Online Store

an_other

Has anyone here set up and run an online store?

If so any info would be a big help.

Who did you get to design your site?
How much (roughly) did it cost?
How long did it take?

Any info on security and accepting payments?

Sorry to be so vauge about this, but anything you can add would be great.

Darragh29

an_other wrote: »

Has anyone here set up and run an online store?

If so any info would be a big help.

Who did you get to design your site?
How much (roughly) did it cost?
How long did it take?

Any info on security and accepting payments?

Sorry to be so vauge about this, but anything you can add would be great.

I'm doing one here at the minute. I couldn't have done it if I had to pay a developer, I learnt how to do it myself and am delighted with the results so far. AIB are in the middle of setting up a merchant services account for me
and Realex and the payment processing company.

What are you selling OP?

slayrBFS

yeah, Iv got one set up using oscommerce pretty easy to set up, can be a bit time consuming though. The merchant account I found best to start with was paypal, never checked with my bank though... so might go do that now!


www.projectaapparel.com

an_other

Cheers guys.

What does your site sell Darragh (PM the link if you want).

As for the site I'm looking to set up it's for specialist books and magazine.

I am technically minded but I just don't think I have the patience to get a fully working and professional site set up myself. How long did it take you guys?

delllat

an_other wrote: »

Cheers guys.

What does your site sell Darragh (PM the link if you want).

As for the site I'm looking to set up it's for specialist books and magazine.

I am technically minded but I just don't think I have the patience to get a fully working and professional site set up myself. How long did it take you guys?

steve braithwaite has a good course on youtube on how to make an oscommerce store.step by step

Darragh29

an_other wrote: »

Cheers guys.

What does your site sell Darragh (PM the link if you want).

As for the site I'm looking to set up it's for specialist books and magazine.

I am technically minded but I just don't think I have the patience to get a fully working and professional site set up myself. How long did it take you guys?

I'm working away at mine still, I'm very happy with the front of the site but the back end and front end content needs a lot of work...

an_other

I was watching a bit of the Steve Braithwaite course on youtube when you posted that message dellat.

It's great thanks.

Anyone thinking of doing a webstore themselves should check it out.

shoutman

Darragh29 wrote: »

I'm working away at mine still, I'm very happy with the front of the site but the back end and front end content needs a lot of work...

How did you start about learning to do this Darragh? Just through internet tutorials etc. I've had a look at the Steve Braithwaite site and the tutorials look very good indeed.
Any other links would be greatly appreciated.

Darragh29

shoutman wrote: »

How did you start about learning to do this Darragh? Just through internet tutorials etc. I've had a look at the Steve Braithwaite site and the tutorials look very good indeed.
Any other links would be greatly appreciated.

I did a degree in electronic engineering a few years back and I did a software module in that (I wasn't particularly good at it by the way!), but my approach to these kind of things is to throw myself into the deep end and just learn fast. I downloaded Microsoft Visual Web Developer (free to use), which uses the ASP.NET framework, and picked up a bit of C# and learnt how to code in that. I did loads of free video tutorials on www.asp.net and other sites like that...

an_other

Oscommerce is great cheers Slayr. With a bit of work I should be able to do it myself.

Can anyone who runs an online store give me any tips when it comes to payments.
Should I just stick with Paypal or look for merchant account.
What are the costs per transactions like?

Stock levels are the one thing that worries me. I dont want to get in over my head with stock but I also dont want to look like a cowboy with only afew items.

delllat

an_other wrote: »

Oscommerce is great cheers Slayr. With a bit of work I should be able to do it myself.

Can anyone who runs an online store give me any tips when it comes to payments.
Should I just stick with Paypal or look for merchant account.
What are the costs per transactions like?

