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I have had a site selling collectible one of a kind items in an online mall for three years, using their template system and shopping cart. It has become too restrictive for me as far as what I can change on my site, and I notice my products don't show well on searches and the site is very often slow or down. I've been told that sites on these type of malls never do well in the search engines. I'm also paying them a percentage of my sales and it is becoming too expensive for me to run my business this way.
This leads me to where I am today. Not only do I need a new site designed for me, but I need a shopping cart integrated, as well, that I can maintain myself, hosted where I don't have to worry about my site being slow loading or down alot. I've already demo'd a couple of carts and find they either have too many features that I don't need, and/or are missing a couple I do.
Does anyone know of a cart where when an order is placed, will give me the ability to edit it in case I need to add more items,change the price, adjust shipping amounts or methods, or delete something? So far I've checked Shopsite and Mighty Merchant and am unable to do that in either of them.
Do not want a cart where a customer has to log in to place an order.
I also need an opt in mailing list
Monthly sales and tax reporting
Sales tax calculation
Easy to optimize for SE's(static URLS,able to add my own title, meta tags)
Customizeable shipping calc
Email order and shipping notifications to customer
Search box
Multiple item views
Different payment methods, including credit cards
Ability to manually add an order
Able to access my admin panel from anywhere
Am also wondering about pros and cons of the cart/hosting packages that charge a monthly fee vs shopping cart software that I purchase outright, then choose my own host.
And finally, if I have a specific design/look I would like for my site, how difficult is it to find a designer who can make a site that looks the way I want, knows how to optimize for SE's, can integrate the cart I end up chosing and then turn it over to me to maintain? Can one person do all this or do I need to consider hiring a separate person for the graphics?
Thanks in advance for any advice
Terri
I've made a recent switch to x-cart and you'll find most of the things on your list are achievable. However, some of them do not come with the basic package (such as SEO mods, and removing logins for new customers) and therefore mean either:
a) You do lots of reading and learn how to make the changes yourself.
or
b) You pay someone to do them for you.
I went with option b and have had many different custom modifications made to my store. I have also been able to do quite a few myself as i've got used to how the software works. A basic/decent knowledge of HTML/CSS will really help - and save money too.
I'm not suggesting you go with x-cart, because there may be a better option which would mean you don't have to make lots of modifications. However, I don't think you'll find any shopping cart software that will do exactly what you want 'out of the box'.
In anwser to your last question - I think you'll find that different people are good at different things. I know that I wouldn't want the person who did certain technical things (such as php/databases) doing any graphic design for me. If you find someone who can do it all then good luck!
Hope that helps.
Tim
It will be best for you to hire someone who knows what they're doing and can do the job properly
Look for local web designers / developers with ecommerce sites on their portfolios - check each site to see if it's been optimised - you should end up with a list of 2 or 3 designers who can "probably" do the job for you - contact them and see what they say
It won't be cheap to hire someone in - but if you get the right company, they'll do a good job and it *should* make you more money than you spend (also depends on things like the goods you sell and prices etc) - look at it as an investment rather than a cost
It's often easier / quicker / better to pay a designer to maintain the site than to take over maintenance yourself, especially if you don't have experience in web development - why spend $1000s on a site then risk making a mess of it to save a few $ every now and then?
Another option, find a cart with at least most of the options you require and start the learning process. Face it, whatever you choose, if you decide to do it yourself, there will a learning curve.
Do not want a cart where a customer has to log in to place an order.
I use a commercial cart that offers login as an option to preserve the customer info for future visits. Many of my customers seem to appreciate and use this option.
On another site, I use an open-source solution that requires a login before the purchase is completed. That doesn't appear to be a problem for sales.
Something else to consider is security. My commercial cart is hosted in secure servers, and I simply plug-in the customers items from my site. When they are ready to check out, everything is done on a secure server. If you go with your own cart, or an open source solution, you may also need to provide a level of security for your customers. People simply will not give you any CC info unless they are on a secure site. This could mean that you also need to use an SSL Certificate.
I think Zen-Cart might offer many of the features you have listed. Whatever route you decide upon, be prepared to learn something new. And don't set yourself up for a one-hour tutorial - good things take time.
When I say maintain the site, I would like to be able to add inventory myself after I write up descriptions. My items change a lot and I add things on a constant basis. So I don't really want to have to contact someone else to do it everytime I add something. I have no problem paying someone to make major changes to the site if needed.
The site I have now I put together myself. Even though it does have a template, making it somewhat easy, I did have to learn quite a bit to get it up and running. I've designed a couple of blogs, auction template and about me page. So I have basic html skills and know my limitations!
Will look into Xcart and Zencart.
Thanks
Terri
The rest of the features you listed can all be added quite easily with a little basic know-how.
Easy to maintain and use too.
Mike
Question is, once I find a cart I like, can any designer build me a site for that cart or do I have to find someone who is specifically familiar with the cart I choose?
Terri
Feel free to PM me and I will give you the link to my site .. it is ecommercetemplates with all html/css buy me
I also can suggest a great hosting company. I went through three before I found the one im with now. He is great and specializes in ecommercetemplates sites. He will even set it up free if you like.
Mike
While any web developer could probably figure out how to apply the templates to any shopping cart, it is helpful to find someone familiar with the cart you choose. Saves time because they already know how it's built and where to go to configure and customize it.
FYI - here's the design and development process that I use. You may find it useful.
Do these steps before you begin design.
1) Identify the page types you'll need for all of the pages that will live on the site: e.g. category level, product level, the shopping cart, shipping/billing info, checkout, checkout approved, checkout denied, sitemap, about us, shipping info, etc...
2) Determine the navigational structure including if/how you will divide up and separate links that pertain to the products and selling versus links to company specific info like about us and shipping policies.
When it comes time to do the design, do a visual design first using the top level navigation that you created. Have the designer offer you at least 2 totally different designs for the home page. Choose one and develop it further until you're happy with it. Use this one to develop the remaining pages. All of this is done in a graphics program. I often work in Fireworks at this stage - easier to manipulate shapes and images here than in HTML.
With the graphic comps completed, you can develop a working template for the home page. While the links may not go anywhere, they should include any javascript or CSS effects (like a:hover) that you wish to see.
From here, you or your developer should be able to take this template and the visual designs and build out the rest of the site.
Once the site is built - test and retest the cart and check out process. Have friends beat up on it before you release it.
[edited by: lorax at 2:48 pm (utc) on Jan. 31, 2007]
It just turned out that the shopping carts didn't end up being what I was looking for.
There will most likely be one leeeeetle thing in all canned carts that renders it unusable for you, this is why you need to find a programmer you can trust to build one custom for you, or at least modify one you choose. I get a lot of work for this very reason.
maybe best to let the designer choose the cart - they may be very familiar with a different cart and may be able to modify that much quicker (and therefore cheaper) than learning and modifying a new cart - some carts have a vast amount of code
but don't be afraid to suggest certain carts
move all the inventory off the old site to the new, since I have about 500 items for sale. Unless there's some easy way
There may well be an 'easier' way, depending on your skillset. I migrated hundreds of items into a cart in pretty short order. But, a couple of things were already in place.
What I did was create a couple of items in the new cart using their cumbersome method. Then I exported the affected tables from that database. Then I read my old database and created INSERT statements for the new tables - based on the exported data. Then I imported the items with my new product.sql file. The entire process took about an hour to import hundreds of items. When dealing with 10 of thousands of items, I have found ways to ease the burden of typing in one item at a time.
Thanks
Terri
