I’m looking to start selling products on my site and would like to know the options and processes involved in setting this up.
It’s a wordpress site which has been running for nearly a year as an affiliate site: carp-fishing-reels .com I would like to keep the design the same, and would need to implement the new ‘selling/buying software’ myself. I have good html and css knowledge but no programming skills
Coffee Cup has a Shop Builder that may do the trick. It is easy to set up and can be designed to your needs. Ain’t free but depends on what you want. Trial available. Alternatively if you get an account with Paypal then you can use their code and use their shop cart system or just use Buy Now buttons. I sell software and the Buy Now buttons work well for me. It depends on how many Items you have. The use of php and html is for enhancement only.
Use a professional system to sell. There are other options also.
You get a big thrill when you get your first customer
Best of luck
Terry
If you haven’t checked it out yet, the WP e-Commerce is very popular: WordPress e-Commerce Plugin a WordPress Shopping Cart Plugin by Instinct | Instinct Entertainment. Over 1 million downloads: [url=http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-e-commerce/]WordPress › WP e-Commerce « WordPress Plugins
Ok so I’ve signed up for a business account with paypal now as I guess they are my only option for securely processing payments.
However I don’t like the design that paypal brings, and would like a shopping cart with items that have been added showing on the right side of the page. Is it an additional plugin like WP-ecommerce that I need in order to do this?
I mentioned Paypal as I use their pay now buttons. I believe there are many secure payment systems. The programs that are used to create shops specify what payment systems they are geared to.
I mentioned Coffee Cup as I bought their Form Builder not because I cannot create forms from scratch it is just their system allows a form to be built with a bit of style and quick.
I trialled their shop builder and it was easy to set up. But there are others even open source.
But it depends what you are selling. The buy now buttons do fit in with standard html pages that you design yourself. But it is an advantage to get a bit of PHP under your belt. It is not that hard and the net is filled with examples and if you get stuck the good guys/gals of this forum are very helpful.
I visited your site and I must say it is very good. I checked some links and I guess you re-direct I would say you could slot something in your pages quite easy using either the add to cart or buy now buttons.
Set up Wamp on your computer and trial various options before going live.
Terry
The WP Ecommerce plug in can put the cart in the side bar. Example: T-shirts designer prints hard to find brands - BoutikBoutik.com web store
PayPal should be fine, at least to get started.
LR500,
PayPal is a really good option as a Payment Gateway and you should be able to integrate it with almost any shopping cart out there.
I would suggest moving away from WordPress for your online store simply because it is not built for ecommerce. Yes, you can add plugins and such but reality is it is not meant for true electronic retailing.
There are many fine shopping cart platforms out there that are PCI certified (important for secure credit card transactions).
Of course, you could always integrate your already existing WordPress site with a true ecommerce platform, customize the look to match your existing site, and have it as a subdomain “store.mydomain .com”.
-Daniel O.
Thanks for your input.
I looked at the WP-Ecommerce plugin but it is too advanced for what I need right now.
For a basic start I’ve set up a gateway through Paypal and will be using ‘simple paypal shopping cart’ plugin, which seems like a good little plugin and easy to integrate into the site.
The PayPal shopping cart can definitely work well to get you started and as you go you will get a better sense of what you are looking for and what is available.
The one other thing I will mention is that the Google Checkout Cart is pretty nifty how it inserts the cart contents onto your page. Here’s the demo: https://checkout.google.com/seller/gsc/v2/demo/index.html
More info:
https://checkout.google.com/seller/integrate.html
And you can run it off a Google Doc Spreadsheet:
https://storegadgetwizard.appspot.com/storegadgetwizard/
LR500
I agree that Paypal options are an easy way to start with. That is the path I took. My thinking is that if ever it began to earn serious money then I would pay to engage a professional service to set me up. Each to his own.
I sell software and at the moment the buy now button works a treat and my site
albeit only average works ok. I guess it is what works. I messed around with different styles not being an expert but believe in the long run a potential customer does not really care, they want to find you and what you have on offer. Freebies or discounts always adds the sweetener.
I wish you luck, starting any venture is always a challange.
Terry
Thanks to everyone for helping me figure this out.
The Google Checkout Cart is very nifty, and in terms of design is exactly what I was looking for. However I don’t think the checkout cart can be integrated with paypal annoyingly. I would have to add a seperate checkout sytem for paypal.
After a lot of confusion though I now know what I’m looking for, the question is where to find it…
I’m looking for a Free shopping cart system that can use both the google checkout and paypal system to pay.
Doesn’t reload the page when an item is added to the cart. (This is what I enjoyed about the Google Checkout cart.)
Only requires you to insert code snippets into your pages where you need an “Add to Cart” button, or the shopping cart to display.
Preferably has an Inventory Control setting.
I’ve been hunting around and got close but no cigar yet, I will let you know if I find a winner, and if anyone already knows one already please post it…
I do my own thing but use the Blue Voda web builder. My hosting is half the cost of theirs per year. But I am impressed with their system and if you can afford the sub $8 per month they seem to have everything a person would want. Even a free domain name.
It is somewhere you can ask questions as they have a healthy forum and help system. Their builder is great and is slotted seamlessly into their hosting.
The reason I am suggesting them is that I find their help is fantastic. I am a member of the forum and get all the help and advice I need. Also there is tons of backgrounds etc, and video help all free. If it were not for the fact that I have a free domain tied into my present host I would move over.
This is a hobby with me so funds are restricted.