WordPress Shopp Review
Recently we developed a site in WordPress that went well. Just before the intended launch the client asked for a shopping facility to be added in to the site. Off course WordPress doesn’t have any built in e-commerce facility. The choice was either to make a sub section of the site using any one of a number of independent e-commerce systems or to find some kind of add on that we could build into the already deployed WordPress system.
We only looking to sell 2/3 products at one time so we didnt need the power or functionality of a full e-commerce system. A plugin we thought should be sufficient for our needs.
After many hours of searching and reading reviews it came down to two choices. Wp-Commerce or Shopp.
It seemed that lot of the reviews found bugs in Wp Commerce and we found no different. While it claims to be a cutting edge e-commerce system, it seemed to have some glaring glitches with the inventory and site structure. It seemed to be a system that needs more development time, but certainly has potential. Just not for us.
Paying $55 for the standard install of Shopp we were quite hopeful this would work. It installed ok with no problems. In WordPress its controlled by its own section within the admin section. After looking through all the options we were a little stumped where the prices for the products were set up. After a few G searches it was no surprise that they were supposed to be in the product section. Since the admin is powered by some well thought Javascript and Ajax we thought there must be a conflict with a plugin. (Probably the biggest and most found error when it comes to functionality of WordPress or any other Website coding platform.)
Going through the tedious procedure of uninstalling one plugin at a time then testing the cart options we found it. Wp Lightform Since the validation of that form is controlled by only Javascript it isnt the best of contact forms to use anyway. Spam can get through it quite easily!
To accept payments online, the easiest is Paypal Express. This method sends customers to the Paypal site to make payment either through their own Paypal account or through a credit card. The customer is then returned to your own site to confirm transaction. After inserting the details for Paypal API for the their Express shopping facility it was time to test the site out.
For some reason we were getting page not founds on the products. There seemed to be a problem with the permalink structure of the products. After searching through the Shopp Forum it was suggested that we resave the cart page. That worked and seemed to reset the permalink structure to what it was meant to be.
Styling and setting up the layout is controlled by an over riding template system. It seemed to work well enough. Since we only had two products we simply set up featured products on the default shopping page. There were numerous options that could display categories and other options but we didn’t explore those areas.
There are options in the system that include taxes and delivery but we also didnt have the need to explore full functionality. It would be in these areas that the site could fail, as that’s where really complex coding is required to satisfy the functionality required. If it worked like the rest of the plugin however it should all work as its meant.
After thoroughly testing the cart in numerous browsers and platforms the shopping cart system was ready to use.
Quick Summary:
If you are looking for light e-commerce system that can take payments through the web using Paypal then give Shopp a try. There are enough options to sell successfully online just don’t expect it to have the full customisation options of a stand alone shopping cart such as Zen Cart, Magento or Cube Cart.
4/5 losing a point due to the small problems we had with other plugins ( not Shopp’s fault) and the small problem with wrongly pointed links
February 3rd, 2010 at 1:20 am
hoped this would go further in describing the dev process and the end-user feedback.
February 19th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
I found this insanely helpful. I had used WP-ecommerce in the past and it was dreadful. I have high hopes for shopp. Starting a new site with it next week.
March 26th, 2010 at 2:28 am
I am having a difficult time deciding which platform to use for a project I am about to launch. I too have it narrowed down to wp commerce or Shopp. Thanks for the informative review!
April 4th, 2010 at 9:21 am
Thanks for reviewing Shopp
I am in the process of considering a major migration of my brothers ecommerce site from an old unsupported system that he’s currently using.
As a WordPress fan, running a few sites myself, and still being a little green in the CMS world, I wanted to find something straightforward and glossy for me to use for this project. I haven’t started anything yet, but would like to see some other Shopp users that were a little bit more ambitious with this platform.
August 4th, 2010 at 5:43 pm
Thanks from me too for the review – useful to see someone else’s views on it before giving it a go!
August 26th, 2010 at 3:15 am
Shopp has been a nightmare for my client. It set up great and seemed to be working fine and then the shipping stopped calculating correctly. My client had to eat shipping on many of these orders as Shopp would allow the purchaser to checkout without calculating any shipping.
In on thread on the Shopp site, over a three month period users are talking about Shipping Costs disappearing and no one from Shopp is jumping in to offer an explanation or help. I wish we would have been able to see this before we installed Shopp. Of course you can’t gain access to the Shopp forum or knowledge until you have a login from Shopp which you can’t get until you’ve already purchased the plugin. Huge mistake still with no resolution.