[I posted this in another section but received no responses - so maybe I mis-categorized it....Is this a better section for it?] Hi everyone, I hope that this is the right section for this...(I think my question spans across several categories potentially) I'd like to build an e-commerce site with only one product. In addition to the consumer-facing site, I also need the full back-end with payment processing (ordering), accounting and billing (invoice creation and customer information management - even to be able to automatically print shipping labels at the end of the day), etc. Since I'm not experienced with this, I'd hugely appreciate some help and suggestions. My main concern is whether I should try to build everything myself (or rather hire someone...) and find products/services that I can integrate together or if I should use a company/product like Volusion that apparently does it all? Also, since this is only for one product, it's sort of like those "Seen on TV" things or like landing pages that sell ebooks and do other offers (although this is for an actual physical product) - should I make this look like one of those affiliate landing pages or still make it a 5-page mini-site, etc. Any thoughts at all or hints or help are much appreciated. Thanks for your time!
Which language you know ? PHP ? Just take neccessary information with form and then use paypal checkout system. First learn PHP form processing and database integration.
Thank you for your replies. I am fairly comfortable with HTML and PHP, but I think for the benefit of saving time and having it done well I am planning on most likely hiring someone to do it for me. But I want to make sure that I know what I want first - and based on that I can directly suggest what this person should do for me. Would you suggest that it's best to just NOT use services like Volusion but rather build it myself and add a payment button? I'm just worried that I will get very disorganized once I start getting orders and then I have to track who paid, what their address is, what they ordered, what their shipping confirmation number is, etc. But maybe I'm exaggerating the level of difficulty... Thanks again
Paypal will handle everything you just stated - even the shipping labels! So you'd look at receipts, invoices and labels all within your Paypal account and only need to use a Paypal buy button on your page.
Thank you for that information. That's good to know. I wasn't aware of that. My only experience with PayPal has been using it for eBay and it seemed to me to be very limited. I will look into that a bit more. And from anyone's experience: do you think that a site that sells something and processes through paypal looks less professional? And also, do you think it would make me miss a lot of customers that might not have a paypal account? I would assume that many people might want to just pop in their credit card number to make it quick and easy - so I'm comparing paypal to having an actual merchant account with a payment processing service. Thanks
You don't have to have a Paypal account to pay through Paypal! Your visitors will be given a choice to pay using their credit card - Paypal starting accpeting CC payments years ago... you really need to login to your Paypal account and see what's what. As for looking less professional... in some ways it does as a merchant account means you are serious - simply as it will cost you every month (can be a lot!) - I would just use Paypal until you get bigger.
Perfect. I must really be behind the times then with PayPal. I'll go in there and check it out for its full functionality. Much appreciated, gweb. I'll start off this way as you suggest and as I grow (...or rather "if" I grow), I'll look at other options.
You may want to weigh the cost of having someone design the site for you and going with Volusion. I have been using them for 3 years now and am quite happy with the adaptability and look of my site, along with the company itself.
Good point. Thanks for the input. But would you be able to give me a sense (from your experience) as to whether Volusion would be appropriate for just a one-product site? And if I were to have someone design a front-facing template/layout for Volusion, would you think that even with that it would be less expensive to go with Volusion? (unless there might be something good to choose from in the default selection - although in my quick search I couldn't find appropriate layouts for just a one-item thing) Thanks again
There are several people on the Volusion forum that I know only sell single items on their sites. Try to look past the "skin" of the free templates. They are adaptable and there are actually more free templates than what they initially show you on their site. I'd be more than happy to help you adapt one, if you decide to go with them.
Great. I'll check out the forum there as well to get a better idea. And thanks for offering your assistance. If I decide to go with Volusion and a non-standard template I'll certainly keep you in mind.