Dropshipping has become the latest trend nowadays, with many businesses choosing such a business strategy to save storage space and time. Nowadays, many businesses don’t need to worry about the sales or the products. They merely have to transfer these orders to another third-party platform. Many such third-party platforms have emerged in recent years to accommodate this rising demand. Amongst such platforms, OsCommerce has steadily gained a significant amount of loyal fan following for a variety of reasons. We have done an in-depth OsCommerce review.
However, what has worked for other businesses may not work for you. The success of any business differs from context to context. OsCommerce has been in the dropshipping business for about 21 years now.
Since its inception, it has come a long way in providing premium features to its sellers. Every customer who arrives on the site will find at least one product or service that they will like.
That is why we plan to give you an easier time making your decision on the third-party platform. If you are a business entrepreneur looking for a third-party platform to outsource your work, then read our overall review of this platform.
What Is OsCommerce?
Short for Open Source Commerce, this site facilitates online store management and trade. It is a website that has been self-hosted. There are many reasons why OsCommerce has become a massive online platform with stellar growth. Even without a well-researched OsCommerce review, you can just get it from brief browsing through the website.
You can add as many plug-ins as you want with the website within your certain budget constraints because most plug-ins might not be free. On the bright side, this feature means that you can customize as much as you wish.
Besides, this platform also offers a multi-solution package to its sellers. With its admirable skills at providing high-end features for stock and inventory management, order processing, free template designs, a variety of payment modules, and many more, you will have an easier time working on an online platform like OsCommerce.
Exclusive Features of OsCommerce
While OsCommerce is a legit and effective website for effective online business management, one must first learn how OsCommerce works and what features it provides. The interface is not very hard to understand, but it will take some time and effort from your end.
This OsCommerce review will briefly walk you through the website and its services.
Here’s a detailed description of its features:
1. Support From Community Forums And Expertise
The number of store owners and sellers on this platform is steadily growing and is projected to grow further. Currently, there are a total of 355,677 digital store owners, in addition to many web developers and service providers. Due to this big community, you need not worry if you get stuck with any features or have some doubts.
There are active community forums on the site itself, where you will find helpful, experienced, and passionate people looking to impart their knowledge to novice store owners. Learning how to sell online stores is a journey, but on OsCommerce forums, there will be people to guide you.
2. Self-Hosting
The site is a self-hosted eCommerce platform, which means that you will have to take care of so many other things in addition to taking care of the business. You will be in charge of the hosting, site server, and regular maintenance. This can be an advantage if you are an entrepreneur or business owner who has some programming and/or coding know-how.
3. Front-End Management (Product Listing and Cataloguing)
OsCommerce allows you to make a concise and detailed catalog of all the products and services you offer. According to their website, you can make a comprehensive product catalog of around 10000 products. This means that you will not have to worry about the limit.
This feature is amazing because sometimes, some sites with similar services and interfaces to OsCommerce charge some fees beyond a certain number.
4. High-End Stock Management
OsCommerce gives you tools to manage your stock, keep track of them, and keep updating it as and when the need arises.
5. Order Processing
The site allows you to process, manage, and track your orders efficiently. Thus, it makes sure that you keep your customers’ needs satisfied.
6. Payment Processing
The payments on this site are automatically linked with PayPal. This is quite understandable because PayPal is one of its main partners. Moreover, it is one of the most reliable and widely used platforms for international online transactions. Sage Pay is also integrated with the site.
However, there are other available payment modules available as well. You just need to add them from the section of Ad-Ons available on the site. OsCommerce allows you to accept over 1000 online transactions in a day, a fair number.
OsCommerce Advantages
There are many products and services that you have to look for on this site. But with a massive number of sellers and an even bigger number of products, choosing the seller for your online store gets tedious and time-consuming. Hopefully, a well-researched OsCommerce review including all its pros and cons will help you in your endeavor to find the right seller for your online store.
However, these problems will fly away when you take the help of experienced sellers from the active OsCommerce forums. Moreover, their interface is designed to make the sellers with good reviews and credibility more visible, thus attracting greater customers.
The site OsCommerce has a number of remarkable features that can lure customers in and convert them into sales. Here is the list of advantages:
1. Detailed Categories and Subcategories of Products
The site has beautifully detailed descriptions of all its products and services, neatly categorized into different categories and subcategories. Because of this, even if there are many products, it gets infinitely easier to find the products you are searching for.
2. Promos and Discount Deals
OsCommerce has amazing promos and discount deals that you can use while making the order by paying and checking out.
3. Shopping Cart Integration
OsCommerce allows users to change and update their shopping carts and wishlists with ease. You have the option of adding and removing products according to your wish. You can buy products from different online stores and still have a single checkout.
