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Using WordPress As Online Store - Suggestions?

Discussion in 'eCommerce' started by imacamper, Nov 5, 2009.

  1. #1
    I've run an online magic supply store for several years. It's never really taken off, mostly because:

    • I didn't have a clue and;
    • My site sucks

    In the past year, I've learned a bit about Internet marketing and am ready to spend some time on my site and marketing efforts.

    Currently, I get a CSV file of products available from my wholesaler and I import that into a MySQL database. My online catalog is a PHP script I wrote to query that database and generate a product listing. The rest of the site was built with MS FrontPage.

    So I feel I basically need to start over from scratch and wonder if WordPress might be able to help? Is there some plugin (free or pay) that can turn WP into an online store? Specifically, I'd really like a way to feed a CSV file into the MySQL database used by WordPress to automatically generate product pages instead of creating each individually, especially since there are over 7000 products. Plus as my wholesaler makes changes, I can just overwrite the database with the new CSV data.

    So, any suggestions? Am I making sense?

    Thanks for your time.

    Cheers,

    Drew
     
    imacamper, Nov 5, 2009 IP
  2. Nigel Lew

    Nigel Lew Notable Member

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    #2
    Hi. Most wholesalers have app specific datafeeds for say cre loaded. It is usually beneficial to use a proper shopping cart for this for the very reason your mentioned- not having to update everything manually if the distributor makes changes.

    Without knowing who the distributor is and what they offer exactly it is hard to properly advise you. However, there is a very sound commercial solution that should tackle this. I came across this a few weeks ago while trying to sort something else out for a client.

    http://www.datafeedr.com/

    hope that helps. If you want to shoot me a link to the distributor I can be more specific.

    Nigel
     
    Nigel Lew, Nov 5, 2009 IP
  3. maikaOR

    maikaOR Peon

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    #3
    There are some shopping cart plugin for wordpress.

    WP e-Commerce
    Quick Shop
    eShop
    WP Live-Shopping
    YAK Shopping Cart

    Hope that help.
     
    maikaOR, Nov 5, 2009 IP
  4. csquare016

    csquare016 Peon

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    #4
    what is considered the best and most reliable shopping cart for wordpress?
     
    csquare016, Nov 5, 2009 IP
    TheVccMatey likes this.
  5. roadrippersid

    roadrippersid Peon

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    #5
    wp- ecommerce is what i have seen most of the time ...
     
    roadrippersid, Nov 5, 2009 IP
  6. kacangijo

    kacangijo Peon

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    #6
    Use wp- ecommerce, it's easy and looks great
     
    kacangijo, Nov 5, 2009 IP
  7. imacamper

    imacamper Peon

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    #7
    Thanks for all the replies. I'll start checking things out.

    So how does this shopping cart work? Do products actually get loaded into the shopping cart software and then the plugin queries the shopping cart? Or do products load in WordPress (MySQL) and then the WP plugin sends data to the shopping cart?

    Sorry, I'm new to this. Prior I loaded my wholesaler's CSV file in to my own MySQL and then used my own (crappy) PHP script to query and interface with a PayPal shopping cart.

    Cheers,

    Drew
     
    imacamper, Nov 5, 2009 IP
  8. GlobalMarketDevelopers

    GlobalMarketDevelopers Peon

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    #8
    There is a very nice WP plugin that can be found here http://www.instinct.co.nz/

    We used that to build our site and it has everything you said you wanted in your original post. It even lets you input your CSV.
     
    GlobalMarketDevelopers, Nov 5, 2009 IP
  9. imacamper

    imacamper Peon

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    #9
    I've installed the free version of wp-ecommerce and it looks good so far. I will upgrade to Gold if it meets my needs. However I need a way to import a csv of my supplier's catalog. I know I see the import tab and an "example" of file format but there are way more fields in the MySQL tables than in that "example".

    Is there some csv <-> mapping document somewhere?

    I have to be able to import more than just those few fields in the example. And I really need to either display images via html links or have some way to automatically download those from my supplier's site and include them in my WordPress store. Is this possible with e-commerce? If not, other suggestions?

    Thanks,

    Drew
     
    imacamper, Nov 7, 2009 IP
  10. Miah

    Miah Peon

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    #10
    Miah, Nov 10, 2009 IP
  11. yakinsaja

    yakinsaja Peon

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    #11
    try to import csv file to mysql at the following site..
     
    yakinsaja, Nov 10, 2009 IP
  12. cariduitDP

    cariduitDP Peon

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    #12
    use WP-eCommerce.. that's great..
     
    cariduitDP, Nov 10, 2009 IP
  13. Highwayman

    Highwayman Peon

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    #13
    Highwayman, Nov 11, 2009 IP
  14. jbl33

    jbl33 Peon

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    #14
    WP_ecommerce has good basic ecommerce capabilities.
     
    jbl33, Nov 13, 2009 IP
  15. turnkeyinternet

    turnkeyinternet Active Member

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    #15
    We like word press not only because it is a solid platform and has huge amounts of plugins but it will help you from the SEO side. wp-ecommerce is a good plugin. Word press has the good optimization pratices that will help you build your site.
     
    turnkeyinternet, Nov 13, 2009 IP