Need advice on E commerce development in MVC

Question

I have to create a eCommerce store in ASP.NET MVC having some custom features. After through R&D I have sort listed three major eCommerce frameworks available-

1. nopcommerce

2. smartstoreNet ( SSNet)

3. MVC Music Store

   Later after more R&D I have selected smartstoreNet as a base for further customization.

After R&D for weeks still I have many doubts & confusion about smartstoreNet (SSNet), would be more than happy if some one guide me in right direction.
Please take a look at my questionnaires:-

1. I did not found many review of SSNet on web & on Stack overflow, Please share your experience if you have work with the SSNet. How fast & flexible it is? 2.custom Theme creation or Updation document is not in detail, so how to integrate custom or designer's html/css in its theme
2. suppose I have added some custom functionality in the framework how it would be affected when I update the SSNet framework to newer versions, should I use custom plugins or keep track of my custom development & re -implement everything after version updation.
3. How efficient the system to handle medium load eCommerce shop having 500-1000 products, speed can't be compromised.
4. There is a ongoing legal battle between NopCommerce Vs SSNET, how it could affect SSNET users in future in case they lose the case.

I don't expect you to answer all questions :) still pointing me to right direction would be a great help.

Answer 1

ASP.NET MVC based site is a good choice if you want to control the logic and behavior of the site at a low level. It will take a lot of time/skill/experience to do your own customizations though.

A couple of other out of the box solutions you may want to look at are Magento and Prestashop. These are fully functional ecommerce systems that you can extend with plugins, so quite different to the approach of coding the site yourself. But you may save a lot of time by going with an out of the box solution.

I'm not familiar with SmartStore.Net other than when previously researching this topic myself I was leaning more towards Magento and Prestashop since they had better ease of use.

Answer 2

I would also select an e-commerce framework/store that is based on the ASP.NET MVC framework.

I have worked through the MVC music store code a while back while learning ASP.NET MVC. I do not know where you stand with ASP.NET MVC but if you are looking to go e-commerce and looking to up your programming skills by using this framework then MVC music store might be a route for you to take. It will put you well on the path of learning this framework. It is really a basic e-commerce store.

If you already have some basic ASP.NET MVC knowledge and looking for something more advanced then I would look at nopCommerce. It is a well thought out e-commerce store and it can easily be customised and extended. You can create your own modules or have them developed for you. It is also easy to setup even if you don't have ASP.NET MVC knowledge - just follow the on screen instructions. It sounds easy right?

I don't have any experience regarding smartstoreNet. If I were to choose one out of the three that you have listed then it would be nopCommerce.

I wouldn't worry to much about any legal battles at the moment - don't let it affect your decision.

Answer 3

Use MVC, reasons are : 1- Easy to develop, optimize, maintain and make modifications. 2- its scalable and provide everything that a website needs. Dont just look at mvc music store, MVC is highly scalble 3- You can find support while developing mvc on many websites and stakeoverflow also.

Good luck :)

Answer 4

Don't know much about SSNet but here's my take on the other two (that i can remember on top of my head :)

1. nopcommerce - this is very easy to setup. it's extensible bec of support for adding pluggable components/features.

2. MVC music store - might be too basic for your needs.

Again these are just my thoughts as well based on what you describe for your requirements. Hope it helps. Good luck!