Stock levels are the one thing that worries me. I dont want to get in over my head with stock but I also dont want to look like a cowboy with only afew items.

leave stock counter disabled
customers dont need to know how many items you have in stock

another way of doing it is setting all stock numbers to 10,000 for every product

i would give them a few options for payment,many options are available ,make sure u get the most modern oscommerce,the older ones may have holes that can be exploited

delllat

MikeyMagoo wrote: »

<snip>

i looked at <snip> last year and decided it was a rip off

it doesnt do anything oscommerce or zencart doesnt do for free

or does it?

hkcharlie

I'm right at the begining too and I'm looking at these:

http://www.zencart.com/
http://www.magentocommerce.com/
http://www.oscommerce.com/
http://www.prestashop.com/

which are all free open source and have been recommended on other e-commerce forums.

If anyone has any info on any of these I'd be interested.

As for payment I guess you have to sign up for other services like paypal or world pay. Is Verisign one of these?

delllat

hkcharlie wrote: »

I'm right at the begining too and I'm looking at these:

http://www.zencart.com/
http://www.magentocommerce.com/
http://www.oscommerce.com/
http://www.prestashop.com/

which are all free open source and have been recommended on other e-commerce forums.

If anyone has any info on any of these I'd be interested.

As for payment I guess you have to sign up for other services like paypal or world pay. Is Verisign one of these?

prsonally id go osc or zen since theyre more widely ussed and and any problems you may encounter have likely been solved already

also there are heaps of great templates out there for osc and zen so that takes away a big chunk of the work making ur store look nice

hkcharlie

I've just stumbled upon word press and their ecommerce plugin.

Does anyone have any experience of this?

Zascar

Would you not be tempted to get an indian etc on www.elance.com or similar to do all the hard work for you for a few quid? They'd get you a zencart or oscommerce site up in no time for not much money. Get a theme designed (or buy a template) and set up the merchant. That's what I would do anyway!

Wordpress plugin seems interesting

hkcharlie

Zascar wrote: »

Would you not be tempted to get an indian etc

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Arcee

You should also familiarise yourselves with the Ecommerce Act and Distance Selling regulations. As an online retailer you are obliged to provide the buyer with certain information and a cool-off period in some cases. The law is very much on the buyers side and you can find yourself unknowingly breaking the law.

It's also worth retaining the services of a good ecommerce lawyer to create some solid terms and conditions for your site. They can also advise you on contract law so you are aware of what jurisdiction you are under when creating online contracts with buyers in other countries. You probably need to consider data protection legislation if you are retaining customer information also.

There's a myriad of legal difficulties you can find your self confronted with if you're not prepared. Take the Aer Lingus €5 flight debacle as an example - you should ensure you are protected against customers taking advantage of a technical error on your site and that you do not enter into an unintentional contract with them that you are forced to honor at a later stage.

Axwell

hkcharlie wrote: »

?????????????????????????????

He means outsource the website to someone on sites like elance or getafreelancer, tends to be a lot of Indian people on them.

delllat

Axwell wrote: »

He means outsource the website to someone on sites like elance or getafreelancer, tends to be a lot of Indian people on them.

i know a good indian if anyone needs his details give me a pm

hes done some great work and he works for about 10% of what an irishman would charge

delllat

hkcharlie wrote: »

I've just stumbled upon word press and their ecommerce plugin.

Does anyone have any experience of this?

u might be better asking that question on the web design and development forum

an_other

What do I need to accept secure credit card & laser card payments?
And how much of the pie will it cost me?

Anyone know of how to handle subscriptions through zen cart?

SachaJ

For taking payments I reckon Paypal is your best bet. If you insist on being able to take Laser you're going to have to go with someone like WorldPay or RealEx.

My first ecommerce site (.NET) was done with WorldPay , I'm doing one (php) now to use Paypal, and then I'm going to redevelop the first site above using php and go with RealEx - has to be cheaper than what I'm paying WorldPay (€250 pa + 4.5% or something).

an_other

What are the charges for using Realex?

I could use paypal but wouldn't that mean my customers would need to sign up for a paypal account if they dont already have one?

SachaJ

the last time I checked, RealEx was something like €49 ex VAT per month + whatever your bank charges, which could be around 2%. I need to look into it a bit more myself.

