Build my own e commerce web site

[joepal]

Hello All,

I am a newbie and would like to build my own e commerce web site
can anybody suggest the best place to go?

many thanks

[The Old Sarge]

Ummm ... school?

Seriously, narrow the question. Give us something to go on. What do you know about Web development already? Do you have any idea what's involved with an e-commerce Web site? What the necessary features are?

[joepal]

thanks sarge

What I know about e commerce I've learned from studying I do know whats involved with it. I know a little about web development, but would like to build my own site. I have many quotes from web site people and quite frankly money is the main issue. Is it possible to build an e commerce site for a little money?

jp

[PCIMerch]

Your best bet to get an online store on the cheap is to use a turnkey solution like InstantEStore or Volusion. For about $50/month you get the software, some nice, albeit basic, website design templates. Then you can build the store in a simple web interface, and get support for your questions.

The only other thing you will need that you can't do yourself is a way to accept credit cards. Paypal and Google Checkout are low cost ways to start up, but I feel that most stores that want to look legit should have a merchant account so payment can be accepted on the site. The above shopping carts let you easily just plug in some credentials so you can tie your e-commerce store and merchant account (via a payment gateway) so you can take credit cards easily. A merchant account costs a bit more, but probably worth it in the long run.

Hope this helps!!

[roban]

Look at the free solutions like OsCommerce or Zen. Cube Cart version 3 is also free but version 4 isn't. If you can afford $200.00 go for CS-Cart for a life time license. I don't believe you'd want to get into a monthly contract at this point mainly because you can develop your skills for little or no money and then move up when you are more comfortable. Using a shopping cart solution has some very important pluses because they contain all the modules you will need like payment gateways, shipping calculators, taxes and many more.

You will need some basic skills no matter which solution you choose. These are setting up an empty database, uploading files using FTP, some basic HTML and/or PHP coding, editing images and so forth and these you can acquire as you move on.

An important first step would be to look at the support forums for any shopping cart system you are interested in and see if people are getting the help they need from their peers. You will be using these forums for your support for any system you choose so this is especially poignant. If you need help contact me and I'll help as much as I can.

[The Old Sarge]

If you still want to build your own site, you'll need a working knowledge of html and css at a minimum. You'll also need a good editor and, of course, a host and access to FTP.

[brokensaber]

You can run to codeplex and search for Commerce starter kit. J.Sawyer has renewed this project from asp.net.

The original CSK you might recall is called dashcommerce.

Also at Codeplex, look for linqcommerce. This is in beta and I believe it is a CMS.

At asp.net there is also the new MVC storefront. I don't know how far they are on it though. Its been a while since I last checked the site.

Ya if you want to learn the new technologies goto asp.net.

I steared myself away from PHP based carts some time ago. There is always seems to be hosting issues with what PHP version is required, url rewrites issues etc.

[joepal]

many thanks for the advice.
I'll check them out and report back

regards

joepal

[veikoh]

Or you could ask somebody from Lance to setup everything for you.

[joepal]

Many thanks veikoh