I'm considering starting a website that sells products. However, I'm a little confused as to the role of a shopping cart. I know with a shopping cart it acts as a CMS--I log into the shopping cart and add products, product details, price, pictures, etc... and a page for that product gets added to the website for customers to see. What I'm confused about is whether or not I need a CMS--a custom CMS, drupal, joomla, or any other CMS that's available to run the website if I'm just selling products? or do I only need a shopping cart to manage the website? Again, I appreciate the DP forums and users that have been helping out with my questions. Thank you very much!!
Well it really depends as far as how many products you want, the longevity of the project. There is no question if you're serious about starting an online business, YOU MUST use a shopping-cart company as your platform, if not, it may be doomed to fail from the get-go. Appearance plays a huge roll in e-commerce and buyer confidence so I suggest you choose a platform, get a nice free template from who you choose and manage your content that way.
a shopping cart that acts as a cms is a must, everyone is jumping on the bandwaggon to open an e-store but hardly any of them know how to build a store thats where shopping carts come in, they make the process simple... Oscommerce,zencart, cubecart, magento are all free and use cms' to be able to update the site easily