how to build an online store?

[dealcatcher]

how to build an online store?

what do i need to use?

[deep]

What are you selling? How many kinds of items and what kind of volume? What kinds of payment do you want to be able to process? How many $ per month are you expecting? Does your inventory/pricing change frequently?

[3xpc]

I can help you with this even if your on a tight budget. PM me or email me at matt(at)ovehaulmedia.com

[deep]

I can help you with this even if your on a tight budget. PM me or email me at matt(at)ovehaulmedia.com

Would you buy e-services from someone who cannot spell "you're" or even get his own domain name right?

[toalan]

What are you selling? How many kinds of items and what kind of volume? What kinds of payment do you want to be able to process? How many $ per month are you expecting? Does your inventory/pricing change frequently?

I am also looking to build an online store.

What are you selling?
Electronics, something I designed myself

How Many items I am selling?
maybe 3 main items, with maybe 5 optional accessories

Volume?
Looking for 100-200 transactions a month for main items and maybe 50-100 transactions a month for accessories.

Payment options?
Visa, mastercard, and maybe paypal.

Transaction value?
10k-20k per month

Does my pricing and inventory change frequently?
No, atmost I will be releasing new products every 6 months.

I have my website mostly built, all I really need is to fiind a company that can do the transaction and calculate the shipping costs. Something that is simple to use and secure. Well that is what I think i need, maybe I need more or maybe i need less. Basically I am doing fairly low volume, and only few items.

I also need a good hosting plan that is compatable with ecommerce stuff.

can someone help me? I have googled it up and every company seems to burden me with pages and pages of features that I have no idea about. I am a simple man with a simple plan, I am just looking for simplicity.

Thanks.

[DaFonz]

Would you buy e-services from someone who cannot spell "you're" or even get his own domain name right?

Burn!1 lol.

To OP, monstercommerce.com is pretty good for a turn key solution. There's also yahoo store, but my experience has shown that monster commerce is more flexible.

If you'd prefer to do it youreslf, then use zencart.com with a merchant account (paradata is decent) with your own SSL cert (~ $150 a year).

There's also 2checkout.com - they are decent but charge pretty hefty fees.

Finally, a lot of hosting packages offer shopping carts so you might want to look into that. 1and1 off the top of my head does

[emoci]

Steps to getting an online store together (well at least what I did, feel free to suggest or criticize):

Website
-Get a website up and running with good service/product description

CART
-I looked at a few carts, and since I was looking for something free I went with mal's free cart version http://www.mals-e.com/ (It is pretty simple, but efficient, and if you got a php host you can make it look pretty professional on the page).
-Inputting the products maybe be a hassle if you don't like looking at html code directly

Shipping Options
-So far I have been opting for the flat rate shipping, so I list the price along with the item, mal's free version has a feature that will calculate it for you, but it does not give the user much chaice and you gotta input the pricing beforehand, it's premium version has a script that directly uses rates from ups/usps/fedex etc.
-At this point I am in the process of hunting down a decent free shipping script that can get rates from fedex/canadapost directly
-Most other carts that charge a small fee will most times have something like this included

Accepting payments:
To tell the truth I have been looking for something with no upfront costs, pay as you go sort of deal.
-PayPal is probably the most comprehensive in those terms, but when you read paypalsucks.org for a few minutes it does give one the chills
-2checkout.com has a once $49 setup fee, and then similar fees to paypal from there(maybe a bit higher)

(Everything else I have seen has been costly from my viewpoint. Keep in mind that if you are opening up a bussines and you are pretty sure you have a fairly solid customer base, you are better off going with a merchant account type option, BUT if you are just testing the waters I guess it depends on your cash flow and how much risk you are willing to take, but I would say a pay-per-transaction option is best).

I guess I'll add if I think of anything else...

[poppa]

There's Zen Cart (http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php) and OsCommerce (http://www.oscommerce.com/) . Both free!

[lindmar]

Get some basic cpanel hosting, use free software built into fantastico..

Other than that.. there are so many great web 2.0 style carts coming up and along.

Do a little research and you might be able to do it free.

[toalan]

Hi all

Thanks for all the info.

I have decided that yahoo has the plan I like most @ only 29.99 per month and 1.5% transaction fee.

I now need to setup a merchant account, who is best? TD Canada trust charges something like $100 setup fee, $40 monthly fee and 40 cents per transaction.

I still feel that I left something out.

[lindmar]

Hi all

Thanks for all the info.

I have decided that yahoo has the plan I like most @ only 29.99 per month and 1.5% transaction fee.

I now need to setup a merchant account, who is best? TD Canada trust charges something like $100 setup fee, $40 monthly fee and 40 cents per transaction.

I still feel that I left something out.

Wait.. have you already signed up..

I was getting ready to post some cool new solutions.

I think I have a shopify invite around, which would be great for you.

[toalan]

Hi,

i have not signed up to anything yet. I need to make a decision in about 2-3 weeks times.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[lindmar]

Hi,

i have not signed up to anything yet. I need to make a decision in about 2-3 weeks times.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

OK.. I will try and find my shopify invite.. you should look for one.
It looks very cool.


