Wordpress website with contact feature

[figo]

Hello everybody, we want to build a website offering products but we are not yet sure which CMS we should use.

We want to show a grid with all products and some details below but we're not sure if we should use a shop plugin or just normal wordpress. Since we won't have a shopping basket or checkout but rather a contact button below each products details and on the product page itself.

What would you got for?
Any input is appreciated.

Thanks

[TorontoBoy]

Stick to a normal WP theme and reduce your plugins. With their extra code, plugins, which are unaudited, are a security risk.

Your Contact Us button can use a plugin that allows the user to choose various ways to contact you, all without exposing an email address for bots to harvest. I use Contact Form 7. It is free and reliable. You can configure it to show multiple email contacts such as tech, marketing, general, etc.

[not2easy]

Hi figo and welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

TorontoBoy is right about relying on plugins because in general, if a site has any weakness or vulnerabilities, they will be plugin related and will be found. Since most WP sites rely on plugins for some of the routine tasks every site manages, there are some with enormous user bases that are kept up to date and secure. There are many more plugins available that are not so well kept up and you should try to learn the differences.

In this WP forum's Charter: [webmasterworld.com...] there are a few helpful links to start with. If you need a plugin, investigate carefully. The WP Plugins repository offers a vetted selection of plugins with a user rating system where you can evaluate the number of users, how long they've been around, users' experiences and at least start with an informed plan of which one might do what you want and be around for updates when needed.

If you are not selling on your site and are relying on contact, that is the place to spend time learning the features before going live. I also use Contact Form 7 and like that they offer automated updates to keep it running right.

[mhansen]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld! I ran an ecom site for a music equipment collector / reseller for 15 years and due to the nature of the unique one-off products, we did not use an eCommerce system and processed no orders directly through the system. The business owner used his own tracking, payment, and order management system. Every product being displayed / sold / or consigned for sale, required the user to contact the store owner to discuss particulars about the instrument to help with provenance. The prices, which were not always displayed, were well into the 5 figure, and sometimes 6-figures.

We used the post system of WP to handle this, setting up the categories similar to what you would do with a article repository. We used the custom fields within the posts to identify the product, SKU, and other characteristics to firmly identify it via email, and used a simple contact form that pulled those custom fields into the email that was sent. When items were sold, we left them on the website for archival purposes but marked them as "no longer available".

It worked perfectly for this specific purpose.

[figo]

Thanks to all of you for sharing your experience. I guess I have a rough plan now and will see how far I get.