Paypal is definately your best option for now. As far as I'm aware your customers do not need to have a Paypal account. Have a read of this page:

https://www.paypal.com/ie/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_wp-standard-overview-outside

and in particular this part:

* Low transaction fees 1.9% to 2.9% + $0.30 USD
* No monthly, set-up, or cancellation fees
* Get paid by anyone . even by customers without a PayPal account
* Accept credit cards, debit cards, bank transfers, and PayPal See demo.

sm.org

delllat wrote: »

i know a good indian if anyone needs his details give me a pm

hes done some great work and he works for about 10% of what an irishman would charge

What do you work at dellat? I'm sure I can get an indian to do it for 10%.

My experience of contracting asian firms in this area is that the initial work has been fine but the following customer and tech support is awful. Once I paid them they didn't care anymore , repeat business doesn't seem to be in the Hindi dictionary.

calahans

If you are looking to get something that works up and running fast (and cheap) then try these irish guys http://www.myswiftstore.com

On the plus side, they take care of everything - all you need is an ebay account or merchant account for credit card. You can either use a domain or not. On the downside you dont have full control of the look of the site.

Zascar

calahans wrote: »

If you are looking to get something that works up and running fast (and cheap) then try these irish guys http://www.myswiftstore.com

On the plus side, they take care of everything - all you need is an ebay account or merchant account for credit card. You can either use a domain or not. On the downside you dont have full control of the look of the site.

That looks very interesting, I remember seeing a similar one a whole back but theur charges were very high.

How would their sites be for SEO - obviously this is an incredible important aspect of any site, especially if you are trying to attract web traffic

calahans

The sites are structured to be SEO friendly and all the products pages use friendly urls i.e. /Products/Black&Decker-Handtool rather than /Products.php?id=453.

Its a similar model to ebay, but cheaper and Irish.

Must declare my interest - I have worked with the guys!

Zascar

Fair play to the guys who did it, looks like a great service. I'd be very intereted to give it a try...

stapolinhosting

hkcharlie wrote: »

I'm right at the begining too and I'm looking at these:

http://www.zencart.com/
http://www.magentocommerce.com/
http://www.oscommerce.com/
http://www.prestashop.com/

I have used all of these and I have to say for anyone starting out with ecommerce, i would highly suggest zencart.

Zencart is actually based on the original program of oscommerce but has so much more to offer. Even something as small as adding a second image to a product in oscommerce can be extra work having to add a contribution/add-on with again is more work, but with zencart it as simple as just uploading the second image to the server.

magento is pretty new on the scene. Its good, has a nice look and feel to it, but changing the look of it to suit your shop is not the handiest. With zencart, there are hundreds, if not thousands of templates on the market (and free) that you can install in a matter of minutes and change the whole look of your site.

I like prestashop, but like magento, its not got a huge amount of add-ons/contributions to it.

Zencart has a contribution for nearly all types of ecommerce store and are easy to install. The support forum is great if your stuck too. Products can be added on-by-one or in bulk via an excel spreadsheet file (easy populate file)

Anyway, just thought I would show my point of view in comparing the mearkat.

stapolinhosting

SachaJ wrote: »

the last time I checked, RealEx was something like €49 ex VAT per month + whatever your bank charges, which could be around 2%. I need to look into it a bit more myself.

Paypal is definately your best option for now. As far as I'm aware your customers do not need to have a Paypal account. Have a read of this page:

https://www.paypal.com/ie/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_wp-standard-overview-outside

and in particular this part:

* Low transaction fees 1.9% to 2.9% + $0.30 USD
* No monthly, set-up, or cancellation fees
* Get paid by anyone . even by customers without a PayPal account
* Accept credit cards, debit cards, bank transfers, and PayPal See demo.

You might also want to take a look at this site too www.paypalwarning.com

I dont use paypal anymore because they are pretty much money hungry machines that will do anything to make money, even hold yours against your will!

I moved to alertpay.com very friendly bunch of people, much better customer support. Actuall people who listen to what you have to say and help you resolve any issues you have, unlike paypal who only use pre-generated emails to answer you.

r0nanf

Realex are €49 per month, and AIB take a 2.5% rip off the total selling price. That €49 also gives you access to a virtual terminal (the ability to accept cards over the phone etc through manual input).

