using jr5 to build an online store

I am going to be building a small online shop for a local University's alumni. There will be approximately 20 products.

How do you think jr5 compares to something like Opencart?

One reason I'm considering jr5 for the task is they've indicated wanting to have some community-type features which I know jr5 would handle well. However, being unfamiliar with Foxycart, I'm not sure about things like gift codes, discounts, etc. Also how will Foxycart work on the backend interfacing with a shipping department fulfilling orders?
updated by @blindmime: 01/07/14 10:32:15AM

I haven't had much time to play around with Jamroom's Merchandise Store module, so I would defer to Michael on that since he was the primary developer on that module. I believe everything should be setup to work with a fullfillment department, but I'm not sure.

I'll check it out here and see if I can see if it would support that.

Thanks!


--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Your going to have more fine grained options in a purpose built shopping cart system.

The merchandise store only allows for 2 options for shipping. 'Domestic'/'International' Whereas I would expect a cart system to have integration with a shipping calculation system.

The way shipping fulfillment works is via a custom communications system on each order.

so the seller and the buyer can talk and keep each other updated on how the order is progressing. Once the order has arrived at its destination the seller can change the status of the order to completed and it will be moved into the completed orders list.

In this way a seller can know which orders are in progress and might need to be dealt with and which are finished.

There are no coupon codes in the system.

It was designed initially from the thinking "bands might want to ship a CD by mail" rather than "here is a full featured complete shopping cart system" So it might be up to what your needing, or it might not. Not sure.

I see. So the Merchandise Store's focus is really digital items, with a physical item possibility. Foxycart basically just handles the cart side of the things, while the store module determines what is provided to it from jr5. I think I was confused by all the options I saw at Foxycart, but you're saying the Merchandise Module doesn't implement things like coupons, gift certificates, etc. There isn't a weight field so no hooks to shipping calculators, no choosing expedited shipping, etc. There is a field for product quantity on a product -- does the merchandise store have any notifications on inventory thresholds?

no, the merchandise store is for anything posted.

It does have products quantity by default. You could add weight field in the 'Form Designer' easy enough, but would need a module to calculate the shipping.

Currently there are 2 fields that get sent to foxycart for shipping costs. 'domestic' and 'international' If the destination country is the same as the stores location then domestic is added to the shipment. if not international is added to the shipment costs.

I'm not seeing the form designer in the new or update product form.

need to be logged in as the admin to see the 'Form Designer'.

I'm logged in as admin here. Is this where I should see it?
updated by @blindmime: 12/07/13 09:59:15PM

better double check that you are the admin user. If you are, then run the normal checks. Mine shows up here:
updated by @michael: 12/07/13 10:14:05PM

Hmm. All the checks checked out so I reloaded the store module and now I see the form designer.