Budget e-commerce site

Strontium Dog · Dec 22, 2009

Hi folks,
I'm looking for a budget e-commerce site which will allow me to sell pdf downloads. I would anticipate arranging CC payments via paypal. The products are quite low volume / high margin, so I'm not too worried about the transaction charges. I'm looking to do 4-8 sales per week.

What I really want is a starter site which I can set-up and maintain myself.

If my idea shows signs of working I would spend money on a proper site after a few months. Basically I want to avoid the classic case of spending a fortune on setting up an idea and making close to zero sales (believe me I've seen it !).

I realise my site wont be optimised initially, but I'd rather take that low risk approach.

Any ideas?

Ali-v-8 · Dec 22, 2009

Your a 2000ad reader. Thought we had vanished into thin air

Strontium Dog said:
Hi folks,
I'm looking for a budget e-commerce site which will allow me to sell pdf downloads. I would anticipate arranging CC payments via paypal. The products are quite low volume / high margin, so I'm not too worried about the transaction charges. I'm looking to do 4-8 sales per week.

What I really want is a starter site which I can set-up and maintain myself.

If my idea shows signs of working I would spend money on a proper site after a few months. Basically I want to avoid the classic case of spending a fortune on setting up an idea and making close to zero sales (believe me I've seen it !).

I realise my site wont be optimised initially, but I'd rather take that low risk approach.

Any ideas?

Strontium Dog · Dec 22, 2009

Yeah Ali, I've been suffering from "future Shock!" for years !!

Andycal · Dec 22, 2009

My mate's uncle was in Strontium Dog the band.

Buuuuuuuut, before we go completely off topic

Can't you just go for OSCommerce or something? Free shopping cart and not too crazy to set up.

Or if you fancy a mess yourself, Dreamweaver + Web Assist's download extension.

Ooooooooor, go to Elance and post a request for just what you want.

Now, I'm off to dig out my old ABC Warrior strips.....

Strontium Dog · Dec 22, 2009

Hi Andycal,

My technical knowledge is limited to installing and using various business applications. Don't really have any programming knowledge

Cheers

Andycal · Dec 22, 2009

If you've got a few hundred dollars to do this then, just pop along to Elance.com and ask for a quote to set up OSCommerce or something similar. You'll just need to explain your products and they'll do the rest.

Find a really good supplier by checking their feedback. It'll be easy.

Deleted member 61074 · Dec 23, 2009

If my idea shows signs of working I would spend money on a proper site after a few months.

bit of a double edged sword here, if you dont have a poroper site it may not take off...

Magento has a free edition

or how about trying a cart with a monthly fee

Dawg · Dec 23, 2009

Muck around with a Wordpress install to make it look "propa", wack in this plugin, which "allows you to sell any form of digital products and services from your wordpress blog securely with complete automation." It's $30 I recall, and easy peasy.

Or go the OS cart/Magento route and spend hours happily dicking around. It's your Christmas.

Strontium Dog · Dec 23, 2009

Dunerider - I know what you mean, but even if I just get one sale a week, I'll be in profit and can think about going for it. If I cant get one sale per week even with a crap site, then the idea is no good

Deleted member 61074 · Dec 23, 2009

If I cant get one sale per week even with a crap site, then the idea is no good

I admire your logic, which i can not fault. Indeed it made me smile

There are many duff websites out there making sales, esp where their product is unique.

I endorse the wordpress idea (i didnt know it had a digital download extension) - WP is much easier than magento.

masterquee · Dec 23, 2009

Simply all you need is a site that accepts what forms of payment for pdf downloads..

Be specific .....

Get a hosting cpanel, you will get a free site software installer, such as fantastico, e.t.c. Page me if you need more help on that

Strontium Dog · Dec 23, 2009

Looks like wordpress with a plug-in might be the thing to go for then. I might sound a bit niaeve, but presumably this is quite intuitive to use - I had a brief read of the website this morning, they recommend hosts etc (I still need to sort my domain out). Presumably if I muck it up I can just start over!

masterquee · Dec 23, 2009

First of all , think of a domain name,purchase that, get a hosting account on any good hosting site such as godaddy.com , if you have that method of payment; good for you. Contact me after having acquired domain and hosting, i will help you in a way to set it up, at my leisure time.

edmondscommerce · Dec 23, 2009

If it was me I would go for CREloaded

after all the title of the thread is budget and CRE is 100% free.

http://www.creloaded.com/pages.php?pID=247&CDpath=179

paypal is built in, as is proper catalogue, customer and order management so you just install, configure, upload a spreadsheet of your products and categories and you are away.

benjamin_c · Dec 23, 2009

tigercommerce.co.uk seems to offer everything you require, they fees are tiny and they offer intergration for most psp's including paypal, take a look

Paul Kelly ICHYB · Dec 23, 2009

Joomla + virtuemart!

RBS · Dec 26, 2009

Strontium Dog said:
Hi folks,
I'm looking for a budget e-commerce site which will allow me to sell pdf downloads. I would anticipate arranging CC payments via paypal. The products are quite low volume / high margin, so I'm not too worried about the transaction charges. I'm looking to do 4-8 sales per week.

What I really want is a starter site which I can set-up and maintain myself.

If my idea shows signs of working I would spend money on a proper site after a few months. Basically I want to avoid the classic case of spending a fortune on setting up an idea and making close to zero sales (believe me I've seen it !).

I realise my site wont be optimised initially, but I'd rather take that low risk approach.

Any ideas?

Try this:
Wordpress (free engine with great SEO out of the box +lot of free themes)
+ plugin called "WP Shopping Cart" (also free)

It shouldnt cost you more than 30£ for somebody to install Wordpress.

http://wordpress.org/
http://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/

M178591 · Dec 30, 2009

Sent you a PM about this yesterday. Hope to hear back from you soon.

oatz · Dec 31, 2009

RobCCTV said:
Try this:
Wordpress (free engine with great SEO out of the box +lot of free themes)
+ plugin called "WP Shopping Cart" (also free)

It shouldnt cost you more than 30£ for somebody to install Wordpress.

http://wordpress.org/
http://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/

What's the difference/which is better, between "WP Shopping Cart" & "WP ecommerce" http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-e-commerce/ plug-ins please? I'm looking into something similar but asthetics is key. I'm looking at either the wordpress plus cart route or Dreamweaver with ecart 4 plug-in?

Many thanks in advance

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