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Undecided about Ubercart

Submitted by venkat-rk@drupal.org on Tue, 10/07/2008 - 09:30
venkat-rk@drupal.org
Posts: 61
 Joined: 03/19/2008

I have a book store (not yet launched) that was done using ZenCart and an add-on module. It's proving to be hard to maintain, so I am considering Ubercart, but I am unable to decide if it can do the following:

Types of Products: Books and Magazines (Journals)

Books have the following details:

  • book weight: in grams
  • total stock: as books are ordered, this should get updated automatically
  • Status: should show products as in stock/out of stock. If out of stock, it should show a message and prevent people from ordering it. Alternatively, there should be an option for the customer to be notified when it become available again.
  • Pre-order: Ability to pre-order books yet to be published.
  • Categorize books by topics/subjects
  • Able to select an author for a book from a drop-down
  • Able to show different prices of the book for different formats (paperback, hard cover, downloadable) on the product page
  • Able to have an author bio
  • Search books by author, subject, publisher and alphabets
  • Write reviews
  • 'Tell a friend'
  • Built in newsletter system
  • Set base package weight and then automatically calculate shipping costs based on weight of books in the order.
  • Group discounts etc.
  • Ability to run specials to promote a particular product (book)
permalink #1 Thu, 10/09/2008 - 00:41
venkat-rk@drupal.org
Posts: 61
 Joined: 03/19/2008

Could someone help me with the question above?

Thanks in advance.

permalink #2 Thu, 10/09/2008 - 02:18
mimetic2
Posts: 130
 Joined: 08/07/2007

* book weight: in grams
I believe so

* total stock: as books are ordered, this should get updated automatically
-Check
* Status: should show products as in stock/out of stock. If out of stock, it should show a message and prevent people from ordering it. Alternatively, there should be an option for the customer to be notified when it become available again.
-First part check (with a contributed module) second part could happen with a contrib module

* Pre-order: Ability to pre-order books yet to be published.
I believe this can work with some tamporing.

* Categorize books by topics/subjects
Absolutely. DRupal has fantastic taxonomy
* Able to select an author for a book from a drop-down
-Another taxonomy issue. This is easily done with css and drupals category system
* Able to show different prices of the book for different formats (paperback, hard cover, downloadable) on the product page
Yup no problem
* Able to have an author bio
yup
* Search books by author, subject, publisher and alphabets
Yup ( i believe Solr for ubercart will do this for you)
* Write reviews
userreview module found on drupal.org or u can use the comments straight of the box
* 'Tell a friend'
Forward module does htis
* Built in newsletter system
Simplenews module does htis
* Set base package weight and then automatically calculate shipping costs based on weight of books in the order.
Yup built in to ubercart
* Group discounts etc.
The only thing still being worked on is Discounts based on quantity. However there are some contribs that might work depending on your needs. Also there is a working coupon module
* Ability to run specials to promote a particular product (book)
You can dynamically change the price at anytime so i dont see how this owuld be a problem

Hope this helps. Ubercart is a pretty robust system because its built of drupal and is built extremely well. However there is a learning curve. I'd say ubercart is a great bet. You can also check out magentocommerce. I hear thats very good.

permalink #3 Thu, 10/09/2008 - 06:22
venkat-rk@drupal.org
Posts: 61
 Joined: 03/19/2008

mimetic2, thank you very much for taking the time to help me with my questions about Ubercart. Much appreciated.

The only answers I didn't quite understand were, these:
* book weight: in grams
I believe so
Does this mean I can specify grams as the metric unit for the product in Ubercart?

* total stock: as books are ordered, this should get updated automatically
-Check
Does 'check' mean yes?

permalink #4 Thu, 10/09/2008 - 07:35
doomed@drupal.org
Posts: 133
 Joined: 04/05/2008
Bug Finder

venkat-rk@drupal.org wrote:
mimetic2, thank you very much for taking the time to help me with my questions about Ubercart. Much appreciated.

The only answers I didn't quite understand were, these:
* book weight: in grams
I believe so
Does this mean I can specify grams as the metric unit for the product in Ubercart?

* total stock: as books are ordered, this should get updated automatically
-Check
Does 'check' mean yes?

Yes and Yes.

permalink #5 Fri, 10/10/2008 - 03:46
zeezhao
Posts: 88
 Joined: 04/23/2008

Subscribing to this thread, as I am working on a bookstore myself. Not live yet, but so far I've been able to do most of the things we require.

permalink #6 Fri, 10/10/2008 - 21:17
venkat-rk@drupal.org
Posts: 61
 Joined: 03/19/2008

thank you for the confirmation, doomed@drupal.org Smiling