I developed my ecommerce site using opensource software: Joomla and virtuemart. They took a while to learn how to use and the forum support for virtuemart is poor. However they are free, and Joomla is well supported and well capable of building a high end look with beautiful plugins.

Realex have yet to offer an integration code so you would have to pay a coder about €200 to write it. I currently use PayPal Pro as it's fully integrated, but do want to move to Realex soon. I have previously used Realex with an oscommerce website, but I found oscommerce could not produce a sufficiently "flashy" end product.

delllat

r0nanf wrote: »

Realex are €49 per month, and AIB take a 2.5% rip off the total selling price. That €49 also gives you access to a virtual terminal (the ability to accept cards over the phone etc through manual input).

I developed my ecommerce site using opensource software: Joomla and virtuemart. They took a while to learn how to use and the forum support for virtuemart is poor. However they are free, and Joomla is well supported and well capable of building a high end look with beautiful plugins.

Realex have yet to offer an integration code so you would have to pay a coder about €200 to write it. I currently use PayPal Pro as it's fully integrated, but do want to move to Realex soon. I have previously used Realex with an oscommerce website, but I found oscommerce could not produce a sufficiently "flashy" end product.

you would be surprised how "flashy" an oscommerce install can look,ive seen a few cracking examples although the majority are still very basic

hkcharlie

delllat wrote: »

you would be surprised how "flashy" an oscommerce install can look,ive seen a few cracking examples although the majority are still very basic

insert example here !?!

maninasia

sm.org wrote: »

What do you work at dellat? I'm sure I can get an indian to do it for 10%.

My experience of contracting asian firms in this area is that the initial work has been fine but the following customer and tech support is awful. Once I paid them they didn't care anymore , repeat business doesn't seem to be in the Hindi dictionary.

If you want to run a business why are you spending your time building the store. That will distract you and suck your resources and energy especially when bugs come up. The point is not 'Can I make it myself'. I know I can make a pre-fab house from buying the wood from Sweden, do I want to live in my crappy pre-fab house...no, because I am a sh%t builder and I will electrocute myself in the process of making repairs most probably!
Now imagine what happens when your own DIY site breaks down (worse case scenario)...your system gets hacked, hackers steal your customers registered details, your customer gets ripped off and sues you. Or if you are backing up your database and it gets wiped....

In addition, you need to compete, that means you should look good, have great functionality and use professionals if neccessary. Don't use off-island developers, better use a local development team and local designer...they will be there when you need to make changes and fix problems (there will be a lot of changes/bugs as you work through the launch and then try to modify your site to suit your business as you learn). You don't need to care what the site is built from. The web developers can use a free tool if he wants, he's not 'ripping' you off...the point is how well they integrate it and maintain it for you. There are costs to online businesses just like any business, you will probably have to spend some money!
I looked at this site, http://www.projectaapparel.com/index.html, to be very frank it's not good for business. Any web developer would have told you to make it so people can actually read the text (it's too small, hard to read with the background, not easy to find stuff, not enough 'P-zazz' for a fashion site to make anybody excited)

BTW, I used to run an online development company so I do have some idea of what I'm talking about.

hkcharlie

maninasia wrote: »

BTW, I used to run an online development company so I do have some idea of what I'm talking about.

which helps to explain your thoughts and views

I think the whole point of open source software is to make the previously unavailable available to the man on the street.

What is the poit of going through all the hard work to make free open source software and then pay someone the equivilent of the cost of the software and the set up?

Don't get me wrong, I understand your points, but your points are general points, points that can effect the man/woman that is doing it on their own and/or the company that you spent your hard earned on to do it for you.

