Agora Shopping Cart

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Kieran

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Hi

I am quoting a project for an existing site hat has the Agora shopping cart.

now I know there are as many shopping carts as there are Manchester United supporters in Hong Kong so don't want the usual flood of OSCommerce makes me weak at the knees, Magento is my lifelong love etc etc..

Just want to know if you have ever used it and also the upgrade path as the version on site is 8 years old and of course would need to be upgraded.

I of course have gotten my surf board out and looked around but the level of information on it is a little thin on the ground. I am contemplating just binning he existing cart and using one of the newer ones that I am familiar with and might take less time.

Let me know if you have used and thoughts.
 

mneylon

Administrator
Staff member
If it's a really old version you might want to check if there are any known security issues ..
 
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Kieran

Guest
I´d say undoubtedly it would have some issues. the client isn't getting much traffic or business from the cart anyway and in comparison to his competitors he could do really well. The existing site is deplorable and I would say his bounce rate is something horrific.

An upgrade would be definitely on the cards for it but my real reluctance is to take yet another open source shopping cart and develop knowledge and spend hours learning it when it might just make sense to migrate to one of the many that have a feature set and a support setup that would last him a bit longer so that when I win the Lotto the person who takes over support wont have to go through another learning curve.
On a more (semi) serious note the plethora of shopping carts out there seem to be confusing clients as well, as more and more of them are hearing the buzz word and thinking the cart is the solution to their woes and think it is just a simple matter of installing it and getting out the bag to catch the money they will make.

In fairness this client isn't like that and is a model of reason and reachable expectations thank goodness and I think whatever solution he chooses with a modest amount of change of design he will see an profit increase as he in a great niche (gardening).

Kieran
 

FergusM

New Member
Kieran I am no expert but can you upgrade an eight year old piece of software? I am guessing you might have to upgrade to a few of the intermediate versions along the way first. The new version may not even recognize the old database. I would guess that the old one has little or no SEO capabilities not to mention the security issues. Sounds like a good opportunity to start over fresh. Learning curve is what it is all about and it is painful and slow. Good luck. Here is my new shop Tools & Hardware Ireland and it has caused my workweek to go from 40 hours in 80 hours overnight.

Fergus
 
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Kieran

Guest
Cheers Fergus

After about 30 seconds more additional thought I am going to write a custom cart for it myself and use that as it is less troublesome and I can control the destiny. I agree the Agora path will be a nightmare and the end customer site is straightforward enough.

When you say the site has increased your workweek do you mean with problems or with additional customers? :)
 
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