popular, all these companies offer services for tiny, crappy, unknown e-commerce software, but not for CS-Cart. It's frustrating. It's seems so popular in these forums, but not a single person I know in the business has heard of CS-Cart.

CS-Cart has got to up it's game in marketing itself here.

I agree completely with your assessment. I've been working with cs-cart for a long time (10 years now) and it is by far the hands-down best for a non-hosted eCommerce solution. The trend in NA seems to be headed more toward hosted solutions like Shopify and Big Commerce. Shoptfy has become the leader but it can get spendy if you want to include addons or any kind of custom theme work. Note that everything related to Shoptify is subscription oriented. As a developer, that's music to my ears because a constant revenue stream is always better than the hit and miss of seasonal interest. So instead of buying an addon for $50, you spend $7/month for years.

When merchants start out, they are very cost conscious. I.e. free is always better. However, once you invest 100's of hours into an eCommerce solution, switching become an almost insurmountable task.

If I were cs-cart, I'd develop specific sets of conversion tools to enable people to move from opencart and others to cs-cart and give them hand-held technical/business support for doing so. However, being available for 8hrs a day on the other side of the globe is never going to be the type of support that people want/need. They would be very well served to open a support office in the US (or Canada) that could serve NA customers. They could also launch are marketing program out of that office as well to address the largest eCommerce market in the world. But they seem happy with EU and Asia.

Just my two cents (worth 1/2 of that)! :-)

I personally love CS Cart however, to me it is setup more for international use. There are so many areas in the software that I have to edit to suit my needs which are North America needs. I have been using it for about a year and still trying to edit the back end which interferes with upgrades. Now, I am afraid to upgrade to the latest version because things may be over written or messed up. They really should offer an international version and a North America version (with the way we need the software setup). CS Cart is however, an excellent ecommerce software.

Just my 2 cents!

But they seem happy with EU and Asia.

TBH I am from the EU and besides my own store know maybe of 3 others. They are tiny here as well.

I do agree it's a really good platform and should be much more popular.

I actually presented it to a US supplier from us last week, and he was like... wwhaaat this is so much better than Magento, which he hated since it was nothing but trouble.

However, being available for 8hrs a day on the other side of the globe is never going to be the type of support that people want/need.

This is definitely something that irks me. You can't really chat with anyone since our working hours are opposite.

The trend in NA seems to be headed more toward hosted solutions like Shopify and Big Commerce. Shopify has become the leader but it can get spendy if you want to include addons or any kind of custom theme work.

I can see why non-technical people would prefer a solution like Shopify, but it is so limiting to what you can do and modify yourself. And everytime I see a shopify site, it seems like some elements are broken, especially on mobile.

It is true that developers are the ones controlling what becomes popular, since they are the one's driving the business with their content. It's unfortunate that money drives everything, and not quality.

Like you say, CS-Cart needs to get a team down here in Canada or the US and get the ball rolling. The more popular it gets, the more content will be produced for it and the more other companies will try and support it.

I personally love CS Cart however, to me it is setup more for international use. There are so many areas in the software that I have to edit to suit my needs which are North America needs. I have been using it for about a year and still trying to edit the back end which interferes with upgrades. Now, I am afraid to upgrade to the latest version because things may be over written or messed up. They really should offer an international version and a North America version (with the way we need the software setup). CS Cart is however, an excellent ecommerce software.

Just my 2 cents!

I'm curious as to what you needed to edit in the templates/code for NA? I use it and have many US clients and none of them (and they range from small mom-pop to commercial enterprises) make any significant modifications to the code. Are you using hooks or overrides for your changes? That will give you (95%) upgrade independence.

It is true that developers are the ones controlling what becomes popular, since they are the one's driving the business with their content. It's unfortunate that money drives everything, and not quality.

Huh? Of course an implementation of any kind of software is a reflection of the functionality and quality that the developers provide. But it is marketing, support and economics that drive a product's popularity, mostly the marketing (note that even crap software marketed well can be successful). Addon (3rd party) developers are the ones who try to bridge the need of the market and the functionality offered in the core product. Addons should also distinguish between needed regional functionality (like EU versus US) for things like taxes, business regulations, etc. Cs-cart's architecture does this really well.

Huh? Of course an implementation of any kind of software is a reflection of the functionality and quality that the developers provide. But it is marketing, support and economics that drive a product's popularity, mostly the marketing (note that even crap software marketed well can be successful). Addon (3rd party) developers are the ones who try to bridge the need of the market and the functionality offered in the core product. Addons should also distinguish between needed regional functionality (like EU versus US) for things like taxes, business regulations, etc. Cs-cart's architecture does this really well.

I didn't mean to offend or insult any add-on developers here. I was just thinking about shopify in regards to your previous reply. It is in Shopify's best interest, but not really the customer's, to make it a subscription based service, including it's addons. If they entice addon developers to make more money with their content, more content will be created, in turn increasing the main software's popularity as well. Since customers will see more content available compared to competitiors, the majority of non-techy store owners will go for the more popular option without making any research. My friend is culprit to this, and it's frustrating. "Everyone talks about shopify, so it must be the best". I just wish CS-Cart would make a big push into comparing costs and showcasing some of the sweet addons they also have. You're right that marketing does also make a huge difference, too.

...We just need an official Point of Sales system for CS-Cart, and it's complete ;)

"Everyone talks about shopify, so it must be the best". I just wish CS-Cart would make a big push into comparing costs and showcasing some of the sweet addons they also have. You're right that marketing does also make a huge difference, too.

...We just need an official Point of Sales system for CS-Cart, and it's complete ;)

The great thing about Shopify is that if you are alone and don't have any experience making website, you could get an OK shop up & running. I guess that is why it's so big. I could never run our store on Shopify though, since we have so much crazy custom stuff going on - that our customers love.

As for POS, do you already know: https://store.webkul.com/CS-Cart-Point-Of-Sale-System-POS.html

It seems to be very nice.

Concerning the US market and cs-compatibility... I agree it should work without any issues out of the box.

Shopify can be customized just as much as cs-cart. However, you must use a certified Shopify developer (or become certified) to do so which for most small merchants is somewhat cost prohibitive (or at least most cs-cart merchants would think so based on what they're used to here).

Every major Ecommerce business that I interact with here in Portland either directly or through networking (and there are many), that are currently on Magento, has projects underway to migrate to Shopify. But they all have the development staff to do so. Most aren't willing to discuss details at this point since they don't want to damage their existing support/development relationships related to Magento (most are Agencies). So I've not been able to get to a real "why" yet.