After some advice

[Charlie72]

Hi all,

I am after some advice from you knowledgeable people.I have been given the job of setting up an online store for a local sports club.They already have a website from which I'm wanting to link the shop.I'm just making initial enquiries at the moment so I can let them know an idea of costs etc.
I wouldn't say I was a complete novice but have no idea about web design ,maitenance etc so after reading up have come to the conclusion something like ekm would be most suitable and easy for me to run.Would you say they offer good value and service?
I've also been looking in to the options for taking credit cards but I need to find out what kind of account they have at the moment(I don't think it's a merchant account),does anyone know which would be the least expensive or would it be best to just stick to paypal?
I'll have a ready market of customers and hope to expand it to take subscriptions etc but I'm just after some idea of what's involved realy and costs.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and for any advice you can give :)

[mke]

£20 per month in perpetuity sounds like a lot to me. I'd rather pay more up front and not be tied in.

We do fully supported Zen Cart, which has hundreds of templates so it should be easy enough to find one which could fit well with the existing site, if you want it to. There are lots of other suppliers on these forums with a wide range of offerings.

There are wider options than just Paypal without monthly fees and all that, so you can get a good feel for turnover, number of transactions per time period in order to judge if you'd be better off with a full merchant account.

PM me with a phone number, or ask me to leave you mine, and I'll talk you through some of the options.

[Charlie72]

Thanks for your reply MKE,I'll get some more details and get back to you :)

[new2bus]

Zen Cart is an hybrid of OSCommerce and has support in forums etc from its user base or your Host will normally help you.

You will find that once your store is up and running how you want it, support is rarely required. (I will regret saying that, I know I will).

Put the web site in your profile then people will have a look, also you do not mention what type of sports club.

You can always start with PayPal or Google payments until you know your throughput, then add another payment gateway later when you are better informed of what is required. Most carts dupport the popular gateways so I would not worry about it.