Ecommerce Solution with Concrete5 help

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OKay so heres my situation.
i would like to set up an online store, i would like my website to have a blog and forum and a few features like that as well..
i do favor concrete5, i have used it several times and i have promoted it to customers as my favorite cms..
and as far as content goes thats still true, but now that im trying to integrate ecommerce i am hitting several road blocks.

i would like to supply a big inventory 1000-1500+ items at least.
the more the better since in my line of work i often have to refer my customers to sites for various products, i would like to end that by offering the most common things i refer and within those categories several brands and options.

so on to the point, i would like to offer an in depth experience.
order history, account login, etc.. these are pretty basic and expected features.. and i offer my work to several businesses that will expect discounts for big orders and expect to be able to log in and order and not have to enter their info every time.

i first looked at the ecommerce add on from concrete5 and thought i might give it a try and see what functionality i could squeeze out of it using the various add ons. the fact that it integrated with concrete5 directly was a plus but then i saw that it doesnt handle big inventories well... thats a deal breaker. i messaged the team and when they responded, they mentions magento.

i had heard of it before but never did any researched, so i did some reading on ecommerce CMS
i do like magentos features, it does seem to offer everything i need. but i havent found a way that it integrates those features into concrete5 well.

so the way i see it is,

option 1 : i switch to Magento CMS and my content side of my site suffers dramatically if it exist at all after the change.

Option 2: i stay with concrete 5 and have minimal ecommerce experience (sounds like money loss waiting to happen)

Option 3: i use both, and have them linked together with the necessary buttons, and sacrifice any sense of unity my site may have.
example 1: they would have separate logins for each cms

Option 4: i attempt to integrate into concrete5 using add ons and crap and hope it doesnt cause a crap ton of bugs and still sacrifice the more advanced ecommerce features

SO please Respond with ideas, if you have a better solution than the options i have listed or if you dont than which option sounds the best from a customer point of view. any help and ideas are welcome and appreciated.

Thank you,
Austin Lamb

 
mnakalay replied on at Permalink Reply
mnakalay
Hello,
I think your idea of having both alongside is not a bad one and it would probably be possible to code something that allows an account to be created on one side when it's created on the other, with the same credentials.

Of course you would still have 2 login screen. That might be doable as well, login in one automatically logs you in the other.

Now I hope nobody is listening and I hate to say that but...
Have you looked into wordpress. I hear really good things about the woo-commerce add-on and the editing experience is not that bad.
AustinL94 replied on at Permalink Reply
I have looked into wordpress, and I find it could be a possible solution but I want to give the concrete5 community a crack at it first. Because I do love concrete5 and I do try to promote it to my customers and naturally the best way to do that is to show I use it myself, most of my customers would like to blindly follow my example if it works for me it works for them type thing.

I have no interest in promoting wordpress I feel it is the Windows of CMS and many ppl will already use it without my help. Concrete5 has great potential and I would like to continue to use it.

I will switch to a different CMS if I have to but I would rather not.

I have been reading up on magento integration and found that it is successfully integrated with many popular CMS such as joomla, drupal, wordpress and expression engine (which is actually the cms used in the example.

I feel like these same methods could be applied to Concrete5
but my general coding knowledge is beginner at best. essentially I can follow instructions when layed out well but my creative ability to think in code is borderline non existent.

so id like to give everyone a link to the informational from magento on integration and I know from reading around the forums that if a solution for magento or even prestashop integration can be achieved with concrete5 it would make a lot of ppl happy and would help expand concrete5 that much more. I know that this would allow me to use it for my eccomerce solution as well as recommend it to any customers that want an ecommerce site in the future.

this is the example they layed out with expression Engine with code examples they say it should easly apply to most cms systems perhaps some1 with a lil more coding experience can make sense of this:
http://www.magentocommerce.com/knowledge-base/entry/tutorial-integr...

and this is the webinar they had on the subject outlining the various methods for integration:
http://youtu.be/2gAFClIcADg

please any1 with code skills and a love for concrete5 take a look at these and let me know what you think. I would love to see this become a feature of concrete5

Austin Lamb
mnakalay replied on at Permalink Reply
mnakalay
As I said, I hope nobody was listening :)
C5 also has a few add-ons to integrate other ecommerce platform: shopify, BigCommerce, Wazala, and Ecwid
here are the links
http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/shopify/...
http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/bigcommerce/...
http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/wazala-store/...
http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/ecwid-store-connector/...

