Kryptronic Software Support Forum

If your current cart does everything you need then use the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" option.

Mike Simpson
wwwdjshopper.net

Thanks guys

I think it's great and much better than 5.1.  Having said that, the lack of a manual (the 'manual' they call a manual is NOT a manual) is frustrating but fortunately, Dave and others on the forum usually answer every question asked.  5.1 is to 6.0 as ms word is to photoshop...I prefer to think of it as wordperfect 5.1 to ms word 2003.  Major features to consider: all php, xhtml strict compliance, css, seo urls...these are nice to have out of the box.

You HAVE to know html basics to be able to properly customize the cart (unless you want an ugly stock design that has no personality).  I don't technically know php/css/xhtml, but I know enough programming basics to figure out how to edit things (but not write from scratch).

Thanks for your comments mindcorp.

mindcorp wrote:

Cannot believe the opacity of this product.

Would you please explain what you mean with that statement?

mindcorp wrote:

Is there anybody who has found this to be easier to use?

You'll think that I'm biased but when I first saw it I found incredibly easier to use and understand than the Tiki interface.  It is by no means perfect but I've never seen an interface that is.  The adage that you can please some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time comes to mind.

For what its worth the beta testers that first saw the interface "beat up" Nick about it almost from day one.  Since then it has improved tremendously and there is still room for improvement (always will be probably).

As for building it from the ground up, the core, right now, is hard coded to use a specific skin for the backend.  There has been some discussion here in the fora about relaxing that but it's far from trivial simply because there are things that absolutely must be available in the backend to prevent getting into the position of not being able to manipulate things.

I want to put in my two cents here.  If Kryptronic would remember who this software is sold to and listened to them, this would be a GREAT product!  Most people who would purchase this program are small business people.  Most are non-techy and do not have the time to learn how to operate a complex program or one that is poorly designed on the backend, or they do not have the money to hire someone to run their store for them.

A store on the internet has one function: Selling Products.  6.0 does a great job of this as have all of Kryptronics  programs.  What it doesn't do is address the principle function of the backend: filling orders.  This is something that most shopping carts on the market also seem to be lacking in.

The main daily function of a store owner should be filling orders, so the backend of a shopping cart should be set up with this in mind. Make it easy to fill orders without having to jump thru hoops trying to do this function.  Right now, the main function of the backend is to confuse the average person to the point that they refuse to use the program.  I have had most of my customers that were using 5.1 and want to upgrade their cart go to some other shopping cart.  Whether you realize it or not, Kryptronic is bleeding customers when it should be going crazy with new customers.  I have no idea what volumes Kryptronic is doing, but I do know what I am hearing from my customers so that is what I am basing this statement on.

I personally have a store that is doing over $10,000 a month in sales and I am sticking with 5.1 while I either look for a more usable cart or 6.0 matures enough so that it is usable for the average user.  In my case, that average user is my wife who is very non-techy.  I showed her 6.0 and spent hours trying to teach her how to manage the store but finally gave up and went back to 5.1 as she understands what she needs to do.

Again, remember who buys your product and uses it and make it easy for them to do what they need to do on a daily basis, and you will have more customers than you know what to do with!

Last edited by TerryA (04-03-2008 17:58:25)

Would an admin interface (for non-superuser accounts) that looked something like this be any better?  This isn't a mock-up but an actual screen shot of something I threw together over the weekend and it works (there are still a couple of minor kinks to iron out).  I don't have any say in whether or not something like this ever gets released but my "home boss" thinks it's a lot better than the default backend. 

There is still a lot of room for improvement but this seems to eliminate some of the confusion and makes commonly used things for a store owner readily available.

It is an improvement, but I don't think that is is going far enough.  What I would like to see is Manage Orders when you first open admin.  Now all you see in the main body of the page is info about the program that you would only use on a few occasions.  You could take a lesson from most of the Windows software and put this stuff under an ABOUT selection in the menu.  IF there is upgrade or other important news, you could have it pop up at the top of the Manage Orders page.

On the manage orders page, have batch processing capabilities capabilities as a standard part of the program and you would have the best program on the market.

That's a good point.  Except when we are setting up the cart, most of the features aren't used regularly.  We don't touch all.css daily when the site goes live (just an example), but if we're getting orders, we'll want to deal with managing orders, etc.

The best option obviously is to be able to pick and choose what your most commonly used features so we can have our own custom menu are but if not, then maybe two interfaces - one that is most commonly used items during cart/site setup, and another when site is live and changes are less likely to be made but managing orders/users is daily.

James...

I know...I can have an admin login that I use when I'm needing this 'focused-features' (I made that up ) instead of everything I get with my superadmin login.