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To create an e-commerce website, there are few ways:

• Develop an e-commerce application from scratch.
• Use a hosted e-commerce software.
• Use a ready to use downloadable / installable e-commerce application.

First one takes so much time & resources which is not suitable for many people.

Second one has both positive & negative points. The biggest negative points are: you’ll be limited with the presented features & it’ll probably be paid.

Third one, you won’t be getting professional support which is the bad part but will have a community to ask questions & get answers. Also, considering the software is open source, there will be lots of users improving the product (& may be you).

Here are 16 powerful and open source e-commerce applications:

Magento

This powerful e-commerce software has very strong features both at the user & the admin level.

It is multilingual & also supports multiple stores to be managed from 1 admin interface which is unique.

It has lots of marketing/promotion methods to make sales easier like "buy 1 get 1 free" or "multi-tier pricing for quantity discounts" & almost any other possibilities you can imagine.

Magento is integrated with PayPal, Google Checkout and many other e-payment systems.

The system works with PHP and uses MySQL as the database.

dashCommerce

An open source ASP.NET e-commerce application that uses MSSQL 2005 as the database.

dashCommerce is multilingual & totally customizable with the theming support.

PayPal & a simple weight-shipping calculation provider is integrated by default.

Unlimited categories can be created & unlimited images can be added to a product (thumbnails are auto-created).

If you’re looking for an ASP.NET shopping cart then you don’t have too many options & this is a great piece of software.

Ubercart

Ubercart is an e-commerce platform for Drupal.

It is a feature-rich application that can sell physical goods, file downloads and even site access/memberships with auto-renewals.

It is installed as a module to Drupal & this makes it stronger as this makes it combined with one of the best CMS applications.

Ubercart works with many payment systems like Cyber Source, Authorize.net, PayPal & more.

Products can be imported/exported via XML & single page checkout feature makes shopping easy.

Prestashop

An amazing open source e-commerce application with a lot of features & a sleek interface.

It enables you to create "special deals" (like price reductions, gift vouchers), tag products, sell virtual goods & service besides standard products & many more.

It is pre-configures for PayPal & other payment processors can be easily integrated. You can find integration & theme options in the product’s active community.

It requires PHP & MySQL to run.

Wordpress E-Commerce Plugin

For Wordpress lovers, this plugin makes e-commerce very easy.

You can use all the great features of Wordpress, in means of managing the content & the plugin integrates to the system tightly which enables you to take the advantage of it to maximum like:

• when you upload a new product, Wordpress update system pings all the search engine, etc.
• Share-This plugin can be used for social networking support.
• If you are familiar with Wordpress themeing than it is very easy for you to create new looks for a store.

This e-commerce plugin integrates with Google Checkout, Paypal, Authorize.net, Payment Express and many other trusted payment processors.

VirtueMart

An e-commerce system for Joomla & Mambo.

It has many functional features from stock management to instant currency conversion.

Any number of images & documents (like user manuals) can be added to a product. VirtueMart supports live credit card processing and popular payment gatways.

With the help of the extensible structure of these CMS applications, VirtueMart can have new features by creating new modules.

osCommerce

osCommerce is probably the most well known & one of the oldest free e-commerce application.

It is multilingual, SEO friendly, has a lot of marketing options & supports almost every payment systems (officially or unofficially).

It works with PHP/MySQL. There are lots of of free & paid themes created for it to totally have a different e-shop.

Substruct

A Ruby on Rails e-commerce system that is ready to be used.

It supports Authorize.net & PayPal as payment processors. Substruct enables you to track inventory & sales with the related reports.

Besides being an e-commerce application, it also has integrated CMS features for creating & maintaining content.

OXID eSales

This open source e-commerce system is ready for B2C, B2B and social commerce scenarios.

It uses search-engine friendly URLs & has some marketing tools integrated.

With an easy-to-use admin tool, the shop can be managed effortlessly.

It requires PHp & MySQL to run.

Freeway

Freeway is an e-commerce platform specialized in selling services & events.

You can simply sell a "guitar lesson" or "rent a tennis court" where users can select which dates & times to buy them.

Besides these, Freeway can be used to sell any good & it makes selling easy with the solid promotion features like "get 3 x product & get 2 y products free".

It uses PHP & MySQL and also, it can be integrated with Joomla with a ready-to-use module.

simpleCart(js)

This is the most different & easy to use shopping cart in the list. It is only a one page script that the products are displayed in a very good-looking interface.

They are added to the basket with no page-refresh, quantities can be updated & checkout is done via PayPal.

It stores the shopping cart info with cookies, so no database is required.

A great product which is ideal for selling few stuff in a few minutes.

Digistore

Digistore is based on the popular osCommerce engine with improvements both to the front-end & admin of the application.

With almost every function of osCommerce, this free e-commerce solution can offer guests a "non-membership required" shopping cart for fast checkouts (membership feature is available).

It supports physical & virtual goods to be sold. Application is totaly multilingual & supports many payment gateways.

Invoices & packaging lists can be printed from the admin order screen. It has a newsletter support for & other promotional features.

OpenCart

This PHP – MySQL shopping cart system is simple-looking application but it has all the must-have features.

It supports unlimited categories, different currencies & languages. Users can review the products and buy them in few simple steps.

Most of the popular payment systems are supported.

Zen Cart

Zen Cart is a user-friendly, open source shopping cart software.

The application is easy to install & use.

Besides all the standard features, Zen Cart presents an easy to navigate interface for the customer. Searches can be narrowed by category and price intervals. Products can be presented as a list, grid or a gallery look & more.

It supports most of the payment systems & requires PHP – MySQL to run.

Are there any more nice & open source e-commerce applications? Please share them in the comments.

Spree

Spree is an e-commerce platform built on the powerful Ruby on Rails.

It is a well-coded base for an e-commerce project. You can use Spree to improve & customize further.

It uses the Active Merchant plugin which supports most of the payment processors. PayPal Website Payments Standard is also ready to be used as an extension.

Satchmo

A getting popular e-commerce software built with Django.

It supports many payment processors & integrated with the popular shipping providers.

Besides standard products, you can sell downloadable products, subscriptions or gift certificates.

The application is feature-rich on every level, from products to customer management, or orders to promotions & more..

Disclosure: A similar post was published at http://www.canvasburn.com/13-beautiful-and-open-source-e-commerce-applications. But that website is no longer online, this post is an improved version and published with the permission of the previous author.

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