You might want to look into those
enlil replied on at Permalink Reply
enlil
never used it but this add on integrates magento with c5
http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/virtual-store-showcase/...
JohntheFish replied on at Permalink Reply
JohntheFish
This won't solve your 1500 items issue. However, another way to enhance a c5 eCommerce site is with my Magic Data / Magic Data Commerce addons.

http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/magic-data-commerce/...
AustinL94 replied on at Permalink Reply
with all due respect that seems less helpful and more like self promotional, i understand the need but you could of at least worked in some useful contribution to the conversation.
AustinL94 replied on at Permalink Reply
So it looks like i might have to give up on concrete5.

i have looked at all the previous add ons listed before starting this thread and unfortunately they dont fix my needs.

i need an order history, user accounts, product reviews & ratings, etc.
none of which these solutions seem to cover

so i have decided if i can not successfully integrate than i will have to compromise so id like to get come opinions on the following domain set ups

i will essentially have 2 sites either way, one for the store and one for content

the setup could be as follow

ww.contentsite.com
&
shop.contentsite.com

or


ww.contentsite.com
&
ww.Storesite.com

either way the ui will change and the customer will have different logins i can make them look as similar as possible but there are bound do be some differences

the other option is to just use magento as my cms on
ww.onlyonesite.com and just cut down ALOT on the amount of content pages my site has and possibly remove the forum feature.


all opinions and ideas are welcome also if anybody does think of a solution to the original problem pls post it

THank you,
Austin Lamb
mnakalay replied on at Permalink Reply
mnakalay
I think it would be ok to have your site at contentsite.com and your shop at shop.contentsite.com

What you need is someone to develop a way to have only one login which is doable.

Magento offers an explanation about that on their site and there is at least one wordpress plugin that does just that. IF it's possible for wordpress it's possible for C5
AustinL94 replied on at Permalink Reply
the matter of the fact then becomes finding some1 to develop that script, like I said my knowledge on script is limited and not any where near enough to develop my own solution.

my solution also needs to be cost effective, so I would need to find some1 who could do it for a reasonable price.

I know both concrete5 and magento both allow communication through API but my knowledge on that is even less.

on a side note I will gladly read any documentation on script & API or other related topics if any1 has any good references.
AustinL94 replied on at Permalink Reply
Also on a side note.

if I go with shop.contentsite.com
as opposed to 2 separate sites, I feel that if I was a consumer I would expect for my shopping cart to carry over to the main site, so that is another thing I would need scripted, of course magento would still need to handle it and checkout but the shopping cart should be readily available and possibly even display # of products and cart total on the main C5 site.
and to state the obvious no changes to the cart should be lost when swapping between the 2 sites.

it would need to be as seamless as possible.
Responsive replied on at Permalink Reply
Responsive
Hi

Isn't order history covered by following :
http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/ecommerce/documentation...
AustinL94 replied on at Permalink Reply
Yes I see that, but like I said not even the core team that made the ecommerce plug in recommends it for a large inventory.
I like the ecommerce plug in and I think it would be a rather good solution but every1 seems to share the same opinion when it comes to large inventory and I would rather find a solution now that works well with 1000+ inventory that will continue to work well even if that inventory changes.

Changing a CMS solution later is a waste of time, it will cause seo issues, and it will be a general pain in my butt.
I would like to find a solution that does not limit my site's inventory or threatens the performance of my site with a larger inventory.
divyamittal replied on at Permalink Reply
The concept of e-commerce is all about using the Internet to do business better and faster. It is about giving customers controlled access to your computer systems and letting people serve themselves..I read this whole post or also read these such a nice concept on Ecommerce..
http://www.allengersinfotech.com/web-solutions/design/ecommerce-web...
JohntheFish replied on at Permalink Reply
JohntheFish
I have used the core eCommerce on a site site with a 1000+ inventory. However, the site does not use individual product pages. Just a set of targeted product list/product search pages.
manup replied on at Permalink Reply
manup
http://www.concrete5.org/community/forums/promotion/mage5-cms-solution-for-magento-store

Please checkout this discussion , I hope this will solve your issues.!!!!!!