I had a conference call meeting with the Canadian Sales Manager and one of his technical gurus, to discuss e-store. They told me there was no additional charge as it was considered part of BBNC as of ver 6.10, although for reasons I do not understand, one has to request that the parts associated with setting up an e-store are "unlocked". The only cost mentioned was if we wanted BB to create the e-store for us - we do not.

As for "Jaguar" vs "Moped", I'm afraid that e-store is a very long way from being the "Jaguar". It appears to me to have very basic features only, but it does include a "shopping cart" and other things I think potential donors would expect to see. Some organizations have made e-store look good - check out www.leprosy.ca/SSLPage.aspx?pid=217, which was set up by one of our own from this forum, Jennifer Chase. The fact that it is integratged with RE is the deal maker for us.

We also have used creative approaches to some types of "symbolic giving". For example, I use a Fundraiser with Personal Pages for certain animals requiring funding for extraordinarly expensive procedures. Users are able to pick out an animal to support by donating specifically to that animal's care via their personal page. The pages includes a slideshow about the animal -we even show x-ray results in some cases to emphasize badly broken bones needing repair -- and updates on its condition, and of course the usual thermometer, donor list, etc. If anyone wants to peek at this setup, the address is: www.ottawahumane.ca/gifts/buddy_and_belle.cfm. However, for a large group of "gift" choices, I think a true e-store application is the way to go. Ask me later, after I have made my first attempt at setting up an e-store, if I still think it is a good idea!

As far as doing the "basics," such as allowing the user to shop and integrating with RE, the BBNC e-store is fine.

However, I was very disappointed with a lot of things. Here are a few that I can think of off the top of my head:

- Very little customization for text labels. There were a handful of fields I could control, but may of the important ones were unavailable. (Example: The heading that says "Credit and Debit information" when only credit cards are enabled... I had to actually change the code file to fix this.)
- No HTML editor for the descriptions of items
- No control over the 4 tribute options (if enabled). The client wanted to disable the "Please send an email on my behalf" option, but we weren't able to (not even in the code file).
- No control over the size or validation of the item attribute fields.
- The requirement for a physical inventory count and no way to allow users to add items that are "out of stock" to their cart.
- plus a few more headaches here and there (photo sizes, no paging, category requirements, not able to disable some functionality - "contact us" link is one example, etc, etc.)


From an RE integration point it appears to be ok, but that is really the only reason to use it. I think of it like that cough medicine... Tastes horrible, but it works. The e-store is poorly built, but it works. Though, if it has been made free, then it is well worth the price.

Sorry, in my comparison what I meant was that the e-store is the "Moped" where a full blown e-Commerce solution is the "Jaguar".

As far as the cost of the e-Store being free, that's news to me. I would double check with your account manager.

David, I would echo your comments 100%. Yes, technically, the BBNC eStore works, especially for symbolic giving. But it suffers from a poor initial design phase and has gotten worse as more and more customizations were added over time. From what I've heard from BBNC developers, Blackbaud knows this and knows that there is no way they can build an eStore that can compete both initially and in the long-term with other eCommerce solutions. Thus, the plans to scrap the current eStore and integrate an existing solution into BBNC/RE.