Oscommerce website updating or start again?

LianneF

Free Member
Jul 18, 2007
798
53
Oxford, UK
Hi
As the business is growing i want to the website to look more professional and easier to use. We get a lot of complaints about customers having problems checking out and am probably lucky that we've sold what we have but now what to either update the website or possibly start again. See below for what changes i want making which aren't just adding modules so needs someone who is expereinced at coding etc.

Please pm with quotes, questions or advice on website or reply below.

Thanks for your time.
Lianne

Checkout:-

Add item to basket and then view checkout page whereby you see a small image of the item in the basket, price, quantity etc. Also want to display shipping options available without having to create an account first so on the first checkout page and have a drop down menu with countries that when you select say USA the shipping options are updated. Also want to be able to redeem gift vouchers and coupons at this stage.

Stage 2 of checkout - option to create an account, if yes then enter email and chosen password.

Then enter billing name and address with address finder

Have a tick box if delivery address is the same as billing, if not then need to enter and offer address finder here too if needed.

Would like to also show payment options on this page instead of going to another page and then you are taken to paypal, protx etc to pay.

Customer will receive order email and payment email.

Gift Finder

Better gift finder whereby I can add one product under more than one heading i.e gifts for her and birthday gifts.

Product Options

Some items come in different sizes and instead of listing them all individually, I wanted to have a drop down menu with different sizes eg. 15cm, 25cm etc but a different price needs to be set for each size (not +£2 etc but the actual price) and different weights for each for shipping costs and also to show if one size is out of stock.

After speaking to one company it might be best to start again rather than trying to change what I have but can’t afford to lose rankings so header tags, descriptions, urls etc can’t change, I would also prefer not to lose old orders etc, I guess customers could set up new accounts again if they wanted.

I have posted this in tenders also but not many people look there so thought i would try here too.

Thanks
Lianne
 

LianneF

Free Member
Jul 18, 2007
798
53
Oxford, UK
Hi
Yes these are the major changes i want doing but didn't think they were easy as my current website guy has already tried to do these and came up with what i have it won't be as simple as install a module as it will have an effect on the back end of the site etc.
Lianne
 
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Hi Lianne,

I reckon you could get someone to programme those changes in for you. Have you ever tried the getafreelancer website? I've used it myself for my site (PM me for my website address if you like) and have had good experiences.

You can get the work done at a really affordable price but, you've got to be picky about who you choose to do it!!

Gary :)
 
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strikingedge

Free Member
Jan 25, 2009
467
112
London
OSC is a fairly decent bit of software - its main advantage is that there are thousands of developers out there who can cheaply get you up and running.

I used it for 6 years and OSC3 looks pretty interesting. You may be better going with the CRELoaded version instead which has things like gift lists already integrated (it is an add-on with the vanilla install).

I'm not offering my services...but I would estimate it would take me about an hour to set-up OSC and then about a day to modify the templates so it looked exactly like (or a bit better) than your existing one.

If you have lots of products to add and a bit of custom coding required to get things sorted, then another day.

Two days in total, add a third for luck and problems....and you know you can discount any developers who estimate a month and charge £10K.

Also, companies like Sitewizard.co.uk offer a heavily modified OSC but offer it as a service. Their all in cost for set-up is £3K...but you could probably get them down.

If you need something relatively simple, then Shopify is a really great service and incredibly easy to set-up. It is v. cheap...but they do take a commission on each transaction.

If you need lots of functionality then Magento is probably the best out there - although you will need a fairly decent dedicated server to host it. Although if you are brave, you could try the Amazon S3 hosted version instead.

Setting up templates in Magento does require some good design & coding skills.
 
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LianneF

Free Member
Jul 18, 2007
798
53
Oxford, UK
Hi
Thanks to everyone who has replied, i have found someone to make the changes on the site so fingers crossed this will be the last time the site is re-done! also finally managed to get the site hosted somewhere else after problem with previous web designer.
Thanks
Lianne
 
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