How to provide ecommerce site

[acorndomains]

I have a customer wanting an online shop of about 20 pages where I do the design but they can update prices / products themselves - need to be full ecommerce with prices, shipping, VAT etc.

Does anyone have any recommendations on how I can deliver this easily?

I use NetObjects Fusion 7.5 and the site must be in £

Many thanks

[jestep]

I have used a system called sunshop in the past. It may be more than they need, but it is customizable, and they offer ok support. Supports auth.net, and a bunch more payment gateways. here's the website
www.turnkeywebtools.com

[php~pro]

Hand the job over to a pro with the skills to accomplish the task. If more hacks left alone the web would be a far better quality place. Its now turned into a completely tacky enviroment full of pop ups and mass marketing strategies from two bit gimps trying to make a fast buck. No longer an enjoyable place to surf with tacky banners and premium dialers etc, forced into your system.

[Corey Bryant]

Check out http://www.mals-e.com - they are based in England and seem to be a pretty good e-commerce website for people that are starting up.

[voodooboy]

The easiest way to do it is to use a service that already has e-commerce systems set-up with hosting.

For example:
http://goemerchant.com/ - hosts stores using their own shopping system.

http://www.viaverio.com - offers MIVA shopping systems with their hosting.

This way the hard work is already done. All you have to do is the design and then integrate the design elements into the already developed catalog/cart system.

[jpotter]

At the CeBit show in New York last week, a company called WideBand was showing a new product called Vision. This allows HTML developers to have direct access to databases and files on the server without requiring ANY CGI. It was incorporated into the OS of the Server. It was Fast and it appeared secure. They claimed that developement time was slashed signficantly. Looked very interesting.

[tblighe]

(mod edit: no self promotion, please)

[catroy]

You have many options, actually, depends on the configuration of your server and what your client's budget is, really - I know, that's fairly obvious, however -

If you client wants to control their merchandise themselves - you could go with a couple of solutions which actually also incorporate some marketing support - YDesigns offers stores with Yahoo - they are the developer (or they were) behind the templates and programming, MIVA is also a great do-it-yourself store option and I have used this one myself. Nexternal Solutions also have a great product - but the thing with Yahoo Stores and Nexternal is that they take a piece of the action with each transaction and there are fees involved. MIVA is a low-cost solution and you keep all your profits, but you pay for your gateway processing - I think they have now have this service also, not sure on the fees there.

If the server is Unix-based and you are looking for a free solution, osCommerce is a database-driven e-commerce tool which, if you can muddle through the programming to customize the store on behalf of your client, they can control their delivery, ordering, products and everything...

You can also do a search for hosted e-commerce solutions - some web hosting companies offer those for a small monthly fee or extend their hosting solution with a "business package" that includes e-commerce software.

The nice thing about someone else providing you with a canned product is that they are the ones driving interest in their products! They have to remain competitive and therefore the likelihood that they listen to reviewers and their customers is very high - they are going to fix those problems, come out with enhancements, etc. in order to keep you as a client.

Now, if you want a really robust site that ties in with your production center and accounting - I recommend AVEO solutions - they are in Paris, but they speak English, are very nice to work with and they have created a great site for my favorite e-commerce site located at www.dpam.com - check this one out for any of you who have little ones at home!

Long response, but lots of info!

Sincerely,
Catherine Roy
www.sayreinc.com
www.sayrepromo.com
www.service-pride.com

[Ralyn]

Hand the job over to a pro with the skills to accomplish the task. If more hacks left alone the web would be a far better quality place.

This type of attitude really angers me. The "pros" had to start and learn somewhere didn't they? You learn best by doing it.

[catroy]

My apologies to the last poster here - I wasn't trying to imply that someone else do the job - but if time is of the essence and money is not, why struggle building something that's going to take a load of testing? And what about the client's need to market his site? If you can get both packaged into one low-cost solution for the local shop owner, I think that gives that individual (who is probably not a techno geek nor has enough time to dedicate to the learning curve and hours involved in writing a program) a great ROI and a positive experience - then later they can go off and build the next greatest e-commerce software package. I think it's great to do stuff yourself to learn, but does his client have the time to afford the learning curve process? Those are questions that as a web consultant you have to ask your client and then it's between you and your client as to the best fit. I really didn't think I was giving such bad advice :(

P.S. Do note that I suggested osCommerce - something you could start with and enhance yourself - why reinvent the wheel? We have a homegrown solution by our business partners and we are constantly going back and tweaking this thing and it is just extremely time-consuming!

But if your project management skills and e-commerce experience is such that you can map out a logical progression of how a website layout should be, can determine all the innerworkings of passing information and calculations and features - go for it and hey, make some side money selling your product! You know, that might actually be a better plan!

[Ralyn]

No apology necessary, catroy, I was referring to the post by php~pro not you.

[DrTandem1]

Easy for the non-technical:

Simply put notes in the HTML. I'm sure they can figure out how to change the dollar amounts without touching anything else. Have them use something like MS Word and put the prices in red. Then they can simply upload the file to the server and keep their Word version handy for their next update.

