Need help finding ecommerce website!

[IBVCJ2004]

Hello, I am in the process of starting a custom jewelry business. I would like to be able to sell my jewelry on-line but I have not been able to find an ecommerce site that meets my needs. First of all I need a sight where I am able to go in myself and take out/and or add products. I also need for my sight to come up in different search engines. Obviously I am very new to the ecommerce business so any help and or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance
Michelle

[vwebworld]

Hi,

There are a couple of "open source" ecommerce solutions
available (usually FREE) from your web host.
oscommerce and zen cart are two (based upon the same
platform). There are others too.

With these you can add, change products, pricing, terms, etc very easily.

I provide oscommerce as well as agora shopping
cart with my hosting packages. http://www.vwebworld.com/vhost.htm

The advantage of the "open source" solutions is they
are very portable should you decide to change web hosts
you won't have to start over and create your online store
from scratch.

If you have any questions about this, do not hesitate to contact me.

A store using Zen Cart: www.houseofjerky.net/shop/


~Roland

[jestep]

I agree. Both Zen and Oscommerce would be a good place for you to start with your store. Keep in mind that these will only get your site up and running. Once the site is made, you will then be tasked with getting your site to rank in the search engines.

Since you are new to ecommerce, I recommend reading as much as you can in this and other ebusiness forums. Also check out these website for some more good information.

Entrepreneur - http://www.entrepreneur.com/
Yahoo Small Business - http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com
Clickz - http://clickz.com
AllBusiness - http://www.allbusiness.com/

[StevenAllen]

Yahoo has over 24K merchants for a reason. I have 6 Yahoo stores and find that they meet the requirements you have stated and are easy for a non-techie to use.

[Corey Bryant]

You might contact Martin over at http://www.sitetutor.com for some more help / information.

Yahoo can be good - just be prepared to pay extra on the transactions. They like for you to use Paymentech, but you do not have to. Also, the last time I checked, they were not compatible with Paypal.

[rstarkey]

I use a special build of osCommerce (OSC) for the sites that I develop. ZenCart is nice, but has trouble applying new contributions that are developed for OSC. The "out of the box" version of OSC may meet you needs, but I would use a version with lots of contributions already installed. Customizing the templates will get away from the "OSC look".

Some urls of OSC sites:
* www.pixiechix.com
* www.parentrecords.com
* www.lhstyle.com
* www.jubilee-designs.com
* www.jubilee-designs.com/catalog2
* www.thejewelrymaster.com

[seofan]

Many hosting companies now, like ours, gives you pre-loaded options like oscommerce. You just log in to your CPanel and configure your site and products. You need to have a merchant account or PayPal to process money as well. Our hosting is very cheap but there are others out there that are cheap also and still very high quality service. High price in hosting does not always equate to good service.

Like I mentioned - there are many hosting companies with "pre-loaded" shopping cart options. Just know what payment system you are going to use before selecting one.

As far as search engine listings, you have to continually work that. Focus on content - hopefully your market is a targeted niche market.

Good Luck!!!

[willthegeek]

You might look into Ecommerce Templates - www.ecommercetemplates.com. I am a user of their products and found them to be rock solid. They have a very good support group and many first-time website owners. They have a good variety of layouts and designs and everything is fully customizable. You also get the full source code so you make any chages you like

Let me stress that I am not an affiliate. I just like the product. I have used it on several sites and even made extensive changes to the internals. It still runs great.

[JohnW]

I have a Yahoo Store and like the backend features. I like the credit card gateway and security and approval process. I use Ipayment for my merchant account. I like the product catalog database. You can set up your site using html – either by you or have someone do it. You can also use their store builder but this is somewhat technical too.

I also just tried out eBay’s new ProStores at ProStores.com. ProStores sounds good. You build your store by an automated system using many templates to pick from. If you have a normal eBay store as I do then ProStores is 30% off. You can use PayPal Pro for credit card processing and they provide the gateway. Prostores after discount was $21 and Pay Pal Pro was $20 per month plus I think a half percent transaction fee. Prostores as with Yahoo also charge a transaction fee. With Yahoo the fee only is charged if the transaction initiates through the Yahoo Shopping Network.

These two choice offer traffic to your site advantages.

I built my Yahoo Store using FrontPage . I since dropped the ProStores trial because the easy to use site builder was too hard for me to figure out. I liked what I had seen of the back end for ProStores though. I liked the traffic generation programs they have. They do have an offer that they will build your store for I think $299.

Hope this helped.

John W
www.CoolNoveltiesAndGifts.com
www.CoolPhotoSculptures.com

[davebarnes]

Michelle,

Why do you hire an expert to help you with this?

,dave[/b]

[lucks]

Hi Michelle,

I agree with Dave. You should hire an expert who can provide webservices. It would be better in long term as with your inhouse site you can do optimization and website promotion in a better way.

