I’m a novice freelance web designer and my first client has asked me to create and ecommerce site for her. I can create websites but I’m unsure about the process behind an ecommerce site. I’ve been reading on this forum that you need ecommerce software but is there any other way. What I mean is am I able to create the whole site myself if I’m able to teach myself php and mysql which I’ve started doing or will I need some kind of software for the site?
Thanks, any help would be appreciated
Its also easier to buy a ready made website.<snip/>
I ejoyed using this site as it made my job of creating a website much easier.
Hi…need help with prestashop installation…I have installed prestashop but I can see its back end web page and can login into it but front end shop page is not opening up in my browser and it is showing error.I dont know what is the reason?
Have I made a mistake in understanding prestashop…???Is it to be installed with some other CMS or it is self sufficient ? I have no other file except prestashop files in my web directory.
No. Your hosting provider would have to make the upgrade.
Thanks for replying.
No i have my domain hosted to other private server.
Is there any other ecommerce shopping cart plus CMS module which is free, available which I can install easily.Since i don’t have my own server I feel it would be difficult for me to upgrade to php 5.3.0.
But I do have phpmyadmin login with me.Will it help because I can’t see anywhere this option of upgrading to newer version there?
Do you run your own server or are you on a shared hosting account?
If you run your own, who manages it day to day? PHP installation requires administrator level access and is generally something you need some technical experience to handle.
Can anyone please answer my query…???
I installed litecommerce with CMS module in my webserver.After installation when i opened my website the message appears that “currently php 5.2.9 is being used ,upgrade it to php 5.3.0”.Now how do I do that? I downloaded php 5.3.0 but dont know how can I upgrade my webserver to this newer version. Please help…
Hi Mark,
I’m sure there are others on this site with more technical info for you than I can offer, but …
I am also a novice with minimal html/php/sql/etc skills & recently set up my own e-commerce site using Prestashop. After setting up one shop I feel pretty confident I could now set one up for others fairly easily.
Word of note: I was unaware when I began about the whole thing with PCI Compliance which was quite unexpected & I ultimately decided to stick with just Paypal for now, even though my brick&mortar partner has his own credit card processor for offline purchases.
There are quite a few other “free” e-commerce platforms (Magento, ZenCart, etc) out there you may want to check out as well and many add-on/plugins/modules for them that are avail for purchase from independent developers if you need the shop to include something not packaged with the main platform.
Do a lot of reading on here & elsewhere. Good luck to ya.
Hello Mark,
Yes you will need ecommerce software for your website.
Here is the list of shopping carts you can try:
http://www.shopping-cart-reviews.com/
Feel free to ask any questions you have, I’m glad to help!
If you are not technical savvy and only want to focus on the marketing and business development side of your business. Then you may want to become reseller of any eCommerce hosting provider. I am a reseller of a online ecommerce hosting solution and only concentrate on getting clients and they will support them while leaving out the technical details (which is a headache to me)…
Of course you can do it from 0 but it is not worth the time. I don’t think that is your job.
Also you will have to make updates, plugins etc … that is time.
Take a free ecommerce site: magento, os commerce and integrated for the need of the client.
If she doesnt have that many products you can hard code those product pages and use paypal for payment.
Which means you wont need all those high tech stuffs. But this also means she wont be able to update the products and prices.
Thanks for the replies. If I was to use a CMS for the site would I be able to integrate it with oscommerce or magento?
Hi,
There is another option available to you that gives you a quick way to continue creating websites in exactly the same way as your are used to, you then have no need to learn and maintain PHP code or get to grips with MySQL databases, so allows you to stay focused on designing great websites instead of becoming a software developer. You could use a hosted shopping cart add-in to do this which means all the development and store software management is taken care for you by the hosted shopping cart add-in service.
All you would need to do is copy and paste the hosted shopping cart add-in text/script in to your web pages to give you Add to Cart, Buy Now, Checkout buttons and other add-ins like Total Cost of Cart, Total Number of Items In Cart etc.
It is then a simple step to connect your website to your chosen payment processor, like PayPal, who then handle the credit card payment at the final checkout stage.
A good hosted shopping cart add-in allows you to create a professional looking online store embedded in to your website and will give the merchant lots of great features, like stock quantity control for instance, or automatic storage and delivery of digital downloads.
The “buy now” solution is likely the best route
for you since you can focus on the “non-tech”
side of things more effectively.
Building an ecommerce application is now too
big and hairy to start from the ground up. It’s like
Dreamweaver, you can build your own html editor
but Dreamweaver is already so good … why would
you ever bother?
My advice would be to really ask yourself if it’s worth spending all that time and effort to build your own? There are open source ones out there, there are some really impressive paid solutions as well.
I’m not a big fan of starting things from scratch. Improve on what’s out there already is the way that I’d go if I was to do this.
You can make use of CMS applications, they are good looking themes and designs. CMS applications like Magento, ZenCart, have built-in ecommerce functionality.
I also go with this idea because you don’t have the time to make the same things that are available out there. Sure that would be nice for your self esteem to say: I did all this by myself.
But if you pass this idea … you come exactly to: I have this ( what is all ready done ) … what can I do to make it … and here comes your added value.
It’s easier this way and more profitable.
Am using zen cart at the moment. It is simple. I am also a novice when it come to e commerce.
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By no means is it worth it. You will not be able to make a functioning eCommerce website that is fully secure in any reasonable amount of time. Look into some free eCommerce options and design the website around that. Develop a theme or skin for the eCommerce site.