The fact that if you do it yourself you have a vested interest, I think is a much healthier approach.

delllat

hkcharlie wrote: »

insert example here !?!

http://osc3.template-help.com/osc_22008/index.php

is a nice example of how an oscommerce site can look


theres millions of them to choose from here:http://www.templatemonster.com/category/oscommerce-templates/

but i havent time to search for nicer ones,if anyones really interested theres a thread with a competition on the best looking osc install on the osc site

sm.org

Would it be difficult/expensive to integrate paypal into an existing site? Sorry a fairly vague question but the web designer we hired has come back with a some what surprising quote to do this claiming that it is very time consuming.

delllat

sm.org wrote: »

Would it be difficult/expensive to integrate paypal into an existing site? Sorry a fairly vague question but the web designer we hired has come back with a some what surprising quote to do this claiming that it is very time consuming.

are u sure u dont want the contact details of my indian?

sm.org

delllat wrote: »

are u sure u dont want the contact details of my indian?

Touche.

My previous post was some what influenced by the fact we lost a contract to an Indian firm , who's initial work is similar in standard to ours but their quality control and customer service is dog ****. I know everyone is looking for value these days but not everything that glitters is gold.

Clearly take my posts with a pinch of salt.

I know I might be a mug for saying this but I do try and give work to Irish based companies whenever possible, if their work is good enough regardless if it costs more.

delllat

sm.org wrote: »

Touche.

My previous post was some what influenced by the fact we lost a contract to an Indian firm , who's initial work is similar in standard to ours but their quality control and customer service is dog ****. I know everyone is looking for value these days but not everything that glitters is gold.

Clearly take my posts with a pinch of salt.

I know I might be a mug for saying this but I do try and give work to Irish based companies whenever possible, if their work is good enough regardless if it costs more.

im only joking as well, the "indian" is actually a ukrainian programmer and hes very good ,he can do almost anything you ask him

hkcharlie

delllat wrote: »

http://osc3.template-help.com/osc_22008/index.php

is a nice example of how an oscommerce site can look

Looks like word press to me.

Mickk

I use oscommerce on irishlifting.com and find it good. I developed it via email with a programmer in India and it has been a profitable business for me.

http://www.texeresilk.com/ is a nice oscommerce site, I am going to change the flash on my frontpage to a flash graphic like on texeresilk. On a side note if anyone knows a good reasonably priced flash/graphic designer in Dublin let me know.

Pixelcraft

Hi Mickk, you know you don't need flash for that? there are plenty of js libraries which will have flash like effects without the need for an additional plugin.

Mickk

Pixelcraft wrote: »

Hi Mickk, you know you don't need flash for that? there are plenty of js libraries which will have flash like effects without the need for an additional plugin.

I have read that three times and still have absolutely no idea what you just said! Is what's on my site currently flash?

Pixelcraft

yes, but I was referring to http://www.texeresilk.com/ .

SachaJ

agreed you don't need flash to do that kind of frontpage.

lots of Javascript libs out there. But.... are we at 100% of people with js switched on yet? I did a nice page using jquery a few weeks ago but my brother couldn't see it because he had Zonealarm installed!

Pixelcraft

nothing is 100%. Just be sure you have alternate content for non js users. More people have js than flash though from what I see.

Mickk

Whats the benefit to using js library's over flash?

lecheile

stapolinhosting wrote: »

I have used all of these and I have to say for anyone starting out with ecommerce, i would highly suggest zencart.

Zencart is actually based on the original program of oscommerce but has so much more to offer. Even something as small as adding a second image to a product in oscommerce can be extra work having to add a contribution/add-on with again is more work, but with zencart it as simple as just uploading the second image to the server.

magento is pretty new on the scene. Its good, has a nice look and feel to it, but changing the look of it to suit your shop is not the handiest. With zencart, there are hundreds, if not thousands of templates on the market (and free) that you can install in a matter of minutes and change the whole look of your site.

I like prestashop, but like magento, its not got a huge amount of add-ons/contributions to it.

Zencart has a contribution for nearly all types of ecommerce store and are easy to install. The support forum is great if your stuck too. Products can be added on-by-one or in bulk via an excel spreadsheet file (easy populate file)

Anyway, just thought I would show my point of view in comparing the mearkat.

Anyone any experience of Auctiva? They have just launched a new offer providing full shop functionality. I've had a play and it looks good, easy to use and functionally rich. Pricing looks good for a start-up, experimental shop.

http://auctivacommerce.com/pricing.aspx

Thoughts?