We have always used our own software for our ecommerce sites from the beginning. Since then the system has been added to and modified as and when required to add or improve functions on a very ad hoc basis. We had been planning various upgrades to the system in order to improve it’s functionality and capabilities, but I quickly came to the conclusion that perhaps there was a better way to go.

After spending some time looking around for open source alternatives to our system (which there are some extremely smart packages out there i.e. magento, etc), I felt that these solutions would become more of a problem than a solution. We would need to invest a significant amount of time into familiarizing ourselves with the code and how the system works and the processes involved. Without this it would be very difficult for us to make changes to the underlying system if we needed to add to the functionality to meet a clients needs.

Deciding that our current system wasn’t up to the job and the open source alternatives weren’t going to be suitable for what we needed, I took the decision to completely redevelop our software from scratch. This would enable us to eradicate any problems from the old system, implement new functionality and most importantly, improve the usability of the admin area to make it as simple to use as possible.
I will be building the new system alongside and around the ecommerce experiment site, this will enable us all to personally use the system day to day as part of the experiment, so we will quickly be able to iron out any bugs or usability issues.

The plan for the development is to build up a basic framework for the admin area and the database, ensuring it is functional and robust enough for our needs. I will then work with Ryan to integrate the new design for the site with the system, whilst completely rewriting the code that deals with the checkout process, making the flow from basket -> checkout -> order confirmation much more simpler for the customers to use.Technorati Profile