virtual mall, what's the best way to go

[chuender]

Hi,

 

I'm looking to create a virtual mall and have discovered several roads that lead to osCommerce, Virtual Mall contribution, oscMall and php-multishop. Which one of these is more recommended? Better supported? Supports standard osCommerce contributions and templates?

 

These are the features I need:

 

Administration

• Site supports multiple admin accounts for multiple individual companies. Individual admin account manages account-specific products, customers, orders, etc.

• Site lists products uploaded and managed by multiple companies.

• There is a master admin account for managing the site – templates, categories, payment modules, shipping modules, etc.

• Site should remain compatible to standard 3rd party modules, especially the common ones like Easy Populate.

 

Catalog

• Individual companies have their own “Store” page. Look and feel of the Store page is managed by templates.

 

How to process orders with products from multiple vendors

• When a customer places an order with products offered by more than one company, the customer can select company-specific shipping method offered by the companies. In a sense, in this case the customer is essentially placing multiple orders on one checkout transaction. The order will be billed to the customer as one transaction.

• When an individual company log in to their admin account they should only see their portion of the order, i.e. line items for the company’s products. Ecommerce transaction fees and shipping costs also needs be partitioned.

 

In a sense, we are looking to create something similar to Amazon Webstore or eBay Store.

 

Any advice on what osCommerce-based mall system to go with would be greatly appreciated.

 

Chuender

[chuender]

I installed and tried oscMall and php-multishop, and have decided to go with a non-osCommerce solution. I resisted looking at non-free solutions, but this one is probably worth it for me. Feel free to message me if you are interested in the solution.

 

Chuender.