WordPress OR OSCommerce -- or Both?

[jdluski]

Hello. I'm about to develop an online store for a close friend selling Indian clothing and jewelry.

 

I am very familiar with WordPress, and I know OSC's recommended WordPress plugin is WP Online Store. But I have also made OSC websites before (without WordPress). So here is my question.

1. Is it just as good if I make a WordPress siten and use that plugin -- just as good as a regular OSC site? I say this because I have a lot of premium/paid themes and plugins that I like to use.
   
2. Or is it much better and more stable to make an OSC site without the WordPress and all the themes and plugins?
   

So are there limitations to the WordPress plugin?

 

Thank you for any guidance anybody can offer! :)

 

~ Jennifer

[♥joli1811]

Hi Jennifer,

 

oscommerce is a shopping cart specifically developed to sell goods online.

 

Word press is a blog with a plug in for a shopping cart.

 

What do you think :-

 

Regards

Joli

[jdluski]

Hi ... But the plug-in for WordPress says it's OSC for WordPress ... so I guess I'm a litte bit confsed?

 

I mean, what would be the disadvantages of using the OSC plugin over just an entire OSC website?

 

Thanks Joli!

 

~ Jennifer

[♥joli1811]

Well guess I am a bit old school here let the thread run a few days and see the opinions last time I tried it was limited as regards customization to the cart but maybe it has moved on.

 

Word press seemed to take control over the site whereas I wanted to sell not blog so you would be using wordpress as the main site and osc, just as you say as a plug in, which at the end of the day affected my search placement in google for my products.

 

There are a few members here who seem to be experienced in both so lets wait and here the different opinions you got mine :D .

Regards

 

Joli

[jdluski]

Okay ... thank you Joli!

 

~ Jennifer

[burt]

You install wordpress in one directory

And osCommerce in another.

 

There is no "recommended" plugin for wordpress, that is a different product altogether known as a "fork" of osCommerce.

 

In short: keep them separate to retain the ability to get support at this forum

[Praful Kamble]

@@jdluski

 

Its always better to go with osCommerce instead wordpress if you are looking for a shopping cart website with large volume of visitors and products.

 

@ WP Online Store is smart minds outcome though :-

[MrPhil]

If you must have tight integration between the blogging side and sales side (common login, common theme, ability to jump back and forth between the two(?)), consider the osC plug-in to WP. If you don't need tight integration, I would install separate WP and osC, with a landing page /index.html with links to the store and blog. You can manually add cross links between the two (e.g., a link in the product description HTML to the WP discussion blog on a product). Just remember to warn users that they can't jump back and forth between the two (will lose sessions) and will have to finish checking out before going back to the blog and vice-versa. I would hope that the plug-in permits jumping back and forth, but I'm not familiar with it.

 

The biggest problem with the plug-in is that it's a fork of osC, and therefore can't really be supported here. It's also likely to lag behind on updates to osC and may not support many of the add-ons. Make sure you can live with those limitations before choosing the WP plug-in route.

[jpweber]

I agree with Burt, Praful, and MrPhil. Keep your WordPress site since you have all those goodies. But ...

 

I would just make a subdomain --- i.e. store.yourdomain.com. Then upload OSC into that subdomain and thus it's separate from your WordPress installation -- so you get the best of both worlds.

 

Then use your WordPress site for whatever you need it for -- and I'm sure you can come up with ideas -- but your store is entirely separate.

[npn2531]

The IMC Media group Wordpress plug that installs OSCommerce on your wordpress site is really good. You have one website, one database, one signin, visual consistency, and the blog entries links are nicely integrated in the sidebar as you progess though the store. In addition all the work is done for you.

[jdluski]

Thank you for taking the time to respond, joli, Burt, Parful, JP, NPN! I do ilke the IMC Media plugin ... but for the OSC-like add-ons you'll have to pay. I think I'm going to just make a simple WordPress site and a subdomain with solely OSC on it, since it's going to be more of a store and less of a blog.

 

Thanks again!

 

~ Jennifer

[♥joli1811]

Hi Jennifer,

 

Links within the store to Wordpress I would use a target blank thus preserving the session.

 

Regards

Joli