The future of X-Cart and LiteCommerce
 

Hi folks,

Since both X-Cart 4 and LiteCommerce 2 platforms require almost a complete rewrite in order to provide you with cool modern features like AJAX interface and so on, we have decided to develop a new shopping cart software on a completely new platform. It is planned to be released by the end of 2009. Although most likely it will be released under "X-Cart" brand, it could be considered as "X-Cart v5" and "LiteCommerce v3" at the same time. X-Cart and LiteCommerce users will be granted licenses on the same conditions.

Since we move all of our efforts towards development of the new platform, new releases of LiteCommerce and X-Cart will include bug-fixes only, not new features/improvements. The only exception is X-Cart v4.3 that is planned to be released this Spring and that will feature PCI-DSS compliance (however, it won't be listed under PA-DSS verified payment applications).

There is no hurry to migrate all LiteCommerce stores to X-Cart 4. The only reason I see is the PCI-DSS compliance (which rules don't apply on all e-commerce stores). For those LiteCommerce users, who require such a compliance right now we can exchange their LiteCommerce license to X-Cart - that will allow them to switch to X-Cart 4.3 and achieve PCI-DSS compliance before we release the new e-commerce platform.

Feel free to ask me if you have a question I haven't addressed.

Best regards,

Re: The future of X-Cart and LiteCommerce
 

The most obvious question I can see, is what features will this new cart have? Litecommerce and X-Cart are very different, with different features. This is why X-Cart has so many 3rd party add ons. Some of these 3rd party add ons are part of Litecommerce (or not so needed like easy checkout etc)

Re: The future of X-Cart and LiteCommerce
 

Does this mean that the new cart will not be compatible with the existing software and we will have to AGAIN start from scratch (the shop interface)? What about the database?

Re: The future of X-Cart and LiteCommerce
 

We've done some pretty heavy CSS modifications to the default template to make it match our WordPress K2 theme. Will this new version again have massive CSS changes like 4.1 -> 4.2 did and will need to re-do all my work again this year?
8O

Re: The future of X-Cart and LiteCommerce
 

Re: The future of X-Cart and LiteCommerce
 

Vyacheslav, good to see that the X-Cart platform will be taken to the next level in E-Commerce. To me this is an absolute must to stay ahead of the competition.

I would certainly like to hear more about all the new features on the roadmap. If I look at your fastest growing competitor their list of standard features is just amazing.

For me this means I'll stick with 4.1 untill the new platform will be released.

Re: The future of X-Cart and LiteCommerce
 

So if I'm understanding correctly, the LiteCommerce branch will end, and both X-Cart Gold and LiteCommerce will merge into an X-Cart Gold v5.

I know the nightmare of customers trying to migrate from LiteCommerce to X-Cart Gold - will there be a conversion program also worked on? The expense of moving from LiteCommerce to X-Cart v5 will likely leave a lot of users NOT upgrading. One of the big expenses being the conversion and importing of products. Templates we can re-do, no biggie, but the importing of products and customer data and variables etc - that's going to be key.

Will QualiTeam also be working on a conversion tool?

Re: The future of X-Cart and LiteCommerce
 

Agreed. I think that going forward for new enhancements a new platform is required and obviously x-cart have very good knowledge. All I would ask for is import of products and customers so they can still login and check their orders.

With this being said I dont see a reason to upgrade to 4.2 from 4.1, if it takes 6 months to become stable enough, add to that mods and design changes. If a new cart is due end of the year, then wait for this if your store is not broke or something.

Re: The future of X-Cart and LiteCommerce
 

Re: The future of X-Cart and LiteCommerce
 

A major part of our back end is being able to export customer orders to a csv file. That we import into Access. Will this new version be able to do this?
Also, will there still be support for 4. versions?

Right now we are at a crossroad, where we will be deciding it x-cart is really the way to go, or should we be looking at another option.