I spent a lot of time fiddling around with Viart's design and finally customized a site to my liking. I purchased a hosting package, and now I'm starting to realize that a lot of things I took for granted are not there.
Firstly, the ability to charge tax based on different US zipcodes.
Secondly- I couldn't tell if you're able to capture the credit card on checkout and authorize on shipping.
Thirdly, it seems, from other forum posts, that you can't edit the shipping costs once an order is placed.
Because of these issues, now I'm considering switching to Magento which, although I have yet to try it out, seems to have all these.
 
Any comments?

If you asked about a competitor of mine, in a forum on my site, I would think that your use of my space was lacking any respect — I would remove you but Viart will probably leave you here because they are decent people.
 
I hope that no-one gives you any useful response and leaves you to make your decision elsewhere.
 
Chris

If you check any kind of shopping cart you always can find some features that doesn't exists in other carts.
 
As for viart cart for me it has much more different useful functions in comparison to other carts like Magento, osCommerce, x-Cart, etc...
 
As for zip code facility I don't think it would be too complicated for programming if you really need it.

Thank you, Monk. I asked them about it and I got a price quote.
 
ChristopherO, since this is a Viart forum, I don't think it's at all presumtuous of me to ask people here, who've chosen Viart for various reasons, why they decided to choose it over Magento, if applicable.

Chris,
 
I really don't think that question was too harsh... it wasn't advertising for Magento, it was just asking a comparison. Also, just so that you know, there are comparisons around. It's just good for business.
 
I find that the user support, the ViArt team, and everyone here, makes this product what it is. Unless someone mentions something, how would ViArt know this feature is needed and/or wanted.

I spent 2 months "playing" with Magento. It has some nice features and a lot of eye candy. Before it was released the Magento staff provided good support. When they released this level of support cost $500+ a year. They have a large forum, but it is very time consuming to find answers to questions or problems.
 
I choose to use ViArt. Using CSS and the templates I was able to get to the same level of "eye candy" as Magento. Magento refuses to allow users of their store to receive in, any form, the CVV from credit card orders. I process my own credit cards and this is necessary. They outright refused to support this.
 
Unless you have many store sites and the budget for their expensive support I feel Magento is more eye candy then substance.

Magento - maybe - will be a good cart software, but has not got lots of features, like good CMS functions, good editor (I've crached my head, when saw, the product details edit isnt wyswyg).
 
If You want to make a single webshop with super-tech-rounded-ajexed design, and have a very low budget, maybe You can use Magento.
 
If You have to make complex store with news, content, and easy udpadeing, administrating You will have to choose Viart. I think in the last 1,5 years I had 40-50 support requests, and was only 2-3, that has an answer: payed custom coding. All of the other replies was nice, and useable, and solved my problems...

Greetings,
 
Hi Ys
 
As others mention you'll find plus and minus features. You have to decide what features are important to you. From our experience, as far as shopping carts ViArt is far superior in many respects to other brands.
 
I suggest reviewing comments on Opensourcecms- Link:
http://php.opensourcecms.com/scripts/details.php?scriptid=92&name=Magento
 
For reviews about Magento. On the downside of ViArt would be the CMS, if they enhance this, then they would be untouchable.
 
Tony
HolleyLand.com

Thanks for all your comments.
 
Viart does seem to have the more features than almost any shopping cart I've researched, but I find it a bit frustrating that a lot of these features are 'nice to have,' not 'need to have,' while many features that seem pretty basic to me, would have to be added as a paid customization.
 
For example, not being able to edit the order after it's placed. This should be a basic feature. A customer should be able to call in and request his order be changed/edited, etc.
 
Call center orders should have all the options of a regular order, such as the ability to add coupons. In addition, I was not able to specify options for the product that I selected when placing an order from the call center.
 
There is no 'one page checkout.'
 
And tax by zipcodes would seem to me something many US companies would need.
 
I realize that everyone here has gotten on just fine without all these features, but they seem pretty basic to me. Are any of the features listed here actually included in Viart and I just missed them?

