Hi.
I would like to setup an online shop for my business selling jewellery, handbags and possibly shoes.

I would also like to offer payment optons such as paypal, credit card, COD, direct debit etc..
I need to upload 1-2 photos of each product and offer postage to Australia (using fastways).
I would like to either spend <$60/month on the shop (hopefully less!) or a once-off payment is also OK (but monthly payments are better).
I need a shop that is easy to build. i don't need many features, as I have already outlined.
All help is appreciated

Thanks alot

Jonno

Hey,

I would use osCommerce (http://www.oscommerce.org/) - It's free, open source and you can easily add new 'modules' for payments and shipping.

It doesn't take much to setup either, and could be up and running within an hour.

If you have some experience with web development use osCommerce, if not i recommend you hire a web development company and they should be able to take care of everything for you.

Your budget of $60/month is all you want to pay? or do you have a budget to also pay some money upfront for set up and customization?

If there is no budget for set up etc. I recommend to use a web builder, it may not be too powerful but may be enough

I would like to pay less than $60/month. OR pay a once-off payment.. Any other suggestions?
How about payment options? Any way to offer my customers credit card options if I use oscommerce.org?? Thanks.. Jonno
Also, is oscommerce.org suitable for use in australia?

Hi Jonno,

Thought I'd give you some feedback as I have a bit of experience in this.

What you have to do is really know what you are looking for. If you don't want to have to fuss with having to setup your own store, provide support for yourself and have the knowledge needed about SSL etc.. then it may be best for you to go with a company who will do this for you.

Oscommerce can be a good choice for a shopping cart but it is important to know what you are doing on the side of setting everything up.

If you would like some help with this you can email or pm me and I can answer any questions you might have and help you figure out your best route to take.

Hi Jonno,

Thought I'd give you some feedback as I have a bit of experience in this.

What you have to do is really know what you are looking for. If you don't want to have to fuss with having to setup your own store, provide support for yourself and have the knowledge needed about SSL etc.. then it may be best for you to go with a company who will do this for you.

Oscommerce can be a good choice for a shopping cart but it is important to know what you are doing on the side of setting everything up.

If you would like some help with this you can email or pm me and I can answer any questions you might have and help you figure out your best route to take.

OK. well starting from scratch, i need to create a website (mydomain.com.au) and the main purpose of this site is to be an online shop.. I also have a warehouse where the goods can be picked up..
I need to obtain the domain and then find out how to build an online store for it...
I am willing to spend hours of time building the website (i just need to know HOW...)

Hope this helps...

Thanks

Jonno

P.S: also, best place to buy domain, register it etc...?

oscommerce will be a good option for you and you may just choose wb hosting provider with web site builder or/and oscommerce and start creating your project

you might want to look into volusion.com

Go with something that is commercially supported rather than opensource, this means that any security problems are addressed immediately rather than relying on a community to fix it.

Look at CubeCart (http://cubecart.com), ClickCartPro (http://clickcartpro.com) & XCart (http://xcart.com).

Go with something that is commercially supported rather than opensource, this means that any security problems are addressed immediately rather than relying on a community to fix it.

Absolutely, if you have little or no experience with PHP/coding and you have problems with your site you are on your own to sort it out - in the meantime you can be losing sales and reputation while your site is down. A good commercial product with good support means you don't have to worry too much as there will always be someone there to help you.

Would you buy a new car without any warranty or peace of mind should anything go wrong?

Personally I am using osCommerce.

By default, osCommerce is definitely NOT presentable. You need to do a lot of customization before you want to start promoting your sites to others and start selling things online. The default theme/design is just way too simple and felt "unprofessional" at all.

Here's my store that I use osCommerce software, but with heavily modified front and backends.

www.ShaShinKi.com (http://www.ShaShinKi.com)

I have also created a test/fun site of how osCommerce can be made beautifully:

www.ecmalaysia.com/shops/fashion (http://www.ecmalaysia.com/shops/fashion)

I like and will still recommend osCommerce, as there are thousands of contributions/add-ons out there that you can use to customize your shop. Though some are buggies, but as osC has been around for a long time, you can try search for those stable mods and apply them to your shop. All are FREE, and you do not have to pay others if you want to add a feature to your store.

osCommerce should work out great for you. It may take time to tweak it and get it just right but the cost won't be an issue if you can handle that part in-house.

For the other parts of your budget, the hosting and payment processing components won't be bad. However, at the risk of tossing in a monkey wrench - have you considered your marketing plan?

I mention this only because your marketing costs may be the most expensive part of it and in most cases, would be a lot more than $60/month to get any traction... unless you are going to be marketing exclusively via word of mouth from existing clients or doing free guerrila-type marketing.

I would also suggest the free ZenCart (http://zencart.com/) as an excellent eCommerce script. Very easy to use and one of the few to have a printed Manual available, purchased separately. The Manual is an excellent source for details of "how to" Administer your site.

No matter what script you go with you are probably looking at spending a couple of hundred dollars to have it customized to your needs. After that though, your Hosting and script related costs should be minimal.

I recommend osCommerce, ZenCart, osCMax

os-commerce is pretty good, it's free, a lot od add-ons, and kind easy to set up

<<snipped>>

As for shopping cart I have tried not bad, but disadvantages are:
- slow / speed of admin panel
- shipping method is not calculated as in oscommerce
- currency rate never will be updated (couldn't find sort of function at all)

and you have some spelling mistakes, like:
quite demo...
should be:
quit demo...

Still recommeded OS commerce or using the cube cart in the fatastico is also nice. Becase it provide more e-payment method such as e-gold

Hello,

You can check 123sitenow.com they have ecommerce & shopping cart under $60. You also can check register.com, but they are a lit bit more expensive.