foxee: eCommerce module for ExpressionEnginePresented by: Shannon Smith, web designerNote: I’m a foxee user only, I’m not affiliated with foxee or FoxyCart in any way. I also do not get any commission or payment from the sale of any foxee or FoxyCart product.

eCommerce for ExpressionEngineWhat eCommerce is available?While you can always integrate or hack together a solution with any shopping cart out there, what is available that is designed to work with EE?Currently this has been a bone of contention with the EE community; here’s what’s available & what I’ll briefly discussSimple Commerce Module (SCM)eeCommerceaMemberfoxeeThe future

eCommerce for ExpressionEngineNumber 1: Simple Commerce Module (SCM)

eCommerce for ExpressionEngineSimple Commerce Module (SCM)First-party module from EllisLabsAdvantages: Free with commercial & personal license, Simple to useFirst party module that works wellUtilizes Paypal Instant Payment Notification & supports Paypal encrypted paymentsCan assign sale prices & mark items on saleAllows purchases of items to change a user's member groupTab delimited export of items and purchases

eCommerce for ExpressionEngineSimple Commerce ModuleDisadvantages:Limited to using PaypalClient perception of Paypal often negative or clients have had negative experiencesLimited functionality: subscription/membership purchases can sort of be done, but not fully automated users must be members & logged in order for purchases to be recordedno shopping cart included, third party one now available for saleneed additional modules to secure downloadable purchasesmuch must be done manually, such as calculating shipping, changing inventorycustomer leaves site & goes to Paypal site to complete the transaction

eCommerce for ExpressionEngineSimple Commerce ModuleFinal thoughts:Don’t discount this moduleMay work fine in many situationsMany have hacked it to do more than originally intendedNewly available 3rd party “cart” addon makes this module more usable

eCommerce for ExpressionEngineNumber 2: eeCommerce

eCommerce for ExpressionEngineeeCommerce: ExpressionEngine + MagentoThird party module currently in final betaIntegrates EE with MagentoeCommerce software platform & meant to bring the full power of Magento into EEUse EE’s templating system for features such as skinning, forums, & user reviewsMagento to handle things such as stock control and financeseeCommerceLite is $149.99, eeCommerce Pro is $2499.99.$2499.99 is an "enterprise-grade" ecommerce offering, which "has a matching support SLA and full multi-channel support"

eCommerce for ExpressionEngineeeCommerce: ExpressionEngine + MagentoThoughts on this solution:Currently not a lot of documentation yetSeems well suited to large scale/enterprise projectsWeb developer required to know Magento as well as EEMagento very good & thorough platform, but lots of added complexityCould get expensive, but “Lite” version may work for lower dollar projects.Some sites will definitely require this level of functionality

eCommerce for ExpressionEngineNumber 3: aMember

eCommerce for ExpressionEngineaMember integration for membership sitesA phpmemberhip script that you can purchase & add to your siteRequired addons: Smartmember, EE aMemberpluginThoughts on this solution:Bit pricey (aMember + addons ~$310.00)My opinion: easy to use, clunky, showing its age, some documentation poor... But, widely used & many are very happy with itMy experience: Some payment gateways no longer seem to be working properly with aMember (particularly those that work in Canada)Credit card information generally stored on your server, so PCI compliance & security becomes a factorMembership software only, not a full eCommerce solutionNot a hosted solution, so no monthly shopping cart feesWorth looking into for certain situations, good support from aMember

eCommerce for ExpressionEngineNumber 4: foxee

The foxee Solutionfoxee integrates FoxyCart and EEWhat is FoxyCart?Hosted shopping cart/eCommerce solutionFree during development then $15/month (no additional transaction fees)Robust, very little downtimeAll credit card information stored on FoxyCart serversSecurity (quote from FoxyCart):“We are PCI compliant, Safe Harbor compliant, have multiple security scans (PCI requirements 1, 5, 6), and adhere to best practices wherever possible. Our servers are all located in secure facilities (PCI requirement 9), and access to our systems are granted on a “need-to-know” basis (PCI requirement 7), as required by the PCI rules.”

The foxee SolutionFoxyCart Features:Supports tangible, downloadable, subscriptions (including recurring payments) + unlimited product optionsCoupons & discountingOne-page checkout & loginMulti ship-to addressesLive shipping ratesSuper tax featureCustom checkout fields w/ validationSupports multiple payment gateways & shipping carriers+more (refer to: www.foxycart.com /2-minute-tour.html)

The foxee SolutionThe foxee component:foxee is what integrates FoxyCart with EEYou could integrate it yourself, but HCC Development already spent a lot of time doing it & they did a pretty good jobFull control of product catalog within the EE control panelCost: $165 (no additional fees unless you buy an addon)

The foxee Solutionfoxee features:Single sign on fully integrated solutionMember subscriptions with automatic expiry and renewal (recurring payments) + free trial periodsIntegrated order reporting & tracking optionsRelated Items, Discounts and Coupons, secured downloadablesSale Pricing and Limited quantity with live inventory updatingInventory tracking, per product and per product option+more (refer to: http://www.hccdevelopment.com/Web-Based-Software/Product/FoxEE/)

The foxee SolutionThoughts on foxee:Some not pleased with hosted cart solution: cost and limited controlHowever, less need to worry about PCI compliance or hackers stealing credit card information $15/month decent cost for having them look after security & compliance + they continue to add features/gateways/shipping.Young, still evolving product, so there may be bugs & documentation could possibly be betterFeature rich + you can sell subscriptions, downloadables, physical goods, donations

The foxee SolutionCurrent addons available to expand functionality:Classified ads addon: sell weblog entries to your customers (set amount of times they can publish & how long post will be shown).Bulk items addon: sell your products in quantity by the case, skid etc...; track your inventory by single item while selling in bulkSample sites using foxee:http://hpcsport.com/storehttp://www.dogcollars.ca/http://prints995.com/

The future... What about EE2.0foxee is working on their EE2.0 compatible module & promising further improvements and features (improved inventory control, even better member integration, etc)Plus, more solutions coming down the pipeEE2.0 is on CodeIgniter & this definitely opens up EE’s eCommerce optionsFrom Leslie Camacho, President of EllisLabs:"ShopIgniter, a stand-alone ecommerce system built on CI (currently in development) that is aimed expressly to leverage EE 2.0’s CI codebase. The level of integration they are aiming for simply would not have been possible with EE 1.x" (http://www.shopigniter.com/ )

Questions/Comments?Questions/comments before we move on to the DEMO