Decent of-the-peg CMS system

[tom.holt]

Let's say I'm a bit of a web-build virgin, with no experience but a good handle on how this stuff works & a bit of time on my hands....

I have a friend who imports some great products to sell in a conventional retail environment & he is a non-believer when it comes to the power of online retail. I'd like to build him a site with a very simple e-commerce feature to make him eat his words.....!

Is there an off-the-peg solution for a non-programmer to put together a very proffessional site? I have seen reference to Joomla & Dreamweaver etc, but can't really see many examples of how far these applications can be pushed in terms of performance.

The motivation for doing it myself is firstly the fact that there is no real budget for this & secondly that I'd love to do something like this myself.

Any Ideas....

Thanks - Tom

[crossland]

Are you sure that you want a CMS?

Based on your requirements, it sounds as if you require an eCommerce system.
osCommerce takes some beating and as it is open source, with a large number of contributions, you have a lot of flexibility to customise the site as business develops.

[likeorganic]

The simplest way is to register your domain name with a hosting service if you haven’t already done so. most servers have templates you can use and the simplest way to take payments is through pay pal all of this requires no languages to learn or merchant account setup. After a while I would recommend learning some basic programming and getting a professional shopping cart. It depends on how large a site you want ? Dream weaver is a good tool but does take a while to learn your way around it.


LT1 Engine Tips

[danners]

Try shopify.com

Dan

[MeanSEO]

Simple site through some sort of site builder from your host (even Yahoo) is one thing, getting quality targeted traffic is another far harder thing to do.

BTW Google credit card processing rocks and works very easily to copy code and paste it on your site - and oh yeah - no fees such as pay pal.

[astraro]

All you must pay if you use Joomla is the domain and host .See an online store example made with Joomla at astraro CD store - Do I Need a Website?

[FragranceStop.com]

Hi Tom,

I'd have to suggest Shopping Cart Software by Volusion Ecommerce Solutions

They have very simple interface and someone who knows little html can really do a fair amount of designing and editing on their templates. That said there is also the ability for someone who is much more experienced to get in there and do some serious editing. The current version 4 is pretty good, but the soon to be released version 5 looks Really good. according to what I have read they are adding many useful features to there service which is already quite impressive. Volusion has pretty fair pricing plans and works with all of the major gateways so accepting credit cards is quite easy. As someone stated earlier Google Checkout is also a great gateway to use for accepting payments and is also supported by Volusion. I've also found that their customer support is excellent (and located in the USA! Now there's a 1st).

I would say that I have a moderate level of competence when it comes to HTML and I am very happy with the site I was able to create. If you would like to look at what I've done you can check us out at Fragrance Stop - Designer Fragrance and Cosmetics at great Discount Prices!

Feel free to drop me a note if you want some more info.
Regards,
Glenn

[bj]

Cubecart seems to be the easiest of the Ecommerce progs for people to set up and use. And yes, like others have said, you need Ecommerce, and not a CMS, so don't bother with Joomla.

If you just want to give it a try, use the paypal shopping cart code, whch can be dropped into any webpage if you know what you're doing. You can always switch to a dedicated cart later, once you know it will be worthwhile to do so. Paypal is a great way to get your feet wet in ecommerce.

[poohah]

Ok, it does sound like you need an E-commerce sytem but you can also combine this with a CMS as well.
The best E-Commerce Sytem is OS Commerce, check Wedding bridal jewellery accessories.
as a good example.
When it comes to CMS systems there are some great ones out there but the most simple one is CMSMADESIMPLE, it's a great program, check Avoca Beach Home and Online renting property script - 24 hour startup, flexible licencing options, good luck.

[incrediblehelp]

Check this out to:

CMS Made Simple - Welcome to CMS Made Simple

[chadhaajay]

Hello tom,

I'll recommend you to have a look at e-commerce solution and shopping cart software. In one. SME shopping cart software solutions as I think it is what you are looking for.

Sincerely,

Ajay Chadha (Director)
Chadha Software Technologies

Search Scripts - Scripts Resource Directory

[cardinal252]

I would definately have to say Joomla E-commerce edition (Joomla with the Virtuemart module) is one of the best I have come across for novices, it acts as a CMS/E-commerce platform combined, or osCommerce. Both of these are free, pretty full featured and a complete doddle to install

[tom.holt]

Thanks for all input so far. I guess as a complete novice, I know I will have to put a lot of time into familurising myself with any CMS/ecommerce software, so I want to ensure I start off with the right one.

I guess the tools I will have is a designer to lend a hand with providing some excellent visuals/imagery etc, a few pages of content, and a couple of products I wish to sell through the site.

On top of this, I'd like to hang a few documents off the site (mainly pdfs), and have a blog to build up content.

The google ecommerce system sounds good, but I guess like anyone selling a product, I want a payement method that will be accessible to the widest audience possible & will not represent much effort on the part of the buyer.

Tom

[rochdalemark]

I'd definately go with oscommerce.
Its free, has loads of contributions you can add to it, including CMS, Blogs etc and it has a very helpful community support site for when you get stuck. As I'm sure you will do no matter which software you decide to go with.

[Shirleykk]

I am not a website developer either. I wanted to create an e-commerce website site. I was introduced to an easy to create and understand program without knowing code by using Online Auctions, Selling Products, Web Design, Web Hosting, Education - eProfits Made Simple - Corporate Site

[WebBunyip]

If you particularly want a CMS system with an ecommerce solution included, I would suggest virtuemart.

VirtueMart: Your free e-commerce solution. - Welcome....

It integrates with Joomla and is free. You can download a script with virtuemart already integrated into Joomla which is easy to install.

I have built 3 sites with osCommerce , which would do want you want as well, but I found virtuemart a lot easier to work with, especially with skinning the site, and getting the basic parameters up and running.

Of course, all scripts of this size have a steep learning curve to jump over.

[Tarzan2]

I'm surprised nobody said anything about using the services provided by their web host. You will need to have your web site hosted somewhere (unless you plan on running your own server), and several web hosts have shopping carts, blogs, message boards, etc. already configured and ready to go. You set up your site's features through an interface and simply click on the item you wish to add to your site.

Having said that; I need to add that my particular host seems to not keep their stuff up to date, so once you have the software (freeware that they configure for hosting on their servers) working on your site, you usually have to update it on your own. The advantage is that you know the server you are using will work with the particular software, since not all servers are set up for every software, and most web hosts will only give so much access to server configuration settings. In other words, if they supply the initial software, their servers are set up to work with it. Good for novices!

[Volusion]

Set up a site with us. We have more features than anyone and you don't have to know html to set up a great site.

Here is a list with our features:
Features