Shopping Cart for a non-technical person

Discussion in 'eCommerce' started by Beadweaver, Feb 19, 2011.

  1. #1
    I know very little about setting up websites. I do have a website, and have been using Pay Pal. I want to either add a shopping cart to my existing website, or do an entirely new website incorporating a shopping cart. I've downloaded a couple to trials, but I get stuck right away. What can I use that requires no technical knowledge?
     
    Beadweaver, Feb 19, 2011 IP
  2. Lakis Vladimirou

    Lakis Vladimirou Member

    Messages:
    43
    Likes Received:
    1
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    38
    #2
    Hello,
    I suggest you try OpenCart. Is the easiest, clean, fast and yet powerful shopping cart i ever used and i used many. I recently develop an opencart e-commerce for a customer, he is 55 years old and he is dealing with it just fine.
     
    Lakis Vladimirou, Feb 20, 2011 IP
  3. Caitlyn

    Caitlyn Guest

    Messages:
    99
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #3
    Try zencart for shopping cart. If you dont technical have knowledge. hire expert for your work
     
    Caitlyn, Feb 20, 2011 IP
  4. rashida

    rashida Active Member

    Messages:
    1,429
    Likes Received:
    3
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    80
    #4
    Hi, ZS Cart is the best SAAS Ecommerce shopping cart software solutions provider and you can create your online store in just minutes and it is the easy to use ecommerce system.
     
    rashida, Feb 20, 2011 IP
  5. adampembs

    adampembs Peon

    Messages:
    28
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #5
    I agree. Zen Cart is very good, but if you are non techie, you will struggle with anything that's free. Find a company that offers a bespoke solution using a commonly available platform like Zen or OSCommerce, and pay them to set it up. Just make sure you can make a backup and move it away if you choose to go elsewhere at a later date (or if they go bust)
     
    adampembs, Feb 21, 2011 IP
  6. muffet

    muffet Active Member

    Messages:
    720
    Likes Received:
    7
    Best Answers:
    4
    Trophy Points:
    68
    #6
    If you don't have any programming knowledge than a hosted shopping cart (i.e. Interspire, Volusion or Shopify) might probably be you're best option. You or your contracted developer would take care of the template design for the hosted shopping cart. You can use Paypal or many other payment processors which the hosted shopping cart might support. You won't have access to the backend server script though because the hosted shopping cart remains in control of this aspect. You will have access to your admin panel for your store. You'd need to decide which features of the shopping cart are most important to you in supporting your goals for your business.
     
    muffet, Feb 21, 2011 IP
  7. barnakles

    barnakles Peon

    Messages:
    20
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #7
    If you are non-technical I would definitely agree with Muffet and encourage you to look at hosted options.

    A have referred a few clients to Shopify and they love it.

    It has an amazingly simple control panel to manage your products and all the payment systems are built in to it. It is a hosted service, meaning you pay a monthly fee to use the system and a small commission on transactions to cover credit card processing fees. It starts at $29 per month which covers 100 products.

    I offer custom Shopify web design services so if you like the look of it, ping me we can have a chat.
     
    barnakles, Feb 21, 2011 IP
  8. adampembs

    adampembs Peon

    Messages:
    28
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #8
    Although there is merit in the last two suggestions, bear in mind the portability of your site. If any of those companies went bust or decided that their solutions merited a substantial increase in $, you might be in a fix. This is why I think an open source system (but with professional help) is good. Open source software never goes bust, and you can export your data and import it into a new system if you want to change later on.
    Open source just means that you have full access to the code, so that lots of free "mods" (modules) get developed which can suit your niche. For instance, Zen Cart has a UK postage mod, a Google Base Mod, and 100s of others.
     
    adampembs, Feb 21, 2011 IP
  9. ZetaPrints

    ZetaPrints Peon

    Messages:
    12
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #9
    If you have decided to get into e-commerce, you can't have it half-baked. It's either you start getting serious about satisfying clients and making money or you can do the hit or miss tango and find yourself getting stuck over and over.

    I agree with folks here; you may hire professionals to start rolling, or where shopping cart and online store building is concerned, you may opt for full hosted service through volusion. It's said to be reliable and simple-- 2 good things for a non-techie start up like you. Good luck!
     
