Thread: One Page Checkout : Should we have to pay for it?

So - all versions (I think) of ADNSF have been sold with a single page checkout.
This single page checkout had 'issues' which meant it wasn't really very good.
Now Vortx have made available a very good single page checkout...

... at a price!


... (Same goes for mobile commerce) ...


Does anyone else think these should be included?
Does anyone else think that selling them separately goes against the spirit of what Jo told us when Vortx took over?


Not mudslinging here - just want to gauge others reactions - happy to have a polite debate...


TTFN

BFG

Hi

My personal view is that it would be good to get some visibility of the product strategy and how various features are going to be packaged and positioned to store owners. Currently, things are getting a bit confusing.

- We've got V8 and the V8 Mobile commerce plugin
- V9 and V9SP1 (both with one-page checkout and mobile device features)
- Then we have the plugin for one-page checkout (does this work on a mobile device?)
- Then the original Mobile Commerce Platform (which appears to no longer be sold)

...and now the the new mobile commerce plugin which still needs an experienced developer to install.

I think making one-page checkout and mobile device support available as plugins is probably the right move but I'd be doing this at the same time as stripping out those features from the core product with a corresponding price adjustment.

If plugins are part of the future (which I think would be a good thing) then I'd also be working on a solid plug-in architecture to allow new components to be installed from within the admin screen in a couple of clicks without touching the source code, web.configs or any dlls.

This would really encourage both store owners to enhance their online presence with features that are right for their business, it would also encourage developers like us to build plugins to make the product do cool things... some for free, some for a one-off charge, some for a monthly fee.

First, the one page checkout from Vortx is leaps and bounds beyond the built in one. I have two sites and use each, they both work but the Vortx one is much much slicker. I do not think this should be packaged with the original software. THis plugin was available prior to them buying ASPDNSF.

With regards to plugins, my issue with this is with ASPDNSF I could buy source and require source as I do lots of customizations that require source. With the plugins you lose that flexibility and have to pay the plugin retailer to merge my own customizations into the plugin.

I honestly see me getting to the point that we will hire our own in-house developer and not continue to buy plugins, pay for mods, etc. We've certainly grown to that point and the amount I spend on customizations outside all the work I do myself will go a long way towards hiring a developer fulltime. With two sites, and constant change, I can certainly keep them busy!

webopius, I agree completely, that plugins are great for developers - & if there was a built in way to easily install them, I'd probably release a few myself. However - from the perspective of a storefront owner - it seems a little off to start charging (especially a monthly subscription!!) for something that could/should be built in.

ssgumby, I agree that the vortx single page checkout is leaps & bounds above the standard version (which doesn't really work properly) - but we've been promised improvements for years, vortx have the capability to improve this element for everyone right now - at the drop of a hat - for free....


Sorry to vortx if this appears to be a rant - I guess it kind of is, but I have no animosity & still love (& recommend) the product.



TTFN

BFG

Subscription based plug-ins? What a deal breaker. If i wanted to roll out this system with good mobile friendly capabilities for a client I'd either have to charge them a monthly fee for it or get them to purchase the plug-in directly. I'd rather pay a larger one off fee and avoid the ongoing hassle.

Vortx created teh 1 page checkout while they were a dev net partner, why will you hold this against e them?

Plenty of the developers have created a 1 page checkout including us:

https://www.4mdmedical.com/checkout1.aspx

If we had purchased storefront, their is no way we would be giving out this checkout for free

Alkaline, your one page checkout is sweet. I love the layout.

Did you create your own DB for the city/state lookup?

Yes we had to only way to get fast results. Should have Candian / UK postal codes working shortly too.

Guys we completely agree that plugins/add-ons are the key to this platform. As most of you already know Compunix, LLC makes a lot of them and most are sold on www.ecommercecartmods.com; latest is the Facebook Commerce that is selling well. All the plugins there do not require source code and include simple installation instructions...

So just heads up for those reading this thread and not knowing ;-)

The mobile commerce add-on is a sore subject for my clients. They payed for v9 a number of months ago and were promised that full mobile shopping would be available by the end of the year (2010). Nothing was ever mentioned about it requiring a monthly fee. To be told at this point that they have to pay for a feature that they have already paid for does not sit well.

We feel that ASPDNSF is not to be trusted. Aside from releasing a very buggy v9, who knows what features they will strip out from the core and start charging for. This is the main reason we have started using a different shopping cart solution. The interesting thing is that we have referred a couple of clients to this other option in the past few weeks, and both of them called me and gushed about how easy it is to use and how it is exactly what they were looking for. Not once have we had any of our ASPDNSF clients do that.