Before I moved to Viart Magento was weighed up as an option, the downside I discovered was the speed, nice package but not usable from a customer perspective
 
They may however have addressed the speed and no. of DB queries since that time

 
As far as I know you can edit order items but you can't add a new items to your order
  
I remember some advices here on the forum.
Some user instead of using call center module created a separate copy of the site for placing orders by admins like typical users probably you may try something similar for you.
  
This seems to be true but you can try custom fields and add all fields on one page but it's not the best solution probably.
  
Have you asked viart for a quote for this modification?
Is it a big amount?

My 2cents worth:
 
Every 'decent' e-commerce software has its strengths and weakness.
 
I believe one has to compromise using any one of these packages, since they are all designed for 'general' use and not for one specific business or product.
 
You have to choose what works well for your business and perhaps live with the shortcomings, and along the way with updates, custom programming you can have a software that works pretty well in the end.
 
You also have to weigh the other non tangibles that go along with purchasing software from a specific company. For instance the support, cost, software updates, forum, custom programming etc etc.
 
I mean if you truly wish a software that works perfectly for your business or product then you may require a custom product that suits you, but even with that you will spend months getting it done and there will always be bugs and issues.
 
So I wish you luck. For me I have a lot of faith in ViArt and its products.

Very Nicely Said Foxtrot!!
 
That is exactly the case. If you want a custom product that is perfect for your business, then you should be willing to pay for the customizations. ViArt keeps their software reasonably priced therefore allowing the extra costs to be put into customizations.

I am not too displeased with Viart's service or admin backend (CMS etc). But you know what, I just looked at the Magento demo site for the very first time and I like it a LOT. I am so jealous that this free software has a really neat checkout process, very intuitive and yes looks great, it leaves Viart's checkout for dead.
 
In my opinion the checkout process should be the MOST IMPORTANT feature of a ecommerce package.
[WARNING #1: deleted due to incorrect information]

Yes, Dan, I was using SquirrelCart before coming to Viart - everything there was paid customization also. In fact significant upgrades were rare so litle changed month on month, unlike Viart.
 
But I must say on2dvd, I am sad that you have to say that Viart checkout is crap - I take dozens of orders everyday from a variety of countries and, whilst I would like some improvements, I get customers saying how easy my shop is to use.
 
Well, we all have our own point of view. Mine is that if I don't like it I go elsewhere as I did with SquirrelCart; but I did not post such messages on their board - just sent a polite note to the owners explaining my decision and thanking them for the use of the product.
 
Courtesy costs nothing and Viart is entitled to have whatever commercial policy they choose. And whilst it is good for me I stay.

Oh Christopher. As a paying member for many years now I believe I have the right to bag the product where I see it is in need of improvement. I am not one to talk of rolling hills and beautiful roses blindly. I do not wish to go elsewhere, I wish that the few areas that are annoying me would be addressed. If you feel good about being pleasant on a forum and hiding your real feelings or never complaining that's your call. Don't begrudge me for being the type to stand up and say something is not good enough.
 
Chris, as it stands a customer must register as a member before they can see how much the shipping will cost, this is absolutely absurd and everybody knows about it.
 
[WARNING #2: deleted due to incorrect information]

OK I take your point, well made.
 
But mine was that my experience elsewhere was also that the user had to pay for improvements and it was nowhere as helpful as Viart.
 
I am not sure how a low cost highly featured package develops any other way? Certainly the price I pay is so small for what I get.

Chris,
 
I'm going to have to side with you on this one. I really feel that the advancement of the cart, and the features that it holds, out weighs any other cart that I'm willing to pay for.
 
I have contributed, made mods, have some of my features implemented, and I'm proud to be a part of that.
 
ViArt does seem to do fixes and improvements on their own, but when it comes to larger advancements, they need monetary support as well. This is how they are able to provide such great support and assistance.
 
