Need a site to sell merchandise wholesale and possibly retail, but not sure how I would get different prices for certain users to show up. The users would need to input their tax ID. Now that sounds like it might be expensive, so am looking for something that might be cheaper.

I need this to be easy to use, adding products should be easy. Anyway to have the store inventory tied to the online inventory?

I'm really new at this. Should I be looking to buy a domain separately, finding a host, installing the shopping cart myself? I have no idea how, but I figure with some guidance I should be able to. Or should I look for an all in one solution? I was looking at activecheckout.com.

For credit card processing, once it gets started I figure it will be easy to run up quite a bit of money, after all it is wholesale and sometimes a customer will buy a few thousand in merchandise. I'm not sure though would that be better than using paypal? How much more difficult is it to set up?

Edit: Price is an issue. Would like it to be cheap, but would also like it to be functional. So if there are stuff that I have to skimp out on thats fine.

Why don't you call some popualr merchant account providers and to ask them those question. From what I see there should not be any obstacles to get MA with those features.

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Need a site to sell merchandise wholesale and possibly retail, but not sure how I would get different prices for certain users to show up. The users would need to input their tax ID. Now that sounds like it might be expensive, so am looking for something that might be cheaper.

Some shopping cart systems allow you to have different customer levels which allows you to offer different pricing structres. Typically used for public/whoelsale pricing. You should also easily be able to add ana extra field for the ID in the users profile.

I need this to be easy to use, adding products should be easy. Anyway to have the store inventory tied to the online inventory?

Most carts are pretty straightforward to use after you have familiarised yourself where all the different links and input fields are. You can run stock control with most good carts but if you want to link the cart to an external inventory this will require a custom interface to be developed which can cost a little or a lot.

I'm really new at this. Should I be looking to buy a domain separately, finding a host, installing the shopping cart myself? I have no idea how, but I figure with some guidance I should be able to. Or should I look for an all in one solution? I was looking at activecheckout.com.

It's a good idea to buy domain and hosting from different companies. If your host goes tits up you then haven't got the hassle of tring to get your domain name back. Once you have hosting you can install a cart yourself or get the cart developer (or your web designer) to do it for you.

For credit card processing, once it gets started I figure it will be easy to run up quite a bit of money, after all it is wholesale and sometimes a customer will buy a few thousand in merchandise. I'm not sure though would that be better than using paypal? How much more difficult is it to set up?

You will need to look at merchant accounts and online payment processors to see which will be the best solution for you. Paypal will work for public and wholesale sales but you will probably want your store to look professional.

Edit: Price is an issue. Would like it to be cheap, but would also like it to be functional. So if there are stuff that I have to skimp out on thats fine.

Don't fall into the "cheap" trap - you get what you pay for, and if your business is your livelihood you need to be certain that it's going to work for you 24/7. A good solution doesn't have to be expensive but as with any business it aways pays to get the right solution to avoid heartache further down the road.

Try cubecart

The cpanel shopping cart is good too.

Have you tried OSCommerce? I'm sure it will be able to do such a thing. Its free and very popular.

I have seen implementations of OSC with several different pricesheets. As for a merchant account thats gonna let you do high tickets like that, I hope you have great credit, and you are willing to show financials.

So any new suggestions? I'm going to look at it all, and compare. It's still really confusing to me. I'm not so sure about Oscommerce and Zen cart, they do not seem as nice.

So any new suggestions? I'm going to look at it all, and compare. It's still really confusing to me. I'm not so sure about Oscommerce and Zen cart, they do not seem as nice.

I wouldn't suggest to use free shopping carts such as osCommerce or Zencart if you are not familiar with PHP programming. They require a lot of programming to change something, even to customize design. Also they don't have support. I think that it will be better to find a company which will consult you, develop online store and support you. If you start yourself you may lose your time and money.

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Steve Irwin
Avactis Shopping Cart (http://www.avactis.com)- Customizable to Any Design
http://www.avactis.com

I wouldn't suggest to use free shopping carts such as osCommerce or Zencart if you are not familiar with PHP programming. They require a lot of programming to change something, even to customize design. Also they don't have support. I think that it will be better to find a company which will consult you, develop online store and support you. If you start yourself you may lose your time and money.
You're right, I'd rather use a paid shopping cart as they will probably be better. Was looking at a few and thinking about CS-Cart (leaning towards this one) , sunshop, jshop, and I'm sure there are other good ones. I will probably be getting some help and looking for someone to consult, but I'd like to do as much as I can, seeing as I have more time than money.

I disagree abou OSCommerce needing a lot of php coding. A lot of the additions can be added to the site from their comprehensive plugins. As far as support is concerned, your right but OSCommerce has a community of peopel using the product who can help you. Just take a look at there active forums.

Im using CS-Cart and have no complaints.

I disagree abou OSCommerce needing a lot of php coding.

Did you try to customize osCommerce to a unique design? We did it many times and had a lot of problems and a lot coding...

It is hard to skin and make your own commerce site. You need to just take your time and read what the above people have said.