On a sidenote. I have used paypal exclusively for years. I've had no problems and I do big volume. PayPalSucks isn't worth the bother because I think the site is actually a clever marketing scheme as many will tell you. Every other post is for the owners own "e-payment processing system"

PayPal is fine. Just withdrawl funds daily or weekly if you're worried and then you don't need to pay any fees.

I'm using 2Checkout for another site and so far I'm not impressed. It's slow, Its been 2 months with no payout. They actually contacted my customers by phone to see if they actually got what they paid for which was kinda cool.

If you're looking for something to calculate the postage and shipping within canada, CanadaPost has a shipping module and carts with it built in.
See here, http://www.canadapost.ca/business/offerings/sell_online_shipping_module/can/default-e.asp

Hope this helps a bit,
I dont think your idea of Yahoo and paying for the merchant account is good. Get established first, build up bigger later.

You can even accept CertaPay in Canada which is cool (eMail Money transfer)

[Canucklehead]

SSL can be had for about $49 - check 1and1.com for example (not endorsing them as I have no experience with e-commerce yet). Actively reading the thread so thanks to all for contributing.

[deep]

SSL for $14.95 - http://www.ev1servers.net/Dedicated/SSL/RapidSSL.aspx

Rehan recommended this to me a little while ago. He says you can almost always cancel and start again the next year.

[fortunekitty500]

I now need to setup a merchant account, who is best? TD Canada trust charges something like $100 setup fee, $40 monthly fee and 40 cents per transaction.

I still feel that I left something out.

Note that a merchant account is different than an INTERNET merchant account. Canadian banks are a big PITA when it comes to internet merchant accounts - the fees are prohibitive esp. for a small startup, also big holdbacks, etc. TD would only deal with VISA, so you'll need another bank to accept MC. To get around all this, use a Canadian third party payment processor like PSIGate or InternetSecure. They're reliable and you get a terminal so you can accept fax/telephone orders as well. Also, US $ is separate. Accepting AMEX is also usually extra....PayPal is probably looking good right now, eh? ;)

You can usually purchase an SSL from your host - they will install for you.

Shipping module from CanadaPost - VERY time consuming - you need to set up all the various size boxes dimensions, weights, etc. so it can calculate it properly. It's probably easier to start off with flat rate, then switch to CanadaPost later when you can get a better idea of what you're shipping out. If you go this route, make sure the shopping cart you use will support CP's module.

Hope this helps some.

[gh05t]

Built a trial online storefront for class using Websphere and connected to an SQL server. Think I used Verisign as the payment processor back then.Was very easy to build and put pics etc but I hear websphere by IBM is pretty expensive.

I am not sure but some of the free stuff out there(mentioned above) should work just as well.

[tragu]

Visit Shopify at http://www.shopify.com. They claim that you don't need any technical knowledge to set up an online store. Shopify is currently in beta. They will soon be open for public.

Best regards,
Thuva

[deep]

get over yourself, this is the internet, if you cant read thats your problem

Get over YOURself. Try cutting and pasting the email address he posted. Or visiting the website. "This is the internet" is a pathetic excuse used by lazy kids and losers - this is a guy trying to DO BUSINESS WITH SOMEONE. It's like CNN advertising www.CN.com as their website. Did you tell your last employers that all the typos on your resume didn't matter "cause its not like my resume will be used on the job...its just my resume".

When you're finished, go google "apostrophe".

[gmark2000]

SSL for $14.95 - http://www.ev1servers.net/Dedicated/SSL/RapidSSL.aspx

Rehan recommended this to me a little while ago. He says you can almost always cancel and start again the next year.
Anyone tried these guys out yet? What is the second year price? A big whopping surprise? I tried to call their sales department and was put on hold for a long time and I hung up.

[deep]

Anyone tried these guys out yet? What is the second year price? A big whopping surprise? I tried to call their sales department and was put on hold for a long time and I hung up.

You could PM Rehan - he's used them for a while I believe. He said he never extends into the second year, just cancels his account and starts over with a new promo, which they've always had for as long as he was with them :)

[siriuskao]

Get some basic cpanel hosting, use free software built into fantastico..

Other than that.. there are so many great web 2.0 style carts coming up and along.

Do a little research and you might be able to do it free.

It's better to download most updated version of the software directly from the project site. Fantastico scripts may not be up-to-date therefore will have security holes.

[Canucklehead]

SSL for $14.95 - http://www.ev1servers.net/Dedicated/SSL/RapidSSL.aspx

Rehan recommended this to me a little while ago. He says you can almost always cancel and start again the next year.

Looks like you can order the Free Trial SSL Certificate and then if you upgrade to RapidSSL, they knock off $5 and give you 2 more months! Not sure if this applies to the already LOW price of $14.95.

Thanks for posting the info :D

[Sanhedralite]

onyxservers.com does this with amazing customer service. Good price too. It's a Richmond Hill company I think.