creating a retail website.

Hi there, I'm new here so please bear with me if my question sounds stupid to you.

I've some products that I want to sell online. Rather than posting them on Ebay, I've decided to create my own site to sell them. (Not sure this is a wise thing to do)

My biggest problem is setting up the site. I know there are many e-commerce hosting sites that offer hosting service at a fee and I'm willing to pay. But I don't think they design websites for free. So, I have no choice but to design my own website (I'm on a tight budget). I'm not looking to develop a complicated website. Just a simple one like the one below will do:

http://www.chicwear.com.my/

I like the "browse" panel on the left where product categories are listed. When you click on the product of your choosing, the product will show up in the center. And if you click on the picture, it will take you the shopping cart. I wonder what applications are needed to build this type of website. I'm not an expert on web programming but do have programming background like C++, C, basic javascript.

I think I'm looking for an easy-to-use e-commerce website builder that follows the principle of "what you see is what you get". (something that doesn't require months of intensive programming to get it work)

FYI, I plan to use Paypal as it provides free shopping cart feature and is resonable priced.

Any advise would be appreciated. Sorry for the long post. I hope my explanation is clear and sorry if it's unclear. English is not my mother tongue. Let me know if you need any clarification. Thanks in advance!

The site you refer to is a custom site and not so simple. I suggest you start with one of the free sites like OScommerce or Zen. The advantage to you is automatic database set up and payment gateway accounts like Pay Pal. Plus you'll have an on line community to help you. The other option would be to design an html site using Pay Pal or Google Checkout buttons.

Whatever road you take, you'll have to learn how to manage your store. After all if you were the owner of a brick and mortar store you'd have to know how to manage your inventory, marketing, customer and payment database and the look of the store or you'd soon go out of business. The same is true for an on line store.

Thank you, roban for the quick reply.

Could you give me some idea about custom websites? I mean what applications they use and how complicated they are? Also can I achieve the same effect (appearance and functionality wise) if I use one of the free sites you recommended?

I came across this website builder and it seems easy enough. http://www.citymax.com/host/pageWriter/cart.htm

What do you think?

I am n ot familiar with that system. For $20.00 per month it seems reasonable enough. You'll have to add that cost to your hosting costs.

You can customize any cart as long as you can edit code and graphics. I think you are looking for 'easy' and I don't think that you will find that. You could create your site using any web editor like Dreamweaver or Front Page and add your Pay Pal buttons but what you will be lacking is the ability to add customer information and order information to a database for retrieval.

I would look at carts such as Cube Cart or CS-cart (my choice). I act in development mode for both. The cost is about $200.00 but you are not locked in to a monthly payment so they become less expensive going forward.. Help in setting up your database on your host server is available and once you learn the system (the learning curve is not steep) you are in control which I doubt is true of the system you mention.

The other consideration is a host. Most can install the carts I mentioned for you, especially Cube Cart so you won't have to be concerned about that aspect and they have vigorous support communities with very helpful members.

Roban has made some really good points to consider. Another thing you might want to look at are services like ************************* where you can purchase a template and edit it to your liking. Basicly, these types of services are just the design portion of ecommerce but it might help you get where you want to be.

There are some short articles you should read before you decide to "do-it-yourself" :

Top 10 Web mistakes Businesses Make

The Clueless Business Owner's Guide to Going Online

Let me know if I can help,

C,

I have created my own website using the software Web Easy 7. Our web development budget started out at about $0 and our investment has really paid off. I really don't know the "right" answer if you have a large web develpement budget, but if your budget is small and you have a little can-do attitude, I would recommend the same and a decent cart system. Frankly, to me the only "businesses" that use google-checkout only are really really small, or are unprofessional.

We average about $400 per week through our website. Perhapes this next year we will invest more money and see what new system is right for us.

I set up a free online store in Fastcommerce.com i found in google last year. It has everything you want to run your online business. My store goes well now and many customers can find my store in google.