creating a retail website.

[curiousman]

Hi there, I'm new here so please bear with me if my question sounds stupid to you.

I've some products that I want to sell online. Rather than posting them on Ebay, I've decided to create my own site to sell them. (Not sure this is a wise thing to do)

My biggest problem is setting up the site. I know there are many e-commerce hosting sites that offer hosting service at a fee and I'm willing to pay. But I don't think they design websites for free. So, I have no choice but to design my own website (I'm on a tight budget). I'm not looking to develop a complicated website. Just a simple one like the one below will do:

w ww.chicwear.com.my

I like the "browse" panel on the left where product categories are listed. When you click on the product of your choosing, the product will show up in the center. And if you click on the picture, it will take you the shopping cart. I wonder what applications are needed to build this type of website. I'm not an expert on web programming but do have programming background like C++, C, basic javascript.

I think I'm looking for an easy-to-use e-commerce website builder that follows the principle of "what you see is what you get". (something that doesn't require months of intensive programming to get it work)

FYI, I plan to use Paypal as it provides free shopping cart feature and is resonable priced.

Any advise would be appreciated. Sorry for the long post. I hope my explanation is clear and sorry if it's unclear. English is not my mother tongue. Let me know if you need any clarification. Thanks in advance!

[Wishingweb Ltd]

The site you have referred to uses asp programming to dynamically produce product pages and sales page froma backend database storing pictures and product information. This could also be effectively created using Php and MySQL which would be easy enough for you to teach yourself in a few weeks if you have a strong programming background.

The layout part of the site looks like basic CSS to me, again if you are familiar with programming principles you could teach yourself CSS.

Hope this helps, please feel free to contact me if you need any more help.

[curiousman]

Thank you, WhishingWeb for the analysis! I did some SQL a long time ago. I also used a bit of ASP in the past.

I was told in another forum to use OScommerce and I have no idea what it does. What would you recommend a new web creator like me?
I would apprecaite if you could help me see the advantages and disadvantage in a nutshell. There is too much information online and they don't help me make a decision. An couple of examples to illustrate the differences would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

PS: I was quite familiar with Frontpage 5 years ago and designed my own basic homepage in pure HTML and DHTML before I learned Frontpage. As you can see, I'm outdated on web technologies.

[Wishingweb Ltd]

To be honest I would never touch any of the ecommerce packages available as I've always built my own custom ones so I am probably not the most reputable judge. Have you not considered building it yourself?

With a programming background you would understand the main functionality of the system.

[Wishingweb Ltd]

Having a look at oscommerce I suppose it could be a quick solution for you as it works with paypal and would only require basic Php to link it to your site (Which they probably provide).

[curiousman]

Thanks for the super quick reply. The problem is I don't have much time to invest in developing a site. Actually, I have an itch to try it out because it doesn't look that difficult but I could be wrong. Let me read a bit more and if I have any questions, you'll see me here again. Thanks a lot. You have been a great help!!!

[Wishingweb Ltd]

Have a look at the oscommerce site curiousman and see what you think, I'll be on the computer most of the weekend working so if you need any help getting something sorted I'd be happy to help you out so feel free to PM me.

[curiousman]

Thanks, Wishingweb. I'm checking it out as we speak. One more question, perhaps I should create a new thread, do you think adding a site to Google and advertising with GoogleAdsense are the best ways to draw traffic to the site? Are these the ways professionals get traffic? I haven't tried them out yet but am kind of worried they won't do much good and that my business will go under in no time even after spending a couple of months getting it up and running. Perhaps, I'm thinking too far ahead. Any advice?

[borobabe]

I have recently set my site up using zen cart which is a spin off from oscommerce but having worked with both I think zen cart is easier to use. It is free, you just need to pay for a hosting account. Alternatively there is a low cost alternative (http://www.store2go.net)that I use for another site (http://www.carisgiftshop.co.uk), which is certainly worthy of the title you get what you pay for, but works well enough and may be easy entry system for you.

[curiousman]

I was told not to use Pay pal's cart because " you will be lacking is the ability to add customer information and order information to a database for retrieval."

What does that suppose to mean? Why would I want to that information?
Does Zen have this "problem"?

I know the question is stupid. I'm really new to e-commerce. Every bit of information I can get is helpful :(
There are so many questions and there's tons of information on the internet ...overwhelming.

[Wishingweb Ltd]

Thanks, Wishingweb. I'm checking it out as we speak. One more question, perhaps I should create a new thread, do you think adding a site to Google and advertising with GoogleAdsense are the best ways to draw traffic to the site? Are these the ways professionals get traffic? I haven't tried them out yet but am kind of worried they won't do much good and that my business will go under in no time even after spending a couple of months getting it up and running. Perhaps, I'm thinking too far ahead. Any advice?

