I own a series of online guides to my region just north of New York City. I own the domain WestchesterShopping.com and can't figure out what I'd like to put there.

I could put up a Links-type directory and start listing every retail place in the county and hope to charge for advertising or premium placement.

But this is my thought. It is in line with

http://www.nytodayshopping.com/

from the New York Times. It is an online mall system run by

http://www.pointshop.com/

which, in turn, is run by

http://www.tradeline.net/

They specialize in putting up co-branded e-commerce malls and charging the retailers hosting and setup fees. In return for sponsoring these malls, newspapers like the NY Times get a cut of the action.

OK. Now I own the URL WestchesterShopping.com. I do web design. I do webhosting. Why do I need a company like Tradeline? In reality, I don't think I do. What I need is to determine on what software product I could easily build a similar mall system on.

Somewhere in another thread someone recommended Actinic's shopping cart system. I had visited their site and signed up for more info. I think they have some kind of a mall system product but the site wasn't very clear. I have an appointment to meet one of their representatives at their booth at the Fall Internet World Show here in NY in two days. But Actinic seems kind of pricey.

We've discussed All Manage for online communities in another thread. I'm talking about easily replicating low cost, low-end e-commerce storefronts from one domain, like

http://www.westchestershopping.com/joes-shoes
http://www.westchestershopping.com/grace-realty

If they want their own domain, I can set them up with their own domain and just link them in.

Since I have other regional sites that could tie into this westchestershopping.com, I think it'd be a great way to draw hosting clients. The more automated I could build it the better.

Any ideas on what scripts I could use for this purpose? Been to CGI Resources and Hot Scripts. Can't find anything under "malls".

Thanks in advance.

Sean

Hmmm.. you dint find anything at all at hotscripts.com? nothing under Vertical markets or E-Commerce or Virtual communities? Thats odd. Well you could get something made?? :)

Kunal,

Thanks for the reply. It forced me to go back again and take a second look at HotScripts.com. Found a few mall scripts. The only ones worth a look cost well, well over $1000 each.

Ouch!

Anyone with any cheaper alternatives?

Kunal, thanks again.

Sean

No problem. Well thats what one has to pay for a good script.

To what I understand from you requirements, is that, you are looking for a script that will create sites using a pre-defined template. Correct? This would not be a difficult task. If you found a script that exaclty or closely suits what you need, post the link, and lets see if I can find you an alternative :)