Electronic commerce in Croatia and a comparison of open source tools for the development of electronic commerce

Electronic commerce (also known as e-commerce) has experienced a constant growth and development in recent years. Thus, customers and sellers are turning to this type of business in hope that it improves their sales. In order to create such a website, it is important to have proper tools and skills. A person may opt for two options and these are: commercial or open source. The objective of this study is to explore the selected open source tools for creating an e-commerce site. The purpose and goal is to create an e-commerce site using all of these tools that will be compared in order to make a comparative analysis of the offered possibilities. The following three tools were selected: AbanteCart, PrestaShop and OsCommerce. The study describes in short the concept of e-Business and e-commerce, examines the growth and the development of e-commerce in Croatia, shows the most visited domestic e-commerce sites, and in more detail analyzes the possibilities of each of the tools. Finally, a comparison of the tools has been made and the conclusion about which of these tools is the most suitable for creating the best initial e-commerce site has been drawn.