The main reason for choosing Magento is its ability to power multiple URLs, with a common shopping cart and cross-promotional abilities. I’ve got a series of tshirt websites I want to cluster, so this is huge. I understand that there is a way, using Javascript, to be able to show product variants by coupling a user input (drop down menu or radial dial) to a change in product pictures. Since I’d like to offer more than one version of a shirt in terms of color (as well as style of garment), this is important. Other features I’d like to implement include:
–custom invoice/packing slip
–a variety of payment options (google checkout, paypal, and a merchant account
–syncronization with a profile at USPS, UPS, and Fedex. I want to log in to each service and hit “print” to get shipping labels printed. no manual entry of customer data
–a degree of integration with a blog, comments, etc. I’m sure I can put up a standalone blog or forum and link to any relevant discussions back and forth (many of the shirts I will sell will have to do with current events).
–maybe some kind of chat module, so when I am online, I can chat with a customer if they have questions about a garment.
–tiered pricing – so if a user wants a personalized shirt on top of a default design, they can specify an alternative graphic, placement, or text, and the price is reflected in that
I’m sure some of this functionality is built in, some comes from modules, and some I’ll just have to figure out how to hack it together (ie the discussion site thing).
Today is June 10th, I’d like to be damn close to launching the site on July 10th. We’ll see…
My next step is to create a list of modules that can accomplish the above functionality, and start installing them on the test installation.
I think I will attempt to style the theme last, so that I can be sure that the functionality is solid before hacking the crap out of the design (I have a design that I think I’ll have to more or less start from scratch.) Luckily, I’ve found some tutorials that show you how to do this, although they assume more familiarity with code than I’ve got under my belt. But I’ve got books and I plan to learn aplenty over the next few weeks. Learning by doing indeed.