New to Ecommerce

Need Advice

[brnm98105]

Hi,
I just recently joined and am looking for a little advice. I have built websites for a client. Now the client wants me to set up shop on the internet so that they can sell products. Can someone please lend me a little advice on doing so. For eg:

1. can I still build in just plain HTML ( I use dreamweaver by the way) or .php (I know nothing about php.
2. Should I set up a server and host our site locally. Which I know nothing about.

I just need some simple direction. I have self taught myself Dreamweaver and I think I know enough about SEO and building the site but not really sure I need some basic steps on how to get started.

Thanks for any advice

[edited by: lorax at 2:31 am (utc) on Sep. 13, 2008]
[edit reason] no URLs please [/edit]

[lorax]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld brnm98105!
Since you're handy with HTML then you should be able to use one of the many off-the-shelf cart solutions available. You don't need to know PHP to use products like Ecommerce Templates, ShopSite, etc... It helps but it isn't necessary.

You should DROP the idea of setting up and managing your own server. You're job is to design and manage the sites and not a web server. That's another career path you can take at a later date.

[Marshall]

If you want a second opinion, lorax is right on the mark.

Marshall

[T_Miller]

eCommerce is whole 'nother ball game than a plain html info site.

Server/Hosting space is cheap. To do it right would far outweigh the cost & time spent.

Coding for eCommerce is tricky and not for the faint of heart. Makes more sense to go with off the shelf solutions, whether open-source or paid. (Personally, I use eCommerce Templates as Lorax mentioned. Reasonable price, updated often, superior support)

With your DW and HTML experience, you'd find the PHP version of ECT works just find. If you go that route, print the manual and read. I was just like you (DW/HTML skills) and a client bought ECT and ask me to implement it. So I jumped right in, and the PHP came to me as I tweaked the site and looked "under the hood". I since have done several sites in ECT, including my wife's B&M store. The PHP experience helped me a lot when I branched into Joomla sites as well.

[brnm98105]

Hey I really appreciate all the advice given. I googled ECT. That sounds like a great idea. Ill keep you posted.

[rocknbil]

While that addresses getting the products online, there's still la few other issues you'll need to look at. Google like so: [keywords] site:webmasterworld for tons of helpful info.

- Payment: The most common q here is "how do I store CC info so the client can process the number with their in-store terminal?" The short answer: you don't. Search as described above for PCI compliance and store credit card.

- SSL: if set up correctly, at payment it's best to not redirect the shopper to a third party site. If this is something you want to do, you need to look at installing an SSL cert.

- Corollary to the above, you may want to look into setting up and connecting to a reliable payment processor, which often uses a payment gateway.

- Before choosing anything off the shelf, research the chosen software for attack vulnerabilities. This will head off a lot of headaches you may encounter when it goes live.