shopping cart for print shop?

[zactive]

Hello,

Curious as to what shopping carts are available for print shops.

Prefer a cart that is open source "free or paid" and is owned not leased.

Some websites:
uprinting "dot"com
vistaprint "dot"com

online design editor is not as important as the qty, shipping etc the way it is outlined. Of course a design editor would be great to have.

Are there solutions out there already or would a custom shopping cart need to be developed?

[Avactis]

The first store uses Amazon S3 service for images. Do you need this feature as well?

[zactive]

We are aware that this site is most likely custom coded.

Just curious if there are any shopping carts out there for printers that are no serviced as SAAS.

Thanks

[Jumping Bean]

What cart functionality is actually needed to sell these sort of printed products? If you don't need a design editor is it not just a normal cart with products where the customer can select various product options, quantity, finish etc and then be able to upload their own artwork? Would a "standard" cart not be able to handle this?

[zactive]

Yes, however they all act like product pages

example:
http://demo.avactis.com/1.9.0/produc...ign-pid35.html

instead of something like:
http://www.printrunner.com/business-cards.aspx

[Jumping Bean]

Is the second one not the same as the first but with more options? Or do you mean that it updates the price based on the selections?

[Jumping Bean]

Any luck with this? As we're looking for something similar.

[zactive]

We have found some software however most are SAAS, there were very few that you can buy upfront and the ones that do are in the range of $2-$10k

[Avactis]

What software products you found? We can discuss it here, and help you to decide what is the best solution.

Note that some products offer several editions: SaaS and self-hosted solution.

[tetraoxo]

Yes, however they all act like product pages

example:
http://demo.avactis.com/1.9.0/produc...ign-pid35.html

instead of something like:
http://www.printrunner.com/business-cards.aspx

This is a great thread. I was wondering the same thing. Is there a good non SAAS CMS out there that can be used to run a print shop online? One that has the real-time Ajax-esque product variations configuration abilities.

[zactive]

Nothing exists for less than $3k, get one custom developed is the best way to go as the ones you can buy outright are horrible

[mikemertz]

Just out of curiosity, what solutions did you look at, zactive? I can tell that the Avactis solution isn't suitable for my needs but was wondering what other solutions you checked out.

We're also looking for an affordable solution to run our online printing business. Yes, I know I can probably get a custom solution developed but I just don't really want to deal with all the hassle, wasted time, communicating to-and-fro with programmers who may not have a clear idea of what we want and no guarantees that the final solution actually meets our needs.

I'm not that bothered about it being SAAS or buying outright... as long as the cost is competitive. Of course, I'm not looking to get tied to any SAAS services that charge an arm and a leg

[fidoogle]

I have been trying to locate an online photo printing service for years now. It seems the industry doesn't get it. Most online photo printing services require you to upload your photos to their gallery. In my case I have my own website and I would like for the photo printing orders to be programmatically submitted to the printing service. I ran into ezprints.com but they have a $50K monthly quota to use their API and not a good fit for a small biz like mine. There is an upcoming service called Peecho.com based out of Amsterdam, but they do not offer single photo prints yet. They say they are working out the logistics. Otherwise, their "PRINT BUTTON" seems very interesting and can be added to any website. I do hope they can offer old school photo prints soon.