Making an Online Store from Scratch

[24seven]

I will be putting together an ecommerce site for a client.
I manage an online store as my full time job, but I never put an ecommerce site up from scratch.

My client wants something reliable, that can grow with the business he is starting.But not too pricey.

Would OS commerce fit that description? Or should I pay to get a better software. The client won't mind paying it it's worth it.

The same thing for CC transaction. What do I need? WOuld you guys suggest pay pal nowadays?

Also, do you guys think we can start with a shared host, and only when business grow we get a dedicated server? What about a dedicated IP?

The SSL is provided by the host, right?

Thanks a lot for helping.

[Yardboy]

i use a highly modified version of ayersoft's PHP Pro Cart. i can code in php, so as new functionality is needed, i just add it. the beauty of a php/mysql cart is the price AND the performance.

all my ecommerce sites run on a shared host.

lunarpages.com: 22.95 mo, 2.50 month for static ip, $95 for your own SSL cert per year, or you can use theirs for free, but the url is long and ugly.

for CC transactions, i prefer itransact. offers both static html and xml connection methods.

good luck!

[24seven]

I don't do that much programming, but usually I am able to customize scripts, because I have a programming background.

[24seven]

Would you guys agree that mainly what I need is:
- Secure Host
- SSL Cert
- Shopping cart program
- CC Transaction program/service
- Shipping management program

?

Anything I am forgetting?

Thanks

[griz_fan]

OS Commerce may very will fit your needs, but you should take the time to evaluate several options. OSC is a great cart tool, but it may need be a perfect fit. For example, I recently started working on a store that sells childrens' clothing. OSC had tons of great features, but it did not have the ability to allow for multiple sizes of the same product (S, M, L, XL for example). Sure, there were add-ons that tried to address this issue, but weren't compatible with the latest milestone, etc... QuickBooks support was another important feature for me, and that was also sort of sketchy. But, were it not for these two factors, I probably would have been quite happy with OSC. You should install it into a test directory or on your own PC to evaluate it. I also looked at CubeCart, another free cart script.
For commercial carts, take a look at x-cart and LiteCommerce (both from the same company). Both are relatively affordable and quite polished.

Shared hosting is fine, but you will need your own IP for SSL (OK - technically you may not, but for practical purposes, you do. There is a thread in one of the forums that discusses this in length). Some hosts provide a shared SSL cert, some will sell you your own, some will let you buy your own and set it up. Check with the hosts you are evaluating to find out (also a good excuse to test their email response times and quality of support answers). General rule, start small, keep it simple then grow in size and complexity as business warrants and your experience allows.

Finally, don't forget to read [webmasterworld.com...] tons of helpful info there.

[skuba]

Thanks for your advice.
Have you heard about zen-cart? Seems like an advanced version of OSC.

I can't get to that thread because it's part of the forum for subscribers only.

Thanks

[griz_fan]

Hi skuba,

Actually, that forum thread is available to everyone, but it picked up the comma at the end of the URL. Try this link instead:

[webmasterworld.com...]

[Corey Bryant]

You can get a Chained SSL or Geotrust SSL from Ev1 a lot cheaper.

And actually you do not need an SSL if you want the gateway to capture the CC data. LinkPoint & Auth.net both have their own SSL to capture the CC data.

When getting ready to accept CCs, you need an internet gateway as well as a CC processor. A shared host is fine - especially in the beginning. You do not even need your own dedicated IP address as well. As they already pointed out, I would not recommend using a shared SSL. There are sometimes too many restrictions on it.

-Corey

[lexipixel]

Since this topic is "Making an Online Store from Scratch".. I figured I'd jump in with my solution.

I used PayPal's new Shopping Cart features and some Perl and put together a fully functional shopping cart using plain ASCII text databases -- I had it "ready to sell something online" in about 2 hours.

It has "Add to Cart", "View Cart" and "Check Out" capabilities, handles all major credit cards and PayPal payments, (people shopping in the store DO NOT have to have a PayPal account -- PayPal allows them to use a regular credit card account, but does prompt them a few times to create a paypal account).

I was skeptical at first, having written many e-commerce enabled applications over the years, but this was the simplest implementation of merchant / credit card processing services I've seen --- as a "merchant" I didn't event have to sign up for a merchant account (or pay any fees), just start a PayPal account where funds will be deposited to from sales using the Perl/CGI cart.

Here's a link to a demo of the program... it's live, but its a development site. I have a stable copy on a customer's site with over 200 items in the shopping cart / inventory database.

[lexipixel.com...]

(BTW - I didn't feel like using 200 images for the demo, so all the "3 stooges" ones are using a test.jpg image... but you'll get the idea).

If you want to "fully test it", (ie- checkout and pay for an item to see the process), buy the item marked

*** Test Paypal Checkout With This Item Only ***

on the first page, (first one with a 3 Stoooges picture)... it'll cost $0.60 to try the checkout, but that's just to cover processing and fees (about $0.35 plus my time to clean up).

Randy.