The problem is the war (between Facebook and Google, for instance) for programmers is causing real problems for projects. It's making everything expensive and generally a problem for good code.
We can only hope things don't get too expensive around here and get finished.
Richard

Alkaline,

I like how you guys set up the 4mdmedical.com 1-page checkout. How much do you guys charge for that 1-page checkout solution?

Thanks,
Ben

BTW, I agree with BFG 9000 on the point that Vortx should get the existing ASPDNSF 1-page checkout working, at least in its current form.

The solution that Vortx built before as a plug-in, they can keep that separate. But at least fix the bugs in the built-in 1-page checkout in v9 so it's functional without bugs. The way it currently is, it's very buggy. Since that page is included in the overall product, its unusable status makes the entire package basically unusable if someone is looking for an e-commerce solution with 1-page checkout.

At least if it's bug-free, people can use that page to start with and decide to upgrade to a better 1-page checkout as they build out their site.

Just my 2-cent.

The problem with all this addins and other things, especially monthly issues bring back the terror of someone's server going down and the system stops as the addin tries to call home. It's a bad thing.

Originally Posted by benjamin

BTW, I agree with BFG 9000 on the point that Vortx should get the existing ASPDNSF 1-page checkout working, at least in its current form.

The solution that Vortx built before as a plug-in, they can keep that separate. But at least fix the bugs in the built-in 1-page checkout in v9 so it's functional without bugs. The way it currently is, it's very buggy. Since that page is included in the overall product, its unusable status makes the entire package basically unusable if someone is looking for an e-commerce solution with 1-page checkout.

At least if it's bug-free, people can use that page to start with and decide to upgrade to a better 1-page checkout as they build out their site.

Just my 2-cent.

I agree! Can we get a response from Vortex?

I bought the cart almost 8 months ago, on either side of the VortX purchase ... and have been setting the actual a business up and am now getting back to making the site w/ SP1.

I've notived many changes ... the left nav issue, being in the source code (I think, which I don't own), the mobile browser issue which was one aspect that moved me towards ASPDNSF, and one page checkout.

It appears to me that Vortx is just going to leave the cart as is, and then charge for add ons (with a recurring fee no less). If I hadn't already purchased the cart, I'd would certainly look elsewhere, and am considering moving before getting to invested, as I see the direction this is going. I will surely tell others to look elsewhere.

What I've found is if you've modified your site at all, e.g., added a shipping method, it's going to be tough to get it to work with the plug-ins since you don't have the source code for them. It'd be great if they came with an API or some such to better accommodate non-vanilla site implementations.

The checkout that comes with aspdotnetstorefront is truly the worst checkout I have ever seen. I wonder how many stores would see their conversion rates go up 25% by switching to a cart with a checkout system that wasn't last updated in 1998?

I believe that if one-page checkout is advertised as a feature, then it should work and work well like the rest of ASPDNSF does. There shouldn't be a need for third party add-ons for advertised features. IMHO, third party add-ons are for functionality not presently included in ASPDNSF. I'm not real thrilled that a product advertised as "Multi-Store" in its title makes you pay extra to well....um....add more stores.

I've never been a fan of "per domain" software licensing. When I bought the ASP.NET AJAX controls from Telerik, I can use them on as many websites as I want - and like ASPDNSF, it is website specific software. The only difference is that ASPDNSF is narrower in focus (i.e. only e-commerce while Telerik controls are used in all types of websites) so I guess that is why ASPDNSF does the per domain licensing.

What I think ASPDNSF has to be careful about - and this was touched on by another poster - is shrinking the functionality of the core store and moving previously available functions to their own add-ons or third party add-ons. Right now, there is not another add-on - either from ASPDNSF or another company - that I really, really NEED. Sure, a Google Sitemap Generator would be nice but we have product feeds so I really don't NEED that add-on.

I can imagine that ASPDNSF has a lot of discussions about this topic. I know I often wonder what ASPDNSF's e-commerce market penetration is like - i.e. is there a lot of market share yet to be taken or is the market getting saturated? I know that ASPDNSF is not for everybody - you have to know some server stuff to install this software (and own more than just a little web development skills to customize the look) - and a lot of Mom & Pops won't spring for those kinds of installation services (even when it would be very financially prudent to do so) so that is a market share barrier.

Anyway, my $0.02 worth (if worth that much....)