nopCommerce software was way behind some of its rival competitors in 2008. Many people were skeptical of its success as other open source platforms had already created a niche for themselves in the market. However after period of three years, the trend has totally reversed with other open source platforms. Nopcomerce is used by millions of software developers across the globe for developing ecommerce websites and it also has one of the fastest growing user communities. In this article, we detail the various nopCommerce features that have seen it to achieve unprecedented success.
As mentioned earlier, nopCommerce software is an open source platform that can be used exclusively for developing e-commerce websites. It has been coded in ASP.NET 3.5 and uses MS SQL 2005 as its backend database. Developers of the product have paid great emphasis on user experience and have included comprehensive features that make it easy for any new user with basic computer skills to master its functioning in a short period of time. To sum up, nopCommerce is fully customizable, stable and extremely user-friendly.
The software also has several stunning features and customizations that have been developed keeping ecommerce business in mind and the company has also been regularly updating its software with new innovations and features. Few of the aspects that left me really impressed were:
· Simple and easy to use interface which can be mastered in a short span of time
· Supports categories and manufacturers
· One page checkout procedure (saves much time and ensures low bounce rate) and anonymous check out.
· Multilingual and multi-currency support
· Support for sale prices and discounts
· One can use multiple images per product
· Supports over 30 payment methods
· Open ID, Facebook and Twitter integration
· Real time currency exchange rates
· Live chat integration and SMS notifications
· Comparing features of two different products
· Search Engine Optimization(SEO)
However despite such innovative features, nopCommerce software does have its shortcomings. For one, you need to directly modify the source data for more extensions which may impact the upgrade of the application. These codes also take up a sizeable portion of the entire coding system which on a few occasions may throw up errors. But these are just minor glitches that pale in comparison to the unparalleled flexibility and control that the software offers.
nopcommerce customization however can be tricky for someone who has just started developing his ecommerce website and hence it is advised that you hire the services of a professional nopCommerce developer. By my analysis, it is currently is the top-notch free ecommerce building tool in the market today.