I would get someone who knows what they are doing to do your SEO for you as this could be money very well spent.

[DotNetWebs]

...I'm not an expert on web programming but do have programming background like C++, C, basic javascript...

With that background you may also like to investigate asp.net, you can choose the language you use (C# would be my recommendation) and everything you need to start developing is free:

Developer Tools:

http://www.microsoft.com/express/vwd/

Starter Kits:

http://www.asp.net/community/projects/

Having said that, whatever technology you choose, trying to create a viable, fully functioning, eCommerce site from scratch is going to be no mean feat.

Regards

Dotty

[collateit]

I wouldn't even attempt to write your own eCommerce site when the work has already been done for you! There are numerous shopping cart systems (I happen to use tradingeye.com and cactushop.com) which can be purchased relatively cheapily and have good UK support. Why reinvent the wheel?

If you want to get up and running quick with minimum fuss and don't want to worry the technical side of things have a look at shopify.com. It's a hosted solution so nothing to install and you could be up and working in under 30 mins no problem. There is a monthly fee of $25 but but only if you sell more than about 5 orders a month.

You could also try bigcartel.com which is free I believe.

If your half serious about doing this I would get a proper merchant account to accept cards and use a payment system like Worldpay, Protx or SecureTrading as PayPal can turn off for some people.

[Workaholic2008]

Hi There,

Well personally our webdesigner uses os commerse or EZ commerse depending on the type of website as we have several.

As for online merchant accounts to accept payments then try paypal, or worldpay etc, there are so many to choose from.

BEWARE though, STAY WELL CLEAR OF NOCHEX. They froze our account last week and requested some info which we sent them right away, since then we have never heard from, they changed the account managers phone number and our emails get blocked when emailing them and worst of all they have a large amount of our funds which they are not letting us access so they have really damaged our family business and cost us alot of money. Even if/when they do re-open our account we will probably take our business elsewere as we have been looking on the internet and read so many nochex horror stories were theyve been closing down so many business merchant accounts as they are having financial issues, which doesnt really make sense. Im sure Nochex will experience the consequences though of illegally closing so many business merchant accounts as theres alot of people trying to group together in the forums to sew Nochex for business damages. karma always comes round, but i dont understand why nochex keep closing accounts for no valid reason because the businesses like us just go to other better merchant providers.

[Office Accessories]

Have you looked into GroovyCart, I use this to sell my Office accessories. You can change the colours to suit what you are selling. It's really simple to use.

[boho]

My biggest problem is setting up the site. I know there are many e-commerce hosting sites that offer hosting service at a fee and I'm willing to pay. But I don't think they design websites for free. So, I have no choice but to design my own website (I'm on a tight budget). I'm not looking to develop a complicated website. Just a simple one like the one below will do:

w ww.chicwear.com.my


There are some very good hosted ecommerce providers and it is feasible to have a predesigned shop front as part of the cost, which leaves you with the part you really want to concentrate on which is running your shop selling your items. Unless you know what you're doing and have a real interest in web design and programming then I personally think its far better and safer to utilise the skills of those who know how to build safe secure sites.

You could take a look at my own ecommerce host www.internetretailer.biz (http://www.internetretailer.biz) they have a demo store that you can have a play with and see if it fulfills your requirements.

[robdaniels]

You can set up a PayPal account in less than a minute. It takes a little longer to become certified, but if need be, you can accept a credit card or PayPal payment form someone with very little trouble and no paperwork. The PayPal module in osC is easy to configure and enable, and is proven to be stable (continue button neglect issues non-withstanding, but we’ll get into the IPN and Auto Return features and why they are important a little later). A PayPal account costs nothing to create, there are no monthly fees, and the per-transaction fees PayPal charges are the lowest in the industry. PayPal is the absolute best payment method available for a new ecommerce storefront owner, because you can get your store live and accepting payments, without much of an investment in time or money.
I have my own complete ecommerce solution website that is infyecommercesolution.com

[brucet]

In your shoes I would definitely start by choosing a payment system, since that is the most technically difficult and tightly regulated area, and you really can't go it alone.

There are plenty of low-cost shopping cart systems that make it quite simple to include an 'add to cart' button with each product on your web site, and you will need one that comes integrated with the payment system you plan to use.

Those are fine if you just have a few products. If you have more, it is more practicable to use a fully-fledged ecommerce package that provides drag and drop and cut and paste management of the product catalogue, and some kind of order processing functionality to help you manage orders and print invoices.

You also need to check that whichever product you choose can handle shipping charges and taxation for the countries and regions you plan to sell into.