Can anyone point me towards a few good articles about ECommerce sites? I need to know about hosting, updating inventory (product databases etc). Also, does anyone have any recommendations for good ECommerce hosts? Thanks.

I've never seen a decent beginners guide for ecommerce, maybe someone else has a few links to share. There's a lot been said on these forums so it's worth doing a search for some tips.

I assume you're going to buid a web site that will, let you sell products/services online? If so here's a start...

1. Domain name

You'll need a domain name unless you already have one.

2. Web hosting

Probably the most important decision is where to host. If your livelihood depends on it always go for quality of service and support before price, if there is a problem you will need it fixed asap else you lose money.

You can use nearly any webhost to host a site selling products, personally I would look for a Unix/Linux host that supports php and mysql databases (this is pretty standard spec nowadays), there are lots of good hosts mentioned on these forums.

Depending on how many products/pages your site has, and how many visitors you get, will dictate what size hosting pacakage you need. For a store of up to 500 products, 100mb is usually enough disk space. Monthly data transfer is difficult to predict, I have several customers who run shopping cart web sites and they use between 1gb and 10gb per month each. If your site really takes off you may use more data transfer.

Unless you are planning to be the next Amazon you will be ok on a shared hosting account. If your site outgrows a shared account your host should be able to upgrade your hosting according to your needs, eithe to a VPS or a Dedicated server.

3. Shopping cart system software

Unless you have a huge budget a popular choice is to go with a ready made shopping cart script. There are many to choose from, both free and commercial, and the majority of them allow you to update your inventory online via your web browser.

Which you choose is up to you, with the free software you are responsible for all setup customisation and troubleshooting, if you go commercial you will get professional support as well as (at least I think) a better product. Shopping carts have been discussed a lot here so do a search and you will find lots of links. Take time to look at them all, most sites have demos where you can play around both as a customer and administrator.

The important thing is to find a shopping cart system that you can work with, one that has all the features you need, and one that has good support from the developers.

there's a good list of shopping cart scripts here - http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Scripts_and_Programs/E-Commerce/Shopping_Carts/index.html

4. Payment systems

Another much talked about subject here on WHT! Most shopping carts plugin to the popular payment gateways (Worldpay, 2checkout, Paypal etc) + offline methos like pay by cheque manual cc transactions. It's always best to make a list of payment providers and visit each of their sites to check up on fees and terms of trade.

5. Building your site

Shopping carts can be complex affairs to build sites with so you may want to use a web designer who specialises in this area. He/she will be able to setup your shop and customise the look/feel how you want it. They should also fully test it before making it live!

There are some tutorials on ecommerce, couldn't tell you where though...

*cough* ;)

Here are some good shopping carts:

X-Cart (http://www.x-cart.com)
phpMyCart (http://www.phpmycart.com)
osCommerce (http://www.oscommerce.com)

The easiest is probably phpMyCart. Extremely template-based, with effective features. You can concentrate more on getting the items up rather then installing mods, etc.

Here are some good shopping carts:

X-Cart (http://www.x-cart.com)
phpMyCart (http://www.phpmycart.com)
osCommerce (http://www.oscommerce.com)

The easiest is probably phpMyCart. Extremely template-based, with effective features. You can concentrate more on getting the items up rather then installing mods, etc.

You missed Cubecart which is also a best Shopping cart.

"5. Building your site

Shopping carts can be complex affairs to build sites with so you may want to use a web designer who specialises in this area. He/she will be able to setup your shop and customise the look/feel how you want it. They should also fully test it before making it live!"

Is it necessary to purchase the shopping cart software? I have seen several places that have the shopping cart software already on their servers. How about something like http://www.easystorecreator.com/ ? I realize there might be draw backs by using something like this (not as customizable etc.) - but is there any reason why I should stay away from a webhost that already provides shopping cart software?

Thanks!

I tried CubeCart & didn't like it, so that's why I didn't list it.

Coming from what the poster is sounds like, phpMyCart is the best option.

Is it necessary to purchase the shopping cart software? I have seen several places that have the shopping cart software already on their servers. How about something like http://www.easystorecreator.com/ ? I realize there might be draw backs by using something like this (not as customizable etc.) - but is there any reason why I should stay away from a webhost that already provides shopping cart software?

Thanks!

Yes and no.

Complete packages

Some companies like the one you mention offer you a complete package and you pay a monthly fee. It's an easy solution but can be more expensive in the long run if you are in business for many years, you are also often limited with the design/layout of your site.

Also if you decide you want to add more pages or features to your site it may or may not be possible using the package you use - need to check things like this!

The major benefit is that once you sign up everything is automatically setup and ready for you.

Free shopping carts

You can go for a free cart system, such as the popular OSCommerce. Going for a freebie still means you have to install and set everything up but if you're on a tight budget it's an option.

One problem with freebies is that they are sometimes complex to customise when compared to some commercial solutions. However, if you have a web designer to do the work for you then they will do all the tecchy bits for you anyway!

You can sometimes spend more money having a free cart modified to suit than going for a commercial cart - that's why I said look at as many options before deciding and get the right one first time around!

Support for free carts is usually forum based, in that you have to search or ask for help and you are responsible for getting things working again. Some developers offer email support but you can't expect prompt responses (but hey the software is free!)

Commercial shopping carts

If you opt for a commercial cart you will have to buy a licence for your site/domain name. Most developers also offer lifetime technical support and software upgrades so if there is a problem or security issue you can shout for help! Some developers charge for different support levels so it's best to check what you get.

Commercial systems are normally template based so any type of site look/design is possible (rather than that "standard" shopping cart look).

If your business pays your rent I would personally always go commercial, simply because if there is a problem I want to minimise the down time.


hope that helps!

Yeah, wikipedia is a good source.
As for shopping carts, can highly recommend you to choose Magento commerce - it is really one of the best carts I've ever used before.

Dear Aristotl3,


Is it necessary to purchase the shopping cart software? I have seen several places that have the shopping cart software already on their servers. How about something like http://www.easystorecreator.com/ ? I realize there might be draw backs by using something like this (not as customizable etc.) - but is there any reason why I should stay away from a webhost that already provides shopping cart software?
Thanks!

You may need shopping cart software if you decide to expand your business.
Webhost that already provides shopping cart software is probably a good solution to start with.
As for me, the reason to stay away from them is monthly fee and the lack of FTP access and access to PHP source code. But may be it's not a problem for you.

Regards, Alt-team.