If you want to get higher tech, have it done with a data base in PHP.

[brucet]

Actinic Catalog and Actinic Business are designed to do exactly what you are asking (www.actinic.co.uk). There are several hundred web designers who use Actinic to build ecommerce sites for clients - so there is a big online community you can draw on for advice (http://community.actinic.com).

Best regards

Bruce Townsend
Actinic

[andyj]

From personal experience it's a huge job to right ecommerce software from scratch. Testing alone could take you longer than the actual initial development.

The company I work for has probably invested £40,000 worth of man hours in their ecommerce software and it's an ongoing development.

Personaly I would stay clear of Actinic as you can usually spot an Actinic website as soon as you enter and they don't look or flow very well.

Most customers that I have dealt with want to be able to upload products through a simple screen and also want the server to take control of resizing pictures and creaing thumbnails/extra copies. At the end of the day the customer will be calling you if things don't work right so it may be better to use third parties software solution at this stage.

I have a friend who uses OScommerce and is very happy with it an their is plenty of support documentation.

If you are interested in seeing some sites that the company I work for has done look at www.howtosellonline.co.uk

[voodooboy]

Originally Posted by php~pro

Hand the job over to a pro with the skills to accomplish the task. If more hacks left alone the web would be a far better quality place. Its now turned into a completely tacky enviroment full of pop ups and mass marketing strategies from two bit gimps trying to make a fast buck. No longer an enjoyable place to surf with tacky banners and premium dialers etc, forced into your system.

You know Ralyn, you’re right. This kind of attitude is what gives honest designers, and those growing into honest designers a bad name. People like php~pro are the reason the Internet is full of poorly created sites; the "holier than thou" attitude drives consumers away. If everyone was more willing to offer support instead of attitude, then companies would not try to do it all themselves.

(Moderator coming out...) Remember people, others come here looking for solutions to problems; not more problems and attitude. If you can't provide support and ideas to others in the forum, than don't bother us by waiting space with your posts. That is what the break room thread is for…

And php~pro, if you are so unhappy with the web, then go back to reading comic books and leave the Internet to us adults. ;o)

[fathom]

Originally Posted by acorndomains

I have a customer wanting an online shop of about 20 pages where I do the design but they can update prices / products themselves - need to be full ecommerce with prices, shipping, VAT etc.

Does anyone have any recommendations on how I can deliver this easily?

I use NetObjects Fusion 7.5 and the site must be in £

Many thanks

OSCommerce is open source with lots of modifications to change the front end CMS. http://www.oscommerce.com/

While support is lacking from the developers we have tries, used manipulate every CMS on the market and the best with limited code understanding.

There is a forum that is available for users but like I said support is lacking so it's advice from users and not the developer.

Notwithstanding I highly recommend it - simple to use (even for an amateur client and if you have any problem just PM me.

[brucet]

Originally Posted by andy@solidtech-solutions.

Personaly I would stay clear of Actinic as you can usually spot an Actinic website as soon as you enter and they don't look or flow very well.

I think that's fair comment if you are talking about some of the earlier versions, or a DIY site built by a merchant using the templates straight out of the box. But with the latest versions (6 and 7) a professional designer can do a lot more customisation. If you look at our current example sites at www.actinic.co.uk/examples/, you'll see there's a lot of variety in the designs.

Bruce Townsend
Actinic

[sadcox66]

Originally Posted by fathom

OSCommerce is open source with lots of modifications to change the front end CMS. http://www.oscommerce.com/

While support is lacking from the developers we have tries, used manipulate every CMS on the market and the best with limited code understanding.

There is a forum that is available for users but like I said support is lacking so it's advice from users and not the developer.

Notwithstanding I highly recommend it - simple to use (even for an amateur client and if you have any problem just PM me.

Fathom is correct the forums are mostly supported by users. One way out of this situation is to go with a hosting company that provides support for osCommerce software. Some provide support, software changes and advise for free and make their money from web hosting.

[joshf]

Check out X-Cart... http://x-cart.com Of the shops out there, I find that it's one of the easiest to customize for the price. It'll run any any server with PHP and MySQL.

Without experience in the ecommerce field, it's best (and safest!) for you and your client to run with some sort of software package that has been tested thoroughly and is updated regularly.

[thomas ryan]

Our site runs actinic version 6 and I think its 100% the comment about people knowing its a actinic site would only be for people aware of the software because it reads www.yourdomain.com/acatalog when you enter the shop, version 6 you can design your on templates and I have seen some great sites based on actinic. It Cost about £350 and can list about 10000 products, I would and have recomended it to lots of people.

www.wazoola.co.uk
Baby and Christening Gifts
PS not the best speller in the world!

[bhartzer]

I definitely recommend OS Commerce. I've been using it for quite a while and haven't had any issues.

I recommend looking for a web host that supports it as suggested and one that can provide the installation.

[Curious George]

I agree, osCommerce is the way to go. The following sites run on osCommerce:

http://i-artz.com
http://escobarandrobb.com
http://cheapgadget.com

It is very robust with lots of contribution and support from the forum.

Good luck!

Curious George