TomatoCart V1.1 vs. osCommerce V3.0-a-5

Preface

OsCommerce is the first and greatest open source ecommerce project developed

by a group of freelancers. No one could deny the positive influence it has made on

modern life. On the other hand, as a separate project branched from

osCommerce, TomatoCart, backed by a specialized company, inherits the

highlights of osCommerce, and create new ideas at the same time. So TomatoCart

is standing on the shoulders of the giant.

This article is written for those who are not familiar with TomatoCart or those who

can’t make a decision when facing the two eCommerce solutions. Focusing on

functionality comparison, the content of the article is objective with no

discrimination.

Essentials:

Both carts are quick to install and easy to learn. The requirements of two carts

indicate low cost on hosting. However, different from web 1.0 technology based

ZenCart, TomatoCart applies the modern web 2.0 technology such as RIA (Rich

Internet Application), Ajax, which provides a familiar windows operation

environment and boosts the operation efficiency. If you want to migrate from

osCommerce, there’s a ready osCommerce Migration Tool (Download?) and you

need no worry about learning curve.

Admin panel of TomatoCart

  TomatoCart osCommerce

RequirementsPHP5.1.6+

MySQL4.1.13+ or 5.0.7+

PHP v5.2.0+

MySQL v4.1.13+ or v5.0.7+

Open Source

Unlimited products

Fee none none

SSL support Full or shared SSL full or shared SSL

Knowledge level for

codingintermediate intermediate

Ease of use easy easy

Site Management:

Site management, generally speaking, should include all the basic tools to

organize your sites and it decides the performance of your sites and the flexibility

of your site settings. In addition to all the contents of site management of

osCommerce, TomatoCart has created its unique tools such as department

management, which allow customers to choose the department they’d like to

contact.

  TomatoCart osCommerce

Multi-Lingual

Multi-Currency

  TomatoCart osCommerce

Tax

Weight Classes

Zone/Country

WYSIWYG Limited

Separate Web Mail

Email template

Newsletter Management

Image Groups

Watermark Tool

Cache Control

Backup Manager

File Manager

Import/Export

Roles Permission

ManagementLimited Limited

Reports Limited

Captcha

Maintenance Mode

Department Management

CMS:

CMS, simplifying your publication of web content, is a special and indispensable

part of shopping cart software. If you wanna make your site attractive, impressive

and distinctive, you should turn to help of CMS. Ranging from simple article to

indicative video, high-end CMS is capable of doing nearly anything you comes up

with. But it doesn’t absolutely indicate the more, the better. It’s up to your

demand. Never be too greedy, which always run counters to your desire. By

comparison, it seems TomatoCart take advantage over osCommerce in CMS. Of

course, it is not too difficult for you to find some add-ons to implement the CMS of

osCommerce. Internet is full of free and paid resources.

  TomatoCart osCommerce

Article

Guest Book

Polls

Slide Images/Image Menu

Product Slider

  TomatoCart osCommerce

Product Scroller

Videos

Template Install Limited

Template Layout

Catalog Management:

As a proverb says, effort doubled, result halved. I do believe a clear catalog layout

makes your work simple! Let’s take a careful look at this part.

  TomatoCart osCommerce

Category management

Variant

Attribute

Manufacture

Specials

Reviews&Ratings Limited

Upcoming Product

Popular Search Terms

Featured Product

Product Management:

TomatoCart is featured with a sleek experience of adding new products. Compared

with TomatoCart, osCommerce’s product management seems a little simpler with

little functionality. However it may affect the sales to some extent. Say zoom

image will increase sales since it enables the detail magnification and clear look

at the product.

  TomatoCart osCommerce

Multi-image

Batch Add

Duplicate

Customization

Attachment

Cross-sell

  TomatoCart osCommerce

Accessory

Short Description

Image Zoom

Reports

Customer Management:

How to manage your customers? Treat them all the same? Definitely not! Different

treatment is needed here to boost your online sales. For example, you can divide

them into several customer groups and give them different discounts according to

their order records. In a word, a perfect customer management is also a powerful

marketing tool.

  TomatoCart osCommerce

Add/Edit in admin

Batch Add

Customer Group

IP

Status

Wishlist

Store Credits

Order Management:

Sometimes, orders will be taken by phone, which requires the shopping cart

system with a manual order-adding functionality. Sometimes, customers may

return a product. And sometimes… There are a lot of exceptions you have to take

into consideration. Let’s see whether your shopping cart software has thought of

the exceptions in advance!

  TomatoCart osCommerce

Add orders in admin

Reorder

Multiple invoices and

shipping addresses

Order status

  TomatoCart osCommerce

Return Request

Abandoned Cart

Track Order

Store Credits/Credit Slips

Promotional Tools and SEO:

Nowadays, Marketing is considered as a key to popularity and success. Without

exception, it is also a significant part of shopping cart software. Built-in

promotional tools not only cut down on the cost but also boost your revenue.

Aside from promotional tools, SEO brings you a good result when customers are

searching store or product via search engines.

  TomatoCart osCommerce

Gift Certificate

Coupon

Customer Groups

Catalog Promotional

Discount

Quantity Discount

Store Credits

Add to Compare

Tell a friend

Cross Sell

Accessory

Newsletter

URL rewrite

Google sitemap

Homepage info

Book Marks

RSS Feed

Search Engine Friendly

URLs

Checkout:

Checkout determines the sales conversion. Customers will be bothered by

complex check out processes and limited choices.

  TomatoCart osCommerce

Ajax Shopping Cart

Delivery/Billing Address

One-page Checkout

Guest Checkout

Shipping to multiple

addressed

Gift Wrapping

Payment Gateways:

People all around the world definitely have different favored payment methods.

What if they can’t find the gateway they are looking for or there is no other

alternative payment gateway? What a frustrating shopping experience!

Consequently, multiple choices of payment methods should be prepared to satisfy

all kinds of need.

  TomatoCart osCommerce

Amazon IPN

Authorize.net Credit Card

Authorize.net eCheck

Bank Wire

Credit Card

Cheque

ChronoPay

eWay Payment Credit Card

Google Checkout

Moneybookers

NOCHEX

PayPal IPN

PayPal Website Payment

Pro(US/UK) Direct

  TomatoCart osCommerce

PayPal Website Payment

Pro(UK) Express

PayPal Express Checkout

PayPal Website Payments

Standard

PayQuake Credit Card

Safepay Credit Card

Safepay Bank Transfer

Safepay Virtual Terminal

Western Union

Wire Card Credit Card

Wire Card EFT

PayQ