Ecommerce website using paypal

thecelt

I am looking into setting up an online store for a friend using paypal,
anyone got any advice on how to do this!

Sposs

How to integrate paypal or how to set-up the store?

hobochris

are you looking for off the self or to build an ecommerce site?

thecelt

They are looking for me to put together a website for them so they can sell some products online, I have some experience with websites, but havent dont anything like this, they want something cheap that uses paypal!

Sposs

You better off buying an off the shelf package or using an opensource product and modifying for them , theres tons of them out there so no need to spend alot of time building your own. Nearly all integrate easily into paypal as well.

http://www.oscommerce.com
http://www.zen-cart.com/
http://www.magentocommerce.com/

Eoin

I just set up paypal website payments standard with OSCommerce. It's a piece of piss to do, once you don't need the SSL encryption (this threw me at first).

Though I'm sure it must be easy to use the paypal buttons as well on a non-shopping cart site.

AntiRip

I use 000hosted from time to time. It's a free hosting site and has a fantastico installer so it automatically installs any type of site you want i.e. Wordpress, drupal, Joomla, osCommerce, Zen Cart, just to name a few. I've tried osCommerce and did find it a little difficult to use.

Actually, I find wordpress excellent because it has great eShop plugins you can use and has all the Paypal buttons you need.

Sposs

AntiRip wrote: »

I use 000hosted from time to time. It's a free hosting site and has a fantastico installer so it automatically installs any type of site you want i.e. Wordpress, drupal, Joomla, osCommerce, Zen Cart, just to name a few. I've tried osCommerce and did find it a little difficult to use.

Actually, I find wordpress excellent because it has great eShop plugins you can use and has all the Paypal buttons you need.

I'd have to advise against using a free hosting site for a ecommerce based website , its look unprofessional and provides you with little comfort knowing that they can cancel your account at any time and offer no SLA's on performance/uptime etc.

It really depends on your budget , but the infrastruture your shop is hosted on is just as important as the software , something usually overlooked by alot of shops until its too late.

thecelt

yeah i will def be getting them paid hosting, any of you guys have a step by step guide to how to get this project done!

To set this up using oscommerce, am i correct in presuming that she would have to set herself up with a merchant account and then give me the details or?

Eoin

No, you just need the paypal account to be a business one. Then you just enter her paypal email address in the oscommerce admin area, under the paypal section and you're pretty much good to go.

But if she's only selling a few items, the paypal buttons might work as well. I've not used them, but I think you just set up a few products in paypal with the price, and they give you the HTML code that will display a buy it now image on your site which links to paypal with all the necessary details.

thecelt

shes got a bunch of products , so i guess oscommerce would be better than just buttons!
For oscommerce, do i need to have a linux or windows hosting or does it matter?

Eoin

I would recommend linux for OSCommerce. It will run on windows, but I just migrated two OSCommerce sites from windows because they were too slow. Though someone mentioned on this forum that Windows Server 2008 processes PHP much quicker.

There's no need for windows though, as windows hosting generally costs more because of the cost of licensing.

thecelt

on a different point,
am in the process of finally doing up a site for myself too,
its not going to be anything too flash,
just want something i can put on a business card,
i guess i will use a php script for a email form,
for this i am figuring on using a linux webhost,

i would need it to be linux for php?
is there really much difference between using linux and windows as a host?

Eoin

As I said, php will run on most Windows hosts, and apparently will run better on Windows 2008 then on earlier versions (not really a factor if it's just an email form). But unless you already have an asp or asp.net web application then there is no need to use Windows.

thecelt

not to sound too stupid, i am presuming from a user point of view, the control panel for a linux web host is prob no harder to use than a windows host?

Eoin

It depends on the control panel itself.

Helm is very easy to use, but I think is Windows only. H-Sphere runs on both windows and linux and is nice to use. CPanel is a popular linux one, but I don't think it's always that intuitive.

daymobrew

I recommend using Zen Cart - it is osCommerce with a significant number of enhancements built in.

A major feature is the template system which means that you don't have to modify the core code to change the look of the store.

Look into PayPal IPN (Instant Payment Notification) - I added this to the Wheelworx site. It means that you don't have to keep checking your email to see if people have paid.
I'll happily answer any questions you have on osCommerce/Zen Cart/PayPal.

LowOdour

I know you have your mind set on using paypal as a payment system and thats cool, but there is a few issues id have with it in general.

A guy who i have had a bit of contact with runs a website selling stuff that used paypal as payment method. Went to purchase an item of it, but was turned off by this as i (a) i didnt have a paypal account and (b) had my card ready to pay so wasnt going to bother going through the process of setting it up an account.

Anyways, got speaking to the chap that runs the store and he said the ammount of orders he has gotten that werent taken up due to paypal was cray, so much so that he had to scrap it and use the usual credit/debit card methods. Just some food for thought.

thecelt

thanks daymobrew,
would be great to have someone to go to if i have problems setting it up,

at the moment am trying to get back into websitedesign as a possible way of escaping the insanity of being unemployed,
been offered the project by a friend to set up a store for her if i want to do it,
am just trying to figure if i will be able to do it!

lowodour, from what i was reading on the paypal website, you can pay with credit card etc without having a paypal account once the person selling has a business account!! or am i wrong?

Eoin

You don't need a Paypal account to pay, but they obviously don't make that too clear.

spartacus93

I'm just about finished setting up an online store. I used the prestashop ecommerce software and found it very very good. It's worth looking into. I never thought much of OsCommerce, and I had tried ZenCart a good while back and didn't like it. Prestashop (and Magento I suppose), in my opinion are better out of the box, look better and have more features, but they don't have the huge amount of add-ons available.

OP, it's really not hard, and there is plenty of advice on the net, and especially on the respective company's forums. If you want the easiest solution, since your new to it all, find a host that will install an ecommerce package onto a server for you (many offer one click installs through the control panel. Once that's done the rest is simple. Add in all your products, set up the paypal integration (prestashop more or less does this for you) and you're set!

I would do that first and see how you get on. Everything is done through a web based interface that is quite easy to use, and you should get the hang of it quickly.

The hard part is customising the site. There is plenty of themes and templates available online to get you started. After a while of playing around with these, and meeting a few problems along the way, you should be in a good position to start work on changing the design yourself.

thecelt

once the store would be set up and running,
is there an easy way that the owner could add products, change prices themselves or is this something that i would have to do for them?

Eoin

It's really easy to do that with the admin part of the site.

spartacus93

thecelt wrote: »

once the store would be set up and running,
is there an easy way that the owner could add products, change prices themselves or is this something that i would have to do for them?

Very simple to do, the owner just logs into the website that you design for him.

It's all done through a web based interface, very simple, no web design or development at all required.

thecelt

The web based interface would be all part of the OsCommerce or ZenCart or whatever i end up uploading?

spartacus93

thecelt wrote: »

The web based interface would be all part of the OsCommerce or ZenCart or whatever i end up uploading?

Yes, usually referred to as the backend. Accessed through a specific address (www.yoursite.ie/jimmysbackend) and requiring a username and password to login.