Using WordPress As Online Store - Suggestions?

[imacamper]

I've run an online magic supply store for several years. It's never really taken off, mostly because:

• I didn't have a clue and;
• My site sucks

In the past year, I've learned a bit about Internet marketing and am ready to spend some time on my site and marketing efforts.

Currently, I get a CSV file of products available from my wholesaler and I import that into a MySQL database. My online catalog is a PHP script I wrote to query that database and generate a product listing. The rest of the site was built with MS FrontPage.

So I feel I basically need to start over from scratch and wonder if WordPress might be able to help? Is there some plugin (free or pay) that can turn WP into an online store? Specifically, I'd really like a way to feed a CSV file into the MySQL database used by WordPress to automatically generate product pages instead of creating each individually, especially since there are over 7000 products. Plus as my wholesaler makes changes, I can just overwrite the database with the new CSV data.

So, any suggestions? Am I making sense?

Thanks for your time.

Cheers,

Drew

[jwlnewsome]

Hi,
there is a shopping cart here instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/
for wp
good luck

[DogScout]

I am not well versed in this,
but after installing WP you make a page, then make the home page a static page using that new page, you can add as many pages as you like and us WP like a CMS. There is a line of code that you can remove in the editor to make the blog 'categories' go away, (Google how to do that).

I am not a big frame guy, and Goolge has a hard time reading them (I think) but you can just frame any existing page into a WP page such as your current shopping cart, etc. I do that for one of my clients and it works great so far. The customer can navigate the entire store while seeming to remain on the site. Best to use a 'full' page template for that page as the content ares in a normal template are usually too small for a full page item list and causes side scroll.

The code to add in the HTML view of the page maker is:

<div class="clear"></div>
<p><iframe name="FRAME1" src="http://www.your store page.com/" width="900" height="1200" frameborder="0" ></iframe></p>
<div style="clear:both;"></div>

(Although someone no doubt has a better solution)

[fthomas137]

Hey Imacamper,

There is one vendor of software I totally recommend! Google 'WP eStore'. Excellent software at a great price!

Frank

[robitn4]

Ditto what Frank said. It's the one I settled on.

Codex.WordPress.org doesn't appear to be hosting a datafeed plugin, but I googled data feed wordpress plugin - Google Search and the are a few you might try.

[imacamper]

Originally Posted by DogScout

...
The code to add in the HTML view of the page maker is:

<div class="clear"></div>
<p><iframe name="FRAME1" src="http://www.your store page.com/" width="900" height="1200" frameborder="0" ></iframe></p>
<div style="clear:both;"></div>

(Although someone no doubt has a better solution)

Thanks, I will keep this option in mind.

Cheers,

Drew

[imacamper]

Originally Posted by jwlnewsome

Hi,
there is a shopping cart here instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/
for wp
good luck

Thank you. I will explore this.

Cheers,

Drew

[imacamper]

Originally Posted by fthomas137

...
There is one vendor of software I totally recommend! Google 'WP eStore'. Excellent software at a great price!

Thank you. I will explore this as well.

Cheers,

Drew

[imacamper]

Originally Posted by robitn4

Ditto what Frank said. It's the one I settled on.

Codex.WordPress.org doesn't appear to be hosting a datafeed plugin, but I googled data feed wordpress plugin - Google Search and the are a few you might try.

OK, two votes for WP eStore. I see the plugin page highlights that it's for digital products. I'm actually selling physical products but I assume it will work for that too? I'll check it out.

Cheers,

Drew

[adenclark]

Yes i know you may want to post own products but for daily updates the below is awesome.

Im suprised no one has mentioned wp-robot.

The free version allows you to automatically post 15 amazon products on scheduled dates. It adds content and any reviews from amazon for these products are posted as comments on your blog.

And for the premium version, well, its amazon affiliates on steroids.

[Steve B]

Another alternative to consider:

iThemes.com has an "eCommerce"" theme based on Word Press that is designed to function as a store. It's a very clean and professional looking template and with one click you can change to any of six different site colors. It's $79 I believe. I own it and have been impressed with it. Just something else to check out ...

[imacamper]

After looking at estore and deciding it didn't meet my needs, I installed the free version of wp-ecommerce and it looks good so far. I will upgrade to Gold if it meets my needs. However I need a way to import a csv of my supplier's catalog. I know I see the import tab and an "example" of file format but there are way more fields in the MySQL tables than in that "example".

Is there some csv <-> mapping document somewhere?

I have to be able to import more than just those few fields in the example. And I really need to either display images via html links or have some way to automatically download those from my supplier's site and include them in my WordPress store. Is this possible with e-commerce? If not, other suggestions?

Thanks,

Drew

[Francis Chan]

You had mentioned that you are selling physical products therefore you would need complete shipping details from your customers.

I would suggest something like osCommerce (a free open source program) with various addons to improve functionality.

One very useful addon that would help you greatly will be Easy Populate. It allows you to import your inventory from a csv file.

Take a look at this site : Jodarl Collections - WWF & Birds Stamps - Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, GB, Machins

[Blase]

Hi Drew,

I have not tried the solution that you are looking at,
but I wanted to put something out there for you.

I've done a number of stores, I've also done a lot of
learning and rework I didn't need to do.

Make sure you think of all the features you would
like your store to have before you start.

Affiliate program?
Low inventory notice?
Taxes calculation.
Shipping calculation?
Invoicing?
Bulk product upload?
Bulk changes?
Coupon options?
Free shipping Options?
Multiple item purchase?
Lost password?
Email customers?
Quick Books tie in?

And on and on.

Think first, start later.

Just my 2 cents.