If you like tht idea, i can help u further. Let me know.

Lucks...

[rstarkey]

I would not use the preloaded version of OSC. It just does not have the extra features that you will need later to make admin easier, such as upload inventory as a text file, cross sell items, easily add options to your products. Hire someone who knows how to customize the look of your site, set up your mailboxes, and make sure you are using a secured server.

[StevenAllen]

The beauty of Yahoo is you did not need to be a techie and can do it yourself.

[rklwebs]

www.monstercommerce.com
this is where my girlfriend works (and I am currentlt trying to get on there :-) ) they have quickly become one of the largest e-commerce solution providers online.
they provide everything from designing to Search Engine Optimization and anything else you might need along the way.

[ravnic]

hey if ya want to try it your self
here is a great host that is pretty cheap
they have 2 different cart systems to choose from
that come with your PKG.
http://solid-hosting.net/

the one thing you have to remeber is that you will need a merchant account to accept credit cards and the systems needs to have an internet gateway.

so good luck

[jglionheart]

Hi--I have used and stuck with CCNOW for 2 years now..much too the disdain of many of my past "advisors"...
It is totally user friendly....you can add and delete products..and many many other functions..
I have looked at other FREE or CHEAP programs and even have the option with Yahoo to use their service...FREE on my account.
Nope--don't want to change..
For $9.95 a month..and 9% of my invoice for commisions..I will use CCNOW..I just build the 10% into my prices and Boom--that's it.
One draw back--They cannot verify International Credit Cards...but I devised a system to verify on my own...and it works.
LionHeart
http://www.ccnow.com

[jestep]

For $9.95 a month..and 9% of my invoice for commisions..I will use CCNOW..I just build the 10% into my prices and Boom--that's it.

9% seems a little steep to me. I'm not sure how most business owners could survive 10% of their revenue. Many online retailers cant sell products with a 10% markup because of their competition.

[suesheboy]

Originally Posted by jestep

9% seems a little steep to me.

I agree that is way too steep.

I am looking for some help with Oscommerce. I am willing to pay someone close to me to help me set it up and teach me. Willing to pay well for the work and lesson.

I also want the affiliate function added in.

Anyone interested PM or Email me.

[RealEstateSEO]

We setup one of our clients in less than a day using this Shopping cart & Online store solution:

http://www.pagedowntech.com/shopping...highlights.asp

The idea here is that you find a hosting company (which supports the Microsoft platform) and upload the application and then enter your data. We had our client up and running in under an hour. The standard edition is only $39. Great support. Our client loves this solution. Not sure? Try their online demo here: http://www.pagedowntech.com/demo/

Hope that helps...

[mtheory]

You are entering the ecommerce arena when the internet is beginning to weed out the "cookie cutter" sites.

Choose OScommerce or Monstercommerce and you've just joined thousands of sites that are basically the same.

The internet is already losing it's novelty and statistics are showng that consumers are using the internet more for comparison shopping and buying local, unless they find a deep discount.

Is your product unique? You risk getting lost or actually never being found if you run a cookie cutter site like a Yahoo shop.(very tough to SEO)

If you want staying power, create a site that is unique and stands out from the rest.

[vivi4427]

Dear Michelle,

Let me offer you www.family-stand.com. It has all you need - targeted search engine traffic for your shop and item pages, very easy and complete inventory management, merchant account is not needed. As one of the first suppliers you would be entitled to the 25% lower commissions, free featured listings and free keyword suggestion report. And it also has a risk-free package.

Take a look. You can be online in just an hour or so. We are just at the very beginning and things (in terms of traffic, presentation and usability) are getting better and better every day.

Good luck with your business

[paulduffield]

Hi Michelle,

I can highly recommend Actinic software. It's a little more money than most but dead easy to do the basics (indeed fairly complex stuff too) with.

I have been developing sites for clients for many years now. As an IT consultant now but having run my own marketing consultancy for 15 years prevouisly I specialise in web site optimization (great site - no relavent traffic = not good idea!)

More recently I have decided to practice what I preach and am presently developing my own custom jewellery and accessories site. There will be a general section but I also have one designer already that will be having their own collection listed.

As she is only in her second year of business she couldn't afford for me to develop and extensively market a new site for her alone but we could both see the synergy we could create.

If you would prefer to list your collection on my new site which will be ready in about one month from now you are more than welcome. It would cost you nothing up front as effectively I buy from you at wholesale prices/commission on sale.

You would maintain the database of products. Depending on your location a raft of similar issues I can also get the jewellery professionally photographed at my cost again.

Of course if you wish to develop your own site then I would recommend the Actinic package. Don't forget that that's just the first part of the equation though and marketing it is in fact more important than the site itself in many respects.

The other options mentioned above are all adequate solutions and you could of course add something like Get Trolleyed to the list too.

Send me an email direct if you are interested in a joint venture. paul@its-magic.org