Satchmo is an open source

Open source

The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

 online store management system using the Django web application framework. It was initially designed as a Python

Python (programming language)

Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...

 based project in order to avoid some of the perceived common pitfalls and shortcomings of similar PHP

PHP

PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...

 based projects. The Django framework was chosen as a foundation because it provides a number of useful, robust, tested features. It is freely available under the BSD License

Features

Satchmo has a large list of features thanks in part to its Django underpinnings. It is highly flexible being able to use any database

Database

A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...

 system that Django supports including MySQL

MySQL

MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...

, PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL, often simply Postgres, is an object-relational database management system available for many platforms including Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, MS Windows and Mac OS X. It is released under the PostgreSQL License, which is an MIT-style license, and is thus free and open source software...

, and SQLite

SQLite

SQLite is an ACID-compliant embedded relational database management system contained in a relatively small C programming library. The source code for SQLite is in the public domain and implements most of the SQL standard...

, as well as the ability to leverage Django's power internationalization

Internationalization

In economics, internationalization has been viewed as a process of increasing involvement of enterprises in international markets, although there is no agreed definition of internationalization or international entrepreneurship...

 framework. Satchmo also supports several different product types including downloadable products, subscription products, custom products, and gift certificates.

Some important features listed on their website include:

• multiple payment models
• flexible shipping options
• unlimited number of images per product
• automatic thumbnail
  Thumbnail
  Thumbnails are reduced-size versions of pictures, used to help in recognizing and organizing them, serving the same role for images as a normal text index does for words...
  
   image generation
• inventory tracking
• tax tables
• customer accounts
• user comments and ratings for products
• flexible discount codes
• included translations for seven languages
• date and currency formatting based on locale
• encryption
  Encryption
  In cryptography, encryption is the process of transforming information using an algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. The result of the process is encrypted information...
  
   of credit card information
• caching
  Cache
  In computer engineering, a cache is a component that transparently stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere...
  
  
• a suite of included unit testing
• generation of PDF
  Portable Document Format
  Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
  
   invoices, packing slips, and shipping labels
• full store product searching
• Google analytics
  Google Analytics
  Google Analytics is a free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website. The product is aimed at marketers as opposed to webmasters and technologists from which the industry of web analytics originally grew. It is the most widely used website...
  
   integration
• Google adwords
  AdWords
  Google AdWords is Google's main advertising product and main source of revenue. Google's total advertising revenues were USD$28 billion in 2010. AdWords offers pay-per-click advertising, cost-per-thousand advertising, and site-targeted advertising for text, banner, and rich-media ads. The AdWords...
  
   support
• Google base
  Google Base
  Google Base was an online database provided by Google into which any user can add almost any type of content, such as text, images, and structured information in formats such as XML, PDF, Excel, RTF, or WordPerfect. As of September 2010, the product has since been promoted to Google Merchant Center...
  
  feeds
• newsletter support
• recently viewed items
• wishlists