Drupal CMS E-Commerce - its advantages and disadvantages and your easy way to owning an online store

Drupal CMS E-Commerce - its advantages and disadvantages 

and your easy way to owning an online store

Overview of Drupal:

Drupal is an open-source content management system (CMS) used to build websites and applications. Built with PHP and MySQL, it was launched in 2000 by Dries Buytaert and is maintained by a large community of developers. Some key facts about Drupal:

• Used by over 1 million websites globally including both small and large organizations.
• Extensible and customizable architecture with thousands of free modules and themes. 
• Scalable for small to enterprise-level websites with advanced features.
• Regular security updates and a large knowledge base for support.
• Active community with conferences, events, and resources for users and developers.
• Modular architecture - Core Drupal along with thousands of freely available modules can be mixed and matched to build customized sites.
• Content structure - Flexible content types, fields, taxonomy, and views allow structuring content in powerful ways.
• Security - Regular security updates and checks ensure Drupal sites stay protected against vulnerabilities. 
• Performance and scalability - Inbuilt caching, bandwidth management, and infrastructure optimization provide high performance.
• Open source - The platform is developed and maintained by a large community of developers and businesses.
• Access control - Fine-grained permissions system to manage user roles and access.
• Multilingual - Support for building multi-lingual sites out of the box.
• API-first - Strong web services and headless capabilities through REST APIs.
• Backwards compatibility - Upgrades don't break existing sites with strict backward compatibility checks.

Drupal Commerce Review:

Drupal Commerce is an E-Commerce software built on top of Drupal CMS. It provides tools to build online stores and customize the shopping experience.

Key Features:

• Flexible catalog management with product variations, attributes, discounts, etc.
• Coupon management, product promotions, and automation via the Rules module.
• Inventory tracking with a backorder and low-stock notifications.
• Reporting on orders, products, customers, and sales performance. 
• Extend the functionality with hundreds of Drupal modules like Views, Panels, etc.
• Secure infrastructure with regular security updates from the Drupal community.
• Headless commerce support to deliver content across devices and apps.
• Product management - Create product variations, smart collections, attributes, pricing, and imagery.
• Cart/Checkout - Highly customizable checkout with options for guest, registered, and one-page checkout.
• Orders - Detailed order management with statuses, notifications, and online payments.
• Payment - Integrate payment gateways like Stripe, Authorize.Net, PayPal, etc. 
• Shipping - Calculate rates dynamically from FedEx, UPS, USPS, etc at checkout. 
• Tax - Flexible tax rate configuration based on products, customers, locations, etc.
• Promotions - Create coupons and custom promotions using the Rules module.
• Analytics - Integration with Google Analytics plus custom reports.
• SEO - Out-of-the-box search engine optimization.
• Licenses - Open source GPLv2 license allows complete customization.

Disadvantages of Drupal:

• Steep learning curve - Drupal has a lot of configuration options that can make the platform difficult to learn for non-technical users.
• Fragmented documentation - Since Drupal is open source, documentation can be scattered across various sources like wiki, guides, forums, etc. 
• Slower performance - The modular nature and database-driven structure of Drupal can impact performance if not optimized properly. 
• Higher resource requirements - A typical Drupal site requires more server resources like CPU, and RAM compared to simpler CMSs.
• Complex upgrades - Upgrading Drupal core and contrib modules requires testing to ensure compatibility and prevent breaking changes.
• Limited commerce scalability - Drupal Commerce may not scale as well as other solutions for large catalogs with thousands of products.

How to Register, Install, and Own a Drupal Store:

1. Register for a www.drupal.org account which gives access to community forums and documentation.
2. Install Drupal using Composer or manually by downloading Drupal core files.
3. Install the Drupal Commerce module and its dependencies via Composer or manually.
4. Choose and install a preferred Drupal theme for the storefront visual design.
5. Customize the store using Drupal's admin interface - add products, configure taxes, shipping, etc.
6. Install payment, shipping, and other required modules from the Drupal modules directory. 
7. Test the store completely before launching live.
8. For a production site, set up hosting, domains, security, and performance optimization.
9. Manage and promote the online Drupal Commerce store like any other E-Commerce business.

In summary, Drupal Commerce requires more technical skills but provides an extensible E-Commerce platform. With proper development and optimization, Drupal Commerce can power stores from small to large scale.

Conclusion:

Drupal Commerce enables building scalable E-Commerce sites leveraging the flexibility and extensibility of Drupal. The modular architecture makes it customizable for small to large stores. With its active community and constant improvements, Drupal Commerce is a great open-source platform for any E-Commerce business.