7 Beautiful And Opensource Applications Of Ecommerce

There are few ways to create an online store:

1. Develop an e-commerce application from scratch.
2. Use a hosted e-commerce software.
3. Use a ready to use downloadable / installable e-commerce application.

1st option takes so much time & resources which is not suitable for many people. 

2nd one has both positive & negative points. The biggest negative points are: you'll be limited with the presented features & it'll probably be paid. 

With the 3rd option, there are great open source e-commerce applications that will help you to create a good looking & functioning e-store. And, get support from the community. Here they are: 

1. Prestashop 

An amazing open source e-commerce application with a lot of features & a sleek interface. 

It enables you to create "special deals" (like price reductions, gift vouchers), tag products, sell virtual goods & service besides standard products & many more. 

It is pre-configures for PayPal & other payment processors can be easily integrated. You can find integration & theme options in the product's active 
community. 

It requires PHP & MySQL to run. 

2. Magento 

This powerful e-commerce software has very strong features both at the user & the admin level. 

It is multilingual & also supports multiple stores to be managed from 1 admin interface which is unique. 

It has lots of marketing/promotion methods to make sales easier like "buy 1 get 1 free" or "multi-tier pricing for quantity discounts" & almost any other 
possibilities you can imagine. 

Magento is integrated with PayPal, Google Checkout and many other e-payment systems. 

The system works with PHP and uses MySQL as the database. 

3. osCommerce 

osCommerce is probably the most well known & one of the oldest free e-commerce application. 

It is multilingual, SEO friendly, has a lot of marketing options & supports almost every payment systems (officially or unofficially). 

It works with PHP/MySQL. There are lotf of free & paid themes created for it to totally have a different e-shop. 

4. dashCommerce 

An open source ASP.NET e-commerce application that uses MSSQL 2005 as the database. 

dashCommerce is multilingual & totally customizable with the theming support. 

PayPal & a simple weight-shipping calculation provider is integrated by default. 

Unlimited categories can be created & unlimited images can be added to a product (thumbnails are auto-created). 

If you're looking for an ASP.NET shopping cart then you don't have too many options & this is a great piece of software. 

5. Ubercart 

Ubercart is an e-commerce platform for Drupal. 

It is a feature-rich application that can sell physical goods, file downloads and even site access/memberships with auto-renewals. 

It is installed as a module to Drupal & this makes it stronger as this makes it combined with one of the best CMS applications. 

Ubercart works with many payment systems like Cyber Source, Authorize.net, PayPal & more. 

Products can be imported/exported via XML & single page checkout feature makes shopping easy. 

6. Wordpress E-Commerce Plugin 

For Wordpress lovers, this plugin makes e-commerce very easy. 

You can use all the great features of Wordpress, in means of managing the content & the plugin integrates to the system tightly which enables you to 
take the advantage of it to maximum like: when you upload a new product, Wordpress update system pings all the search engine, etc. 


Share-This plugin can be used for social networking support. If you are familiar with Wordpress themeing than it is very easy for you to create new looks for a store. This e-commerce plugin integrates with Google Checkout, Paypal, Authorize.net, Payment Express and many other trusted payment processors. 

7. VirtueMart 

An e-commerce system for Joomla & Mambo. 

It has many functional features from stock management to instant currency conversion. 

Any number of images & documents (like user manuals) can be added to a product. VirtueMart supports live credit card processing and popular payment gatways. 

With the help of the extensible structure of these CMS applications, VirtueMart can have new features by creating new modules.