Hi Windespirit,
Thanks for your post. I appreciate the time you look to submit your requirements.
The features you are asking for dont come in a normal cart by default. These are custom features hence cannot be part of every cart.
1- have the option of a drop down to choose from instead of trying to remember the same for all products. The same as how categories are done would work nicely.
Yes there are attributes and it is a drop down too.
2- the price is displaying next to every option (it looks terrible in my opinion). Really should only display if there is a price change to those certain options. In the back end, should only need to enter a new price if different from the standard product. As it stands, every single box (and image) has to have a entry or it won't save the product.
Price is displayed for every option so as to not to create any confusion in the users mind and to have it crystal clear.
With "quantity":
For custom made products, there really needs to be some kind of back-ordering option. For instance, 95% of my products are "made per order". True, this can be worked around and just enter 1000 available and add in the description they are made to order, but that can lead to a huge problem when it comes to bookkeeping.
As I told earlier, this is a customised requirement and not all clients need this feature.
With "payment":
Option to pay by 'check', and if possible a custom entry option?
I say custom entry for the purpose of allowing a customer to order, but let it be reviewed and then sent info on how to pay.
Though the cart has the option to pay by cheque, option to pay by credit and debit card is possible (though offline payment)
One more thing would be a nice time saver is a "save and stay" button next to the save button on product pages.
The option to "Continue Shopping" is already there in the cart or you can also simply "Add to cart" and move on to other shopping