Using Drupal for E-Commerce
So, you're using Drupal to run your site. You'd like to sell products to site visitors. What are your options? This page provides an overview of some of the available solutions.
Drupal and Paypal
You can 'roll-your-own' integration, or use the LM_Paypal module.
The LM_Paypal module is not intended to be a full e-commerce solution, but it does provide some types of built-in PayPal payment notifications, and when payment is completed, LM_Paypal module receives and records the notification. It allows for very simple automated donations, subscriptions, and paid advertisements. You should evaluate this module to see if it meets your needs. There are some significant limitations, so be sure to read the issues queue to ensure that the module does what you want it to do.
Drupal and E-Junkie
E-Junkie is a lightweight online shopping cart and fulfillment system. This blurb, taken from their home page, describes the system.
E-junkie provides shopping cart and buy now buttons to let you sell downloads and tangible goods on your website, eBay, MySpace, Google Base, CraigsList and other websites using PayPal Standard, PayPal Pro, Google Checkout, Authorize.Net, TrialPay, ClickBank and 2CheckOut.
For merchants selling downloads, we automate and secure the digital delivery of files and codes. If you are selling tangible goods, we automate the shipping calculation and inventory management. Our shopping cart has a built in sales tax, VAT, packaging and shipping cost calculator.
E-Junkie Drupal Integration
That sounds great, but how do I integrate E-Junkie with Drupal? At present, I have not found any third-party Drupal modules offering E-Junkie and Drupal integration.
There are integration examples and how-to posts floating around on the web, however:
- Using E-junkie with Drupal (E-Junkie forum)
- E-Junkie Shopping Cart works with jQuery Update module in Drupal 5 (Drupal.org)
Drupal and Ubercart
Ubercart is an extensible e-commerce system that provides native product and shopping cart management within Drupal. Configuration can be somewhat complicated, but it does offer a complete solution with numerous add-in modules. You should plan for significant configuration, customization, and theming effort if the standard appearance and features are not close to what you want.
Extension modules of varying quality are available, and these may help you implement the features you want–be sure to set up a test site and verify all functionality before "going live".
Drupal and E-Commerce Module
The Drupal E-Commerce Module is a full-featured e-commerce solution. It is a "heavyweight" module, so you should budget adequate time for learning and testing the system before putting it into production.
Other Drupal Modules for E-Commerce
Here's a list of other modules and solutions that I've found; I've not had time to look into any of these at present but I will update this page as time permits.
- Drupal E-Commerce sounds promising, but I'm not sure of its development status. Looks like it's "in progress".
Talk Back
Do you know of any great e-commerce solutions for Drupal that I haven't mentioned here? Or, do you have feedback about one of the Drupal e-commerce solutions I've mentioned in my post? Leave a comment!
