Magnum Blog by osHelpers

A couple years back, let’s say 4-5 years, there used to be just osCommerce, no osCMax and no Creloaded. Contribution installation was a popular task and most web development companies used to build eCommerce stores using osCommerce 2.2 as a base while adding contributions one by one. Some development companies still operate the same way today and popular contributions added to the osc 2.2 core install are i.e. UPS, USPS and FEDEX real time rates, Authorize.net cc processing, Discount Coupons, Purchase without Account, Additional Info Pages, Affiliate system …just to name a few.

Building stores piece by piece using osCommerce 2.2 while adding contributions became a repetitive and expensive task and soon there was a need for loaded versions of osCommerce which already had several additional contributions, such as the ones mentioned above, pre-installed. This led to the 1st versions of osCMax and CRELoaded.

osCMax developed 1 version which was and still is free to the public today. CRELoaded developed 3 versions, a standard version which is free, a pro version and a B2B version. Up to last year the major difference between the PRO version and the standard version were 2 contributions. Sub products and Product Extra Fields. Both contributions were part of the PRO version, which cost $175. The B2B version used to cost $350 and carried a couple more contributions than the PRO version. The most important contribution embedded into the B2B version was Customer Groups with SPPC (Seperate Pricing Per Customer). This contribution made up the whole Business-to-Business aspect of CRE B2B and is still as of today the #1 component which differentiates the PRO version and the B2B version.

When it comes to building loaded shopping carts, the challenge lies in selecting the most popular and most required contributions. There are 1000s of open source contributions available for osCommerce grouped into several different categories such as payment modules, shipping modules, reports, languages etc. So if you are building a shopping cart for public use, it makes most sense to integrate the most popular contributions. This is were CRE is starting to loose their vision today. They really do not know what to do at this point. Should they add more contributions to their cart and increase their own clutter? If so, which ones? Should they enhance some of the current contributions? Should they copy some of the free features that Magento offers such as RSS, maybe Multi Store? Maybe they should overhaul some of the bad English grammar still used throughout the “flagships” admin area?

CRE sales are down all across the board, hosting customers are abandoning CRE Hosting, competitors such as Magento are moving in an eating market share, CRE clients are dissatiesfied with the 6.3 upgrade and with the whole bad ecomony picture and the fact that people have less money to spent, it’s really not looking good for Chainreactionworks at the moment.

Up to version 6.2, CreLoaded did a fairly ok job selecting proper contributions for their eCommerce packages. I chose the words “fairly ok” as it required a total of 15 or more patches in order to get common bugs fixed including security issues which would allow malicious users to gain full control over any CRE Loaded store. Beta testing was lacking at all times, but that’s not the real issue here.

Both, CRE PRO and CRE B2B went up in price with the introduction of the 6.3 version, in late 2008. The PRO version went from $150 to $295 and the B2B version from $350 to $595. There really isn’t a lot of difference between CRE 6.2 B2B and CRE 6.3 B2B which would justify a $255 price boost. Some developers will even argue that 6.3 is more of a downgrade as it makes template integration and front-end customization work even more difficult.

There are definitely some new features in the 6.3 version though, such as a buggy Multi Vendor Shipping module, UPS XML Dimensional Shipping Support which osCMax also has for free, a scrolling bestseller module, attribute copier and a forms and survey system, similar to the poll system Magento has built in by default. More upgrades are highlighted on their “What’s new in CRE Loaded 6.3 page”

Supposedly, the PRO and B2B version include a one-page checkout module, which may somewhat justify a price increase. However, I have yet to come across the 1-page checkout feature in it’s original form, this seems a bit like smoke and mirrors.

Finally, it appears that CRE Loaded themselves are looking for ways to justify the drastic price increase for the B2B version from $350 to $595. Once again they show off their incompetence by cluttering the B2B cart with code which many store owners consider completely unnecessary such as the CRE FDMS (File Distribution Management System) - a system to manage downloadable products - now prebuilt into CRE B2B 6.3.

How many MP3’s, ebooks or software have YOU ever purchased from an online store other than maybe Amazon or ITunes?

There may be 1 out of 1000 stores which has a need for downloadable goods and MAYBE FDMS. But there really is no reason to clutter the B2B cart with a insignificant component such as FDMS other than to increase the value in users eyes. The CRE carts are slow as is, we really don’t want them any slower. Keep unneeded code out but keep it optional!

This is were CRE Loaded is loosing their vision. CRE thinks that by adding FDMS to their B2B cart, they are adding much more value and can somewhat justify almost doubling the price for CRE B2B.

For 95% of store owners out there though, FDMS is completely useless and provides zero value. Downloadable products are not the norm and once again, there really is no reason whatsoever to jumble the cart even more with unnecessary code hardly anyone cares about.

Just leave the FDMS module were it is … available as an optional add-on on creloaded.com for 200 something dollars. Stop trying to fool newbie customers that the B2B cart is soo much better now with FDMS included and it makes it worth paying $600 for it.