osCommerce Templates that Work

OsCommerce is open source software that is used to create functional online stores. It seems like just about everybody is using it these days. You might wonder then why every single online store does not look or work exactly the same. This question highlights one of the things that is great about osCommerce. It is a very bare bones kind of program that allows for lots of customization in both its functionality and its appearance.

osCommerce Café is the main online source of osCommerce Templates. They have so many templates built now that they break them down into all the following categories:

Animals & Pets
Art & Photography
Books
Computers
Electronics
Fashion
Flowers
Food & Drink
Games
Gifts
Jewelry
Hobbies
Interior & Furniture
Kids & Toys
Music
Outdoors
Seasonal
Software
Sports

This might seem almost excessive, but when you think about it every category has some very unique attributes. To make an analogy, just think about the bricks and mortar versions of all these stores types of stores. An Electronics Store for instance would want to put the latest big sellers in a highly visible location and keep the extension chords on a back shelf while a jewelry store might want an impressive display of as many items as possible. Also, when a store sells items that have their appearance as a major selling point the appearance of the store itself is very important. Just look at some online art stores at random and then look at some auto parts stores.

So I guess I will use this last paragraph to give you my reviews of a few templates. I am going to try to be randomish about what I choose. The Art Jewelry Store is template number 72. It is very attractive. There are graphic elements with organic curves and most of the text and functions are in the bottom 1/4 of the page. I like it. I was thinking about jewelry making recently. Second random template...number 35 ,Clothes'n'More . It is very professional looking. There are no fancy graphic elements to distract from the product images. I think one great thing about a simple looking template is that a company that already has a graphic logo of some sort doesn't have competing elements on the page.

With over 70 templates. OsCommerceCafe.com is the first place you should look. You can get a 3 month membership for $89, compare this to competitors that charge $150 for one design.