eCommerce sites....

[Mitchell]

I have created a few websites for mates recently outside of work (Web designer) and one of my mates has asked for an eCommerce site. Work have there own CMS/ eCommerce system which I wasn't involved in setting up - I am used to integrating/ modifying this to create new sites.

One of my mates has asked for an eCommerce website, which isn't something I have come across on my own before. How do you go about integrating a shopping cart/ checkout into the site? I presume there are plug-in type solutions that you can buy and use in the site?

If so - has anyone got any recommendations? it's only early days so far, but I'd like to know for the future.

Cheers, Mitch

 

[cava83]

There are so many different things to take into consideration.

What CMS are they using at the moment?
Do they need a payment gateway and if so, what cards?
What is their budget?
How many items?

Normally, most people use ebay shops for starting off, then basing it from there.

Give us some answers back and we can see from there,

G.

 

[Mitchell]

The website will be built from scratch by myself - I was just explaining I have got experience with this kind of thing.

I am unsure on that list at the moment - as I said it is early stages. All I know is that they want a website which they can sell clothes through.
Can an eBay shop be integrated into a website?

I have done a bit of looking around and found things like http://www.zen-cart.com/ and http://www.cubecart.com/
I found one at work the other day which looked good from what I could see, but I can't find it now!

The only other option is offer them a website through our company, but I'm sure the price will put them off for what they are looking for.

Cheers
Mitch

 

[El Marko]

http://www.magentocommerce.com !

 

[chowiekid]

im looking for one of these to be made for me, maybe even a couple.

but im looking at something amazing, dont know if any1 could point me in the correct direction of getting something made, got a fair amount to spend on one so really want the best that can be made.

ill have over 20,000 different products and want drop downs where people can change colours etc if you get me, something you cant do on ebay in the automotive side of things, as they pawn you on the fact there are so many different cars and types, so they make 1-20p every different listing, and as i list for every car thats easily over 5,000 listings for what is 1 item!!!!

seems like the smart rout to take as you loose the stupid ebay fees and amazon fees.

sorry to steal a thread but seemed like a good idea to ask

 

[cava83]

My thought is quite simple with this kind of things.

You can build it on your own, but why when;

a) There are dedicated people who concentrate just on this, purely on this.
b) security, how can you ensure that your knowledge supersedes that of "professionals" on this area
c) profitability - how many ours are you going to dedicate, simply just to say "I built this from scratch"

Don't get me wrong, I fully envy people who are amazing at coding, but even they, it's the amalgamation of many "nerds" who create these products.

I would consider looking at things such as;

Volusion
Magento (can be expensive)
Click cart pro

Any many others, no name a few.

 

[Mitchell]

I am back at work today and I have had another look around - found a few better services such as Vendder, Shopify, Magento and FoxyCart. Anyone got any experience with these or recommendations? I see someone has already suggested Magento. I'm going to research costs and things of these and then suggest the best one to my mate.

You can build it on your own, but why when;
a) There are dedicated people who concentrate just on this, purely on this.
b) security, how can you ensure that your knowledge supersedes that of "professionals" on this area
c) profitability - how many ours are you going to dedicate, simply just to say "I built this from scratch"

I see exactly what you mean - but I want to improve my skills and knowledge. I'm 19 at the moment and still learning, but at some point in the future I would love to set up my own web business - which is why I need to take in as much as I can now. I don't want to get too used to my works CMS system to rely on it, as when I don't have access to it I would be lost! I wan't to be able to do it all alone - so in a way yes - I do want to be able to say 'I built this from scratch', but more so I know I can do it.

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

Expression Engine with a shopping/ecommerce addon. About £200 all in but you will obviously need to build the front end.