Ecommerce cart solution

[mittin]

Hi guys,

 

So i am starting an online business so hopefully if i can select the right ecomemrce software for a site. At the moment I am selling offline, by distributing leaflets to rich folks in central london, and taking orders over the phone. Its not big buisiness but atleast its a start.

 

I wanted to ask about a cart solution thats good for someone getitng into ecommerce.

 

Alot of people are saying go self hosted as you control everything about the site etc. I have been looking at solutions such as bigcomemrce, volusion and 3d cart. They look preety good for a beginner as they provide everything such as updates, security technical support etc etc.

 

Thing is i dont want just another site like the online and like alot of people that think one day I will just sell online and setup an online store. I want a site that is actually a store that sells, and customers like to shop on, that looks trust worthy and secure.

 

I was looking at a few open source solution like opencart,zen cart etc. The only problem with these i see is that after i say get a designer to set everything up, the whole site is upto me with regards tosay future updates, designs security issues etc etc.

 

 

I dont mind going self hosted or hosted as long and even paying abit more money, if i know the quality of the cart, the service, design etc etc will be top quality.

 

Can anyone advise on a solution, and for that matter a designer that will make a store into a actual online ecomemrce site, and not another blandsite like the hundreds out there.

 

I have been leaning towards bigcommerce alot recently, as the feautre list they have, integration with other solutions, and the actual forums where requests and problems areasked about seem to be dealt with quite abit.

 

thanks

[newseed]

Totally missed this.

 

You seem to be very serious about building a ecommerce site for the long term and really need someone that will handle all the details of design, integration, development, etc of the store itself.

 

First thing is finding the right shopping cart solution. If you are on a tight budget then you will best use an open source cart. However, since you want your store to look professional and not just some template looking design then you will have to consider a budget for a graphical design of your site, a budget for building the design via html/css/js and then a budget for any and all customizations of the shopping cart core files that you may require to fit your design. This may or may not but affordable for you.

 

So you need to ask: What is my budget?

 

Once you determine your low-end and high-end budget you can then determine the best solution for you by hiring a good development that can offer all the above.

 

I have been doing ecommerce for about 4 years now and if you are still interested to know more and would like to see some example just private message me and I will be happy to share more info.