    ZetaPrints, Feb 21, 2011 IP
  10. utahseopros

    utahseopros Peon

    Messages:
    169
    Likes Received:
    1
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #10
    Go with OpenCart! Easy as pie, but I've heard it's not very secure.
     
    utahseopros, Feb 21, 2011 IP
  11. ceoaankit.humserve

    ceoaankit.humserve Peon

    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #11
    Hello sir,
    if you don't have any knowledge about technical things then we are here to help you out in this just give us a chance we'll provide you the best solutions.

    Regards
    Aankit Shrivastava
    Humserve Solution's
     
    ceoaankit.humserve, Feb 21, 2011 IP
  12. JerrickYeoh

    JerrickYeoh Active Member

    Messages:
    1,586
    Likes Received:
    8
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    53
    #12
    OS cart maybe more technical , try up zencart which is more easy to set up and use and more friendly usage.
     
    JerrickYeoh, Feb 22, 2011 IP
  13. קידום עסקים

    קידום עסקים Peon

    Messages:
    35
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
  14. joelchrist

    joelchrist Banned

    Messages:
    1,646
    Likes Received:
    4
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    78
    #14
    Thats not at all a problem. Why dont you try AJ Shopping cart software where you can get ideas and support from ecommerce experts. Have a free demo first.
     
    joelchrist, Feb 25, 2011 IP
  15. Equivocally

    Equivocally Guest

    Messages:
    31
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #15
    Use volusion, it is the most layman to understand.
     
    Equivocally, Feb 26, 2011 IP
  16. Las Vegas DUI Lawyer

    Las Vegas DUI Lawyer Peon

    Messages:
    243
    Likes Received:
    13
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #16
    Maybe I'm just overthinking the question [which I tend to do since i'm so anal retentive], but I wouldn't do an ecommerce shopping site "just cuz". I mean, you can make money on a blog or stand alone site. If you're a manufacturer or reseller of goods, you should do it right. Make a company, hire someone full time for the ecommerce site, and do it right. If not you're just flooding the net with trash. [no offense intended to you personally] I've been perusing ecommerce sites today, well for the past 3 months actually, but for about 4 hours non-stop today. I've been over countless ecommerce sites out there that are well designed, professionally done, and no traffic. So it looks like a huge inventory of ecommerce sites, just clogging up the system.

    Personally, I am not going to agree with everyone else. If the question is "i'm not technical NOW" go with my recommendation: If you're open to learning about a piece of software then download Magento for free; buy the users guide, which HOLDS your hand through every step of setting up the site, to the very end. Magento is open source, online, and free with a huge community willing to help answer any questions.

    However, if you're question is "I'm not technical and will never be technical and refuse to read anything, including following simple instructions to setup a website" then i say go with everyone else's recommendations :)
     
    Las Vegas DUI Lawyer, Feb 27, 2011 IP
  17. DarrenR

    DarrenR Peon

    Messages:
    34
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #17
    Since you already have a website, you can just 'add' only shopping cart to the site, that would be the easiest option. Check ecwid (dot) com , it is really easy to use as well as it is free for not large stores.
     
    DarrenR, Mar 1, 2011 IP
  18. marcuz88

    marcuz88 Peon

    Messages:
    29
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #18
    Hiring professionals will just waste you money, why hire if you can do it yourself? And I know you will learn the basics through the process until you will fully capable for more complex.

    If you have less knowledge on programming languages, I suggest you should use hosted shopping cart. This will lessen your burden. Try Volution or Xcart. Visit this http://www.mailware.com/mailware/integration/cart-comparison/ for more information of those carts and lot more others.
     
    marcuz88, Mar 12, 2011 IP
  19. fernades

    fernades Member

    Messages:
    571
    Likes Received:
    1
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    28
    #19
    As you are not technically fit ,I think it will be better for you to have a trial in iscripts gostores.
    Just install this software into the domain .This is very userfrindly and easy to customize .
     
    fernades, Mar 15, 2011 IP
  20. gotlivechat

    gotlivechat Member

    Messages:
    516
    Likes Received:
    5
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    35
    #20
    Not sure any type of open source or free shopping cart software will work for you if you don't have technical skills. Your best bet may be to either go with a more inclusive package (where the developer helps set it up), or go with open source and hire someone to configure it for you.
     
    gotlivechat, Mar 16, 2011 IP