Starting Online Store - Help?

I have made a website, but I am wondering if I should use something like oscommerce rather than just programming everything myself? I was not sure if that would make it easier to manage inventory, management, etc.

I am going to keep a small inventory, never more than 30-40 items, which I can easily manage in excel.

What I have been thinking of doing is just using Paypal, they allow you to create "add to cart" buttons, so if people want to buy multiple items, they can use paypal, they don't even need a account to check out either I guess?

What do you guys think?

 

In the long run it is much easier to go with a shopping cart software or oscommerce. If you decide to offer more products in the future it will be a breeze to add them to the site and the inventory will be kept track of automatically. It should be less work to set up the shopping cart rather than doing everything manually to begin with also.

 

I set up a couple of sites with oscommerce, it is a good way to monitor your inventory so you don't over sell. The choice is yours really, depends how busy your site will get

 

Before you launch your e-commerce site, make sure you will keep hardworking to offer information that will help customers with buying decisions.

 

From experience I would say go with a shopping cart like osCommerce or Magento. I coded my first ecommerce site and it really stunk when it came time to change prices and things like that.

I would only use Paypal standard if your products are very low cost or your customers are known to be Paypal users. When we began to use Paypal website payment Pro and Paypal standard together, business began to soar.

 

Use a standard e-commerce cart. There are so many solutions out there, it's not worth the effort for you to reinvent the wheel. It's as simple as that. If that was still 2000, my answer would be different, but things have changed.

 

You can also check with zencart which is easy to install and customize.

 

You should try to go wich CCBILL.com or Epoch. I use them as first and second biller system.

 

zencart v1.3.8 with paypal pro support or oscommerce with a few addons ( http://addons.oscommerce.com ) can do the trick. It's free.

 

I like zencart, I have used that before with good success.

Good Luck!

 

IMO,don't spent money on developing another script coz this will add up the cost.Well you can hire a designer to design a new layout for your site so that it look attractive and thus it will indirectly increase your sales.
Yes,oscommerce will do the simple job you listed.

 

Definately start with magento or oscommerce as they are free, easy to use and there is a lot of information on the web regarding both of them. If you're successfull you can always think about more expensive options!

 

I am looking into zencart or oscommerce, thanks.

 

I have heard good things about Magento as well, although it's not advised to be used in a shared hosting environment. Good Luck!