modx +/- ecommerce solution in canada

Hi,

I am trying to find out if someone is using ModX + an ecommerce solution in Canada. It seems that tax calculation in Canada is not so easy.
Or should I go for something else like Magento or osCommerce.

Thx

Depends on the site you are building...

If its a site with a small store, use modx plus Foxycart or TreasureChest

if its a large store with a few extra pages, use Magento...

I heard Foxy cart does not know about Canada’s tax system.
I am not sure about Tresurechest.

Magento has something but for a small project I guess is to much.

Do you now any ecommerce website in canada that are built on tresureChest or FoxyCart?


Thx

What is the site selling to whom? I think that FoxyCart can handle most things but it depends on what you are selling and where it is being delivered.

Here in Canada there are more tax issues than you can imagine but not all of them are mandatory to collect or remit. What province is the site based? Are they selling physical goods or services? Are you selling these to the states/international at all?

You will need to talk to the CRA about GST/HST but typically collection of federal tax is based on where item was purchased. If your customers are paying for shipping then they are essentially picking it up from you and may only need to charge your provincial tax. If you are paying for shipping then you are delivering to them; selling in destination province and may be required to charge provincial sales tax on many items.

Our tax system is an eCommerce nightmare. Even accountants, the CRA and provincial tax departments can’t agree. Its easier to sell on the internet in Europe.

For a small shop you should be able to deal with FoxyCart and Magento for a larger cart. If you include the GST within your product pricing it may be easier to get away with this and it is completely legal to do so just make sure to let folks know they will have to calculate it themselves for input tax credits if customers are businesses.

And people wonder why eCommerce in Canada is only for the huge companies?

Best of luck.

Jay

thx smashingred,

I do not know all the details about the job but I they have around 150 products and usual they are small cheap jewelries.

Any thoughts on a shared ecommerce like http://www.volusion.com?

Nope, I’ve not used it. Honestly if they are small enough they may be able just to chage GST and their provincial sales tax. If they are in Atlantic Canada they would only need to charge HST or GST but not both.

I personally would use FoxyCart in this case. It means it will work without extra junk.

volusion actually does everything you need...I’ve seen it set up with GST and PST and it’s flexible enough to account for where you’re shipping to / from (based on how the site sells). it basically has a table you can point out every tax point based on as much detail or as little as you need. you just have to set this up in the settings not "change the software"...

plus the nice thing is it is all hosted, setup for you, and not very expensive....just my opinion though

Thx Palak

We use Searchfit. You can set up tax codes based on shipping destinations also. And, it has a fairly user friendly control panel. Volusion has strong features too, but I’ve heard the downside is the expensive bandwidth fees for going over. Also, Zen-cart is a free open source cart that can handle multiple tax codes. But open source can be cumbersome if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Quote from: ggarcia at Aug 19, 2008, 05:03 PM

But open source can be cumbersome if you don’t know what you’re doing.

That is one broad brush. Especially since you are posting to an Open Source app forum. Zen certainly is cumbersome though.

I’ll check out Volution.