I know that every cart has their strengths and weaknesses, but I think this cart has less weaknesses than others, and is much more affordable, even with the customizations. Just think, you're paying such a small fee for the cart, and getting so much out of it.
 
I run a high traffic site, and ViArt handles this traffic without any issues. My customers even LOVE the features that my store has, and they do not complain to me at all about the checkout process (except for requesting additional payment options at times).
 
I've seen many of us in the forums, and I truly can say that they people loyal to ViArt have stayed and contributed. I see what people have done to improve the cart.

This is what a forum is about, differing opinions. I don't have a problem with it. I made my point and nothing can change it.
For Viart I would like to say this. I would pay 10 fold what I pay for this software now if a few conditions were met like, "best of class" advances in development undertaken by yourselves because of your own desires to see the product be the best. Instead I get warnings without hearing what you say about it. What I said seems very true to me and unless I see a change I will continue to believe it to be true.. and may end up leaving for a software with more advanced checkout system... but I will give you a warning frist Ok.

I don't hold any grudges against the staff they are great, always responsive. I only have a problem with the lack of real development (or my perception of that)

RE DAVID : 'Magento refuses to allow users of their store to receive in, any form, the CVV from credit card orders"
 
David. This would be because it is illegal to hold CVV numbers so why would they let you do it. I know Viart allows it but there you go.
footnote : In my country, maybe different in other countries.

on2dvd,
 
This will be my only response to your reply as this argument can go on forever as it has on the Magento forums.
 
1 It is not illegal. There is no state or federal law preventing this. (USA)
 
2 Contracts with the credit card companies and credit card processors do not allow you to store the CVV data BUT they allow you to collect the data to process the charge. You must then destroy the data when the charge has been processed. If you keep the CVV data in any form after processing you are in violation of the contract between you and the company.
 
I have a contract with and process my credit card orders through a major merchant account service in the USA. They will NOT accept any "card not present" charges WITHOUT the CVV data. If it is illegal, prohibited or against their contract why do they demand it for processing? Are they operating an illegal business? No. Am I? No.
 
Credit card fraud is a real and pressing problem and store owners have a responsibility to their customers to protect their identity and credit card data with a secure site, secure data storage and wise business practices.
 
In the Magento forums those that kept on with this illegal argument tended to also represent and sell online CC processing services. I have nothing against these services, which are generally good but not right for my business at this time.
 
David

Yeah David. That's what I said, it's illegal to HOLD the CVV. I used to take offline card payments like you do now but i had a sturn warning from my bank and they described how processing offline orders can land you/me (the merchant) in very hot water. I've come to the conclusion that it is just not worth the risk because sometimes fraud can happen even when you are not to blame directly. If you use a real time processing gateway, the risks that you unwittingly compromise a customers details are removed.

It was interesting to check Magento checkout process one more time
 
And I can agree with on2dvd that maybe for majority people Magento checkout process looks nicer but also I can't say that it's better than ViArt. As it seems ViArt has much more options to customize for checkout process opposite to Magento cart. And it could be the reason why ViArt team can't improve it easily to look as good as Magento.
 
But I still agree with on2dvd that ViArt should improve their checkout process to make it nicer and eliminate page refreshes on checkout.
 
P.S. Magento looks very nice but ViArt looks much more customizable and functional cart than any other cart

We are currently giving viart another month or two to try and iron out the problems on our end. If not, magento is looking pretty interesting.

I tried to install Magento prior to Viart and a number of other carts. I had no problems installing any of them except Magento. At the time (things hopefully have changed in Magento land) people with certain server configurations faced issues that only Magento could get around at a fee. So this meant Magento did not get a formal evaluation like the rest did. I expect it would have been good, but the business model and fee structure of the Magento's development company did not work for me, so I let it go.
 
I am very happy with Viart. Yes, there are things I think it could do differently, and of course I want customisations. But I cannot see any cart would be a 100% fit unless you have simple requirements. The advantage with Viart is that I can get the changes I need made - so I am eventually getting a >90% fit which I think is pretty good in application land.