Ant Posted May 3, 2011 Report Share Posted May 3, 2011 Ok I just spent half the day researching how to create an online store. How transactions work, fees associated with all the options I came across. i.e monthly fees and transaction fees etc etc. Maybe someone can shed some light on what my options are, based on the specs needed for my friends website. Currently I created my friends website using html and css and some php. So I do not have the knowledge to create my own store using php etc etc. I need the online store part of the site to be easy to add and manage products by the store owner. They are familiar with ebay practices so I assume something comparable. I can create the start of the products etc but I need them to take control after that to some extent. I just don't want to be called every day and asked to update product qnty, image changes, price changes etc. The amount of products will probably range from 20-100 products. (in the beginning) So far I have seen these sort of options and cannot decide whats the right course to take for this: foxycart (mentioned here) I assume this is simply a shopping cart and best used for limited unchanging products???Monthly fee only. shopify: seems to do it all but has transaction fees and monthly fees enstore: seems to do it all but has transaction fees and monthly fees yahoo: seems to do it all but has transaction fees and monthly fees etc etc I know some of them just have monthly fees but it seems like those require a lot of work on my end to add all the products. The others also have the monthly fee but they also have a transaction fee. So doesnt that mean my friend will incur a monthly fee, their transaction fee and then the cc companies fees they already pay in the brick and mortar shop(if people choose cc payment option)? I know theres a lot of questions in here but I'm starting from scratch and don't want to make the wrong choice and cause my friend to pay all these fees when it wasn't necessary. As always any direction is appreciated. Thanks Ant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newseed Posted May 3, 2011 Report Share Posted May 3, 2011 In short, you can use a open source shopping cart like ZenCart where it can be on your own server thus cutting out the middle man's fee. The only fee you have to pay is the transaction itself to whatever merchant bank you use. Of course you need a hosting account. There are other "open source shopping cart" out there. Just google that term. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant Posted May 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 Eddie thanks. I have not looked at it yet but do the "open source shopping carts" allow for an interface to add products like a shopify etc or is it just the shopping cart payment end that it takes care of? Thus do I need to add all the products manually like I would using html/css. ie. image, description and then the shopping cart system drops in the payment end? If so thats a lot of manual coding for a lot of products? Of course if so I assume thats why it's free unlike enstore or shopify. Thanks Ant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
falkencreative Posted May 4, 2011 Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 I have not looked at it yet but do the "open source shopping carts"allow for an interface to add products like a shopify etc or is it just the shopping cart payment end that it takes care of? Depends on the shopping cart. Some do, some don't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant Posted May 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 Ben, before I go and search 30 different "open source shopping carts" and take a close look at all of them are there any you know of that offer an automatic or preset product entry that handle the photos etc? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newseed Posted May 4, 2011 Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 ZenCart is a full shopping cart that requires minimum coding and will allow you to create entry for each products thus you only have to upload the image and provide details such as sku #, title, description, price, etc. Of course you will need to assign them to whatever category(ies) you create. Unless you want to dive in and make some heavy customization to the existing framework, the only thing you will have to do is CSS and intall your own store image buttons. As for ZenCart's CMS for content pages, not sure if that gives you that options. However, you can always create all your static content page as you would normally do and then install ZenCart into a folder called /store/ and then link it to that url. Keep in mind that I have never used ZenCart but I know enough that it's a fairly nice free shopping cart. There may be a few more but I just don't know of any off hand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
falkencreative Posted May 4, 2011 Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 I'm not sure how much help I can be here, sorry. My ecommerce experience is limited to Wordpress plugins, Magento (which has a bit of a learning curve, though it's very powerful) and an in-house solution my primary employer uses. That aside... You might want to check out Cart66, which is a ecommerce plugin for Wordpress. I've heard a lot of good things about it, and it would be what I would use most likely if I had something where Wordpress would be an option. http://cart66.com/ Also HighWire might be worth a look -- I suggested it to a potential client just recently. http://www.highwire.com/ It can be self-hosted, and it's definitely cheaper than a Yahoo store or similar ecommerce solutions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinayhs Posted June 29, 2011 Report Share Posted June 29, 2011 Hi, Since one week ,i am searching for a open source shopping cart software ,But i am not able to finalize which one to choose .So can you please advise me a one that can be easily customizable and easy to maintain and it should be open source as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
falkencreative Posted June 30, 2011 Report Share Posted June 30, 2011 Hi, Since one week ,i am searching for a open source shopping cart software ,But i am not able to finalize which one to choose .So can you please advise me a one that can be easily customizable and easy to maintain and it should be open source as well. Are there specific ones you are considering? You might take a look at Cubecart, X-cart or Prestashop. I'd check out Prestashop first, though I don't do ecommerce work all that often. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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