Help starting an eCommerce Site

I'm looking to start an eCommerce site, but have never done it before. I have been using PayPal's auto generated buy now and add to cart buttons but they just don't do the job, and I'd like to offer more than PayPal.

I'd say I have a solid fair understanding of HTML and CSS, and i'm doing alot of reading and starting into JavaScript which seems pretty easy, just lack of experience with it is holding me back I guess.

Anyway, I don't know how eCommerce's programs work, but am hoping to find a free one if anyone can recommend it. I looked into Volusion as it seems cheap in comparison to the others.

All I really want at this point is something that already looks professional, or something I can edit with CSS to make look professional and will allow me to accept PayPal, Google Checkout, and Credit/Debit Cards. I saw something about SSL certificates being needed for security. How do they work?

Thanks for any help in advance!

 

http://www.magentocommerce.com/ that stuff rules. I use it for all my client work. It has a bit of a dev. related learning curve but its frankly tits out of the box. It is the fastest and cheapest way to knock up an enterprise level solution and compete with the big boys.

hope that helps and happy to help further if need be. I am working on some stuff now if you want to poke around a few things before you bother with it. Just shoot me a pm or I suspect they have demos floating around.

Nigel

 

Is that what your using on outplaypoker? I've followed a link there before and have had my eye on that set of 1,000 14g chips haha. The free version is good then, or are you using the professional version? Also is it secure or will I need to get third party SSL? Thanks for the help!

 

Hi, its secure, you don't require pci compliance unless you are storing CC data. Magento will use just about any payment provider available out of the gate.

Yes, I used that on outplay poker. That is a customized template. The default template looks nothing like that but looks like this http://www.thechocolatebarn.com/creams.html

Note you can't really navigate that right now, I have it hidden until I sort the design.

And yes again. I use the community edition with various commercial bolt on's for marketing related matters. There are totally amazing plugins for it but a range of the really sweet ones will run you about 400 dollars collectively to have something on the scale of amazon.com or a similar site.

Nigel

 

Very cool, I'm downloading it now to give it a try. Thanks for the help

 

No sweat just bare in mind there are some coding practices to adhere to in terms of making a template or you cant update magento. You, for instance, do not want to simply start futzing with the template. You have to duplicate and move some things first and work on that. Its a tad hectic at first because the app is huge but at the end of the day its just an MVC model so the logic bits are completely separate from the design which is what largely makes it so kick ass.

Let me know if you get stuck.

Nigel

 

topskin.in is designed by me. I can help you if you hire me

 

Its best for you to use a install setup software that is ready and coded for you by pros.

 

Do a quick google search for BigCommerce by Interpire. They are great. If you are located in the United States, you will love them. I have multiple sites with them.

 

Magento is one of the best for ecommerce business. You can try that out.

 

Hi Friend, Thats a great idea starting an ecommerce business online, High revenue earning platform. I would like to suggest 3 things for ecommerce as my experience will help you.

1. If you are planning to buy a ecommerce script, then AJ Shopping Cart Software ,will be the right choice with plenty of user friendly facilities.

2. If you worry about hosting issue, you can get Zscart - SaaS Ecommerce solution with easy monthly payment option and free trial too. you can make your shop with in five minutes.

3. If you are looking for free source means, Zeuscart will be right choice. Highly downloaded open source script online.


Good luck ...Choose one for successful ecommerce business.

 

You may know HTML/CSS but what about PHP/ASP/etc? You may need those scripting skills based on the e-commerce platform you select.
There are several open source shopping cart products out there -- a quick search on Google should yield several top choices like OpenCart, ZenCart, Magento, etc.

 

If you want to accept credit cards (i.e. Visa / MasterCard / Discover / AMex / etc), you can also get a merchant account along with an electronic payment gateway (think of this as like a POS terminal you swipe your card on when buying something at the store).

Paypal has a few different options for US merchants as well, they can be used as a 3PP or you can check out their Website Payments Standard / Pro. Most of the gateways will offer you a free SSL page, but this will usually direct the customer over to their secure website, thus changing the checkout process. If you get your own SSL - you can maintain the consistency of the checkout process. WhichSSL might be a website to check out for SSL information.

If you are selling something that is not high risk, it usually is pretty easy to get a merchant account. Some companies might start out using Paypal and then change later. Most shopping carts have an add-on for the gateway, so implementing that is usually painless. Most electronic payment gateways will give you a free test account to make sure you have things working properly before going live - since some processors might charge you upwards of $50 just to have the merchant account / gateway.

 

Magento is very good and because it is open source is improving all the time, it is easy to work with as well.
Zencart should be avoided and has poor security.

 

As a seasoned JavaScript developer, if you are going to opt for a JavaScript-Rich website (using JS as a RIA), then it's not easy at all.

If you are just using it to hide that and animate this; I'll suggest that you try jQuery.

 

Buy your template from template monster and ask Chain reaction to host it they will upload everything for you.

 

x-cart.com is PCI Compliant and highly customizable and affordable. We use that software for 75% of the small business clients we work with. Please feel free to PM me with questions or consulting needs. We are a user centered design agency which means we focus on targeting and designing your websites based on your users actions and also by creating user personas.