foxee and expressionengine ecommerce options

P r e s e n t e d b y : S h a n n o n S m i t h , w e b d e s i g n e r

N o t e : I ’ m a f o x e e u s e r o n l y , I ’ m n o t a ffi l i a t e d w i t h f o x e e o r F o x y C a r t i n a n y w a y . I a l s o d o n o t g e t a n y c o m m i s s i o n o r p a y m e n t f r o m t h e s a l e o f a n y f o x e e o r F o x y C a r t p r o d u c t .

foxee: eCommerce module for ExpressionEngine

eCommerce for ExpressionEngine

What eCommerce is available?

While you can always integrate or hack together a solution with any shopping cart out there, what is available that is designed to work with EE?

Currently this has been a bone of contention with the EE community; here’s what’s available & what I’ll briefly discuss

1. Simple Commerce Module (SCM)2. eeCommerce3. aMember4. foxee5. The future

eCommerce for ExpressionEngine

Number 1: Simple Commerce Module (SCM)

eCommerce for ExpressionEngine

Simple Commerce Module (SCM) First-party module from EllisLabs

Advantages: Free with commercial & personal license, Simple to use First party module that works well Utilizes Paypal Instant Payment Notification & supports Paypal

encrypted payments Can assign sale prices & mark items on sale Allows purchases of items to change a user's member group Tab delimited export of items and purchases

eCommerce for ExpressionEngine

Simple Commerce Module Disadvantages:

Limited to using Paypal Client perception of Paypal often negative or clients have had negative

experiences Limited functionality:

subscription/membership purchases can sort of be done, but not fully automated

users must be members & logged in order for purchases to be recorded no shopping cart included, third party one now available for sale need additional modules to secure downloadable purchases much must be done manually, such as calculating shipping, changing

inventory customer leaves site & goes to Paypal site to complete the transaction

eCommerce for ExpressionEngine

Simple Commerce Module Final thoughts:

Don’t discount this module May work fine in many situations Many have hacked it to do more than originally intended Newly available 3rd party “cart” addon makes this module more usable

eCommerce for ExpressionEngine

Number 2: eeCommerce

eCommerce for ExpressionEngine

eeCommerce: ExpressionEngine + Magento Third party module currently in final beta Integrates EE with Magento eCommerce software platform & meant

to bring the full power of Magento into EE Use EE’s templating system for features such as skinning, forums, &

user reviews Magento to handle things such as stock control and finances eeCommerce Lite is $149.99, eeCommerce Pro is $2499.99.

$2499.99 is an "enterprise-grade" ecommerce offering, which "has a matching support SLA and full multi-channel support"

eCommerce for ExpressionEngine

eeCommerce: ExpressionEngine + Magento Thoughts on this solution:

Currently not a lot of documentation yet Seems well suited to large scale/enterprise projects Web developer required to know Magento as well as EE Magento very good & thorough platform, but lots of added complexity Could get expensive, but “Lite” version may work for lower dollar

projects. Some sites will definitely require this level of functionality

eCommerce for ExpressionEngine

Number 3: aMember

eCommerce for ExpressionEngine

aMember integration for membership sites A php memberhip script that you can purchase & add to your site Required addons: Smartmember, EE aMember plugin Thoughts on this solution:

Bit pricey (aMember + addons ~$310.00) My opinion: easy to use, clunky, showing its age, some documentation

poor... But, widely used & many are very happy with it My experience: Some payment gateways no longer seem to be working

properly with aMember (particularly those that work in Canada) Credit card information generally stored on your server, so PCI compliance

& security becomes a factor Membership software only, not a full eCommerce solution Not a hosted solution, so no monthly shopping cart fees Worth looking into for certain situations, good support from aMember

eCommerce for ExpressionEngine

Number 4: foxee

The foxee Solution

foxee integrates FoxyCart and EEWhat is FoxyCart?

Hosted shopping cart/eCommerce solution Free during development then $15/month (no additional transaction

fees) Robust, very little downtime All credit card information stored on FoxyCart servers Security (quote from FoxyCart):

“We are PCI compliant, Safe Harbor compliant, have multiple security scans (PCI requirements 1, 5, 6), and adhere to best practices wherever possible. Our servers are all located in secure facilities (PCI requirement 9), and access to our systems are granted on a “need-to-know” basis (PCI requirement 7), as required by the PCI rules.”

The foxee Solution

FoxyCart Features: Supports tangible, downloadable, subscriptions (including recurring

payments) + unlimited product options Coupons & discounting One-page checkout & login Multi ship-to addresses Live shipping rates Super tax feature Custom checkout fields w/ validation Supports multiple payment gateways & shipping carriers

+more (refer to: www.foxycart.com /2-minute-tour.html)

The foxee Solution

The foxee component: foxee is what integrates FoxyCart with EE You could integrate it yourself, but HCC Development already spent

a lot of time doing it & they did a pretty good job Full control of product catalog within the EE control panel Cost: $165 (no additional fees unless you buy an addon)

The foxee Solution

foxee features: Single sign on fully integrated solution Member subscriptions with automatic expiry and renewal (recurring

payments) + free trial periods Integrated order reporting & tracking options Related Items, Discounts and Coupons, secured downloadables Sale Pricing and Limited quantity with live inventory updating Inventory tracking, per product and per product option

+more (refer to: http://www.hccdevelopment.com/Web-Based-Software/Product/FoxEE/)

The foxee Solution

Thoughts on foxee: Some not pleased with hosted cart solution: cost and limited control However, less need to worry about PCI compliance or hackers

stealing credit card information $15/month decent cost for having them look after security &

compliance + they continue to add features/gateways/shipping. Young, still evolving product, so there may be bugs & documentation

could possibly be better Feature rich + you can sell subscriptions, downloadables, physical

goods, donations

The foxee Solution

Current addons available to expand functionality: Classified ads addon: sell weblog entries to your customers (set amount

of times they can publish & how long post will be shown). Bulk items addon: sell your products in quantity by the case, skid etc...;

track your inventory by single item while selling in bulk

Sample sites using foxee: http://hpcsport.com/store http://www.dogcollars.ca/ http://prints995.com/

The future... What about EE2.0

foxee is working on their EE2.0 compatible module & promising further improvements and features (improved inventory control, even better member integration, etc)

Plus, more solutions coming down the pipe

EE2.0 is on CodeIgniter & this definitely opens up EE’s eCommerce options

From Leslie Camacho, President of EllisLabs: "ShopIgniter, a stand-alone ecommerce system built on CI (currently in development)

that is aimed expressly to leverage EE 2.0’s CI codebase. The level of integration they are aiming for simply would not have been possible with EE 1.x" (http://www.shopigniter.com/ )

Questions/Comments?

Questions/comments before we move on to

the DEMO