With this feature, your stock management, accounting, and tracking systems are all in coordination, making it easier for faster and effective deliveries. For this purpose, some users have reported integrating an add-on called Olark Live Chat with OsCommerce.
Through this add-on, you get access to integrate all aspects of your business like insights, billing, agent tools, developers, account management, and many more. You also get a chatbox using Olark, which comes packed with stellar features for customer satisfaction and engagement like automation, customization, and live chat analytics.
4. Inventory/Stock Management
Since OsCommerce works on you to do the self-hosting and installing add-ons for the site to function efficiently, you will have to install some inventory management software. Many users claim that they are using API2CART to take proper care of their huge set of inventories. There is a free demo session available for your use.
The integration workflow is impeccable, efficient, and accurate. You can import orders from other sales channels. Moreover, the inventory management of your business won’t be limited to just one platform. It will be synced across all eCommerce/open source commerce platforms where you conduct your sales.
With this add-on, taking care of shipments and order updates is a cakewalk, making your professional life easier. This is an important feature that is ignored in every OsCommerce review.
5. Amazing Selection of Amazing Templates
On OsCommerce, you will get access to a huge array of beautiful templates. By using them, you get the tools to customize and make it your own. You can search through that list to find the best OsCommerce design that suits your store.
The design you get first when you open a store on the site is basic. But you can use the free template selection that is easily available for free. Some store owners have also reported that they use ThemeForest for better template designs.
6. Variety of Ad-Ons
The OsCommerce community has been very generous in sharing their add-ons with the rest of the community. These add-ons have been immensely instrumental in the successful operation of many businesses that have established their base on this site.
There are around a total of 9166 add-ons that anyone can use for free in their online store management.
OsCommerce Disadvantages
However, OsCommerce is far from having any disadvantages. An honest OsCommerce review would not be fair if we do not highlight the disadvantages as well. Many users have complained about many of its features that they found too time-consuming and arduous.
Here are some of the things that they have complained about the site.
1. Unreliability
Many online stores have reported that their experience with OsCommerce was very bad. They reported that the features and add-ons were too numerous, because of which sometimes, users felt that the variety of choices made OsCommerce unreliable.
There was too much to offer and yet nothing. While there were active community forums that could help out, it was either too troublesome or time-consuming.
2. Pricing Plans
Many times, the expensive plans of OsCommerce mean that you are not getting enough returns from the amount of time, hard work, and resources you have invested in it.
The pricing plans could be very unaffordable. Furthermore, even after getting the plan, you realize you are not using half of the features provided by OsCommerce. You come to the dawning realization that you could be putting your business’ money into more useful things.
3. Lack of Technical Support
Many business entrepreneurs with some practical knowledge of programming and coding will find this site useful. Especially if they are looking to save some money by hosting themselves.
However, online store owners who have no programming or coding knowledge may find the challenge of self-hosting too daunting and might totally opt-out of using OsCommerce. For these people, the lack of good technical support from OsCommerce can be a huge disadvantage as well.
4. Security and Software Updates
To update the software and add-ons available, store owners have to undertake the trouble of doing it manually. Sometimes, this task takes too much time to take, and often, without the updates, the stress of security getting breached gets piled on top of each other.
Also Read: Doba Dropshipping Review in 2021
Does OsCommerce Allow International Shipping?
OsCommerce does allow international shipping. But for that, like for any other service provided by the site, you would have to install shipping modules of your choice. The flat, per item and table rates can also be included.
Shipping prices can vary based on weight, product, and destination.
Does OsCommerce Have An Exchange Rate System?
One notable and admirable thing about OsCommerce is that you do not need to find out about the exchange rates when you are making a purchase from another country. This feature allows customers to see the prices in that country, how much they are paying for it in their home currency. This remarkable feature is often ignored in every OsCommerce review, unfortunately.
This leads to greater transparency which we all know leads to greater trust and loyalty. Research has proven that consumer loyalty leads to greater sales for any online business. Moreover, it helps people from different countries to engage in buying and selling using the same medium. This helps the businesses expand and grow.
Does OsCommerce Have a Tax Management System?
The site allows for advanced management of your legally mandated tax payments to the state tax agencies. Because of all these features, it is acting as a challenge to the hegemony of many eCommerce websites.
Final Thoughts
Overall, OsCommerce is an amazing platform that allows the exchange of goods to take place with very few hassles. With a variety of add-ons available, you can choose what features to prioritize in your operations. However, the multiple options can be their own disadvantage.
While there are a few cons with using this site, it is a good site for engaging in online business, starting an online store. It has a handful of features that will get you to operate your online store effectively. But be careful with your choice because every business is unique and has different priorities to meet. Hopefully, this OsCommerce review helped you get a decent idea of OsCommerce.
