mnd99

Hi there,

I'm interested in setting up a fully functional furniture ecommerce site. I'm really not sure how to go about this. I'm thinking magento is the best free ecommerce platform but I can pay if there is something better. What kind of expenses am I looking at here? Payment Gateway, Shopping Cart, Hosting?? I want the site easy enough for anyone to maintain like updating the inventory and stuff.

The most important thing is WHO or Where should I go to get professional help regarding this? I dont mind working with anyone from any country as long as their work is good. I'm sure many of guys have many ecommerce sites and it would be really great if you guys can recommend someone you have worked with.

Thank you

tknoppe

Hi mnd99: I've been an ecommerce designer for more than 10 years, so can definitely help you, or help you make a decision on a shopping cart system to use.

How many products do you plan to carry? If only a handful or so, WordPress with the wp ecommerce or eShops plugin would work. If you plan to have a large store, then there are many options from a free system like ZenCart, osCommerce, etc... to Miva Merchant and similar system that are fairly expensive.

Are these physical delivery products, with shipping, sales, etc..; or digital downloads?

It's possible to operate an online ecommerce site using PayPal and perhaps something like 2CheckOut (2CO); but there's always positives and negatives to pretty much anything.

Using a more traditional merchant account service does incur monthly fees, but in most instances a traditional merchant account will integrate with nearly all shopping cart systems (depending on their payment gateway); but not online type merchant accounts (such as 2CO) integrate easily or at all.

I haven't even touched on design: some systems are template driven and getting custom design work for those can be expensive; or customizing templates isn't always easy. Other systems use include codes and where you can pretty much integrate a cart into any design.

So lots to consider.

@TraciKnoppe
Your Web Tech Team Outsource Services

Janet Sawyer

If your webhosting has cpanel, take a look at Fantastico - the little blue smiley icon.

From there, choose Zen Cart.

Read the instructions, install it and configure your e-commerce site.

Works straight out of the box. On your PC and on the WWW too!

mnd99

Thanks for the replies! Its actually for a furniture store. We will have anywhere from 100 to 250 items listed. Yes, actual physical furniture like bedroom sets! We do have our retail stores but we want to have an online presence!

I have tried some of the free ecommerce platforms that comes with hosting. I'm not really sure free ecommerce platforms are the way to go but I have seen some nice looking magento sites. I'm looking for something that looks professional. I'm not really a technical person. I have only had a couple of basic websites and thats why I thought seeking professional help would be the best thing. I just didnt know where to go or who to approach.

Thank you

designerpk.com

I'm freelancer and I can help you with complete ecommerce solution also in seo, let me know you what payment gateways you require.

feel free to contact me.

Ecommerce website design - web design houston - New York Business Reviews - Web Development Lebanon- earn money

Janet Sawyer

What is your budget for this?

Professional - or want it doing on the cheap?

If you want to pay a professional service then you are looking at megga bucks. 100-250 items even if you supply the photo images probably going to cost you $4K minimum.

Which payment processor are you going to use? because that's another issue that has to be built into the equation of cost.

What web hosting service do you have, because again that's another issue that has to be thought about. Does your web host have sufficient space allowed for the images of 250 photos, sales pages, etc.

wardo

The prices for an e-commerce site can vary a great deal. If you want a really good quality site then it will certainly not be cheap. I would be wary of anyone claiming that they can provide a worthwhile solution cheaply. You get what you pay for with these things. I would do a great deal of research using google. Find a some companies you like the look of and then get some quotes.

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Technista

Do you want to hire a professional, or do you want professional help? It is possible to outsource certain elements of your project, while maintaining control over the parts that you are comfortable with.

Since you have worked with websites before, I do not hesitate to recommend that you install a free, open source solution and give it a demo run before you decide what help you need. Like Janet said, ZenCart is great choice! If you have Fantastico, it installs with a mouse click- your store is up within minutes. Play around in the admin panel and upload a few products. You won't be disappointed. However, I prefer x-cart even more. It is affordable, feature-rich, has excellent documentation, and an active forum.

Once you find a shopping cart system that you like, you can outsource the design (template) and payment gateway setup. Just my 2 cents...

T

Atlanta Website Design | Compression Garments | Corset Diaries (Humor) | Free Articles | Ardyss Training | Ardyss Training Videos | Ardyss

TheBrainchildGroup

You're spot on!

Trust me, don't listen to anyone else. Magento is truly the way to go. Free, SEO-friendly, functional. Just doooo itttttt!

I hope this helps.

-AS

Los Angeles SEO Company | Social Media Consultant | Search Engine Optimization Firm | SEM Consultant

Susan Stones

I usually use Shopify for my low end customers. Shopify.com provide hosting where the software is already installed. You can choose from installed themes, or modify them, or get one designed. Then all you have to do is set it up and you can go ahead and load your products. It got a point and click interface.

I make theme changes for my clients and teach them how to use it, then add Internet marketing(SEO etc).

If you decide to use Shopify, you can join with the above link, or use my affiliate link: Sue's Affiliate link.

Sue

Loren Woirhaye

Magento is, from what I've read, a bandwidth hog. It has special
hosting requirements - perhaps requiring a VPS at the very least
to work smoothly.

cma01

Yes, it is. But if someone has an offline business, VPS hosting is going to be a pretty minor expense compared to the rest of their fixed cost.

If someone has a limited budget and needs a full featured shopping cart, Zen cart is a good option. If they have a budget to work with, Magento has a really slick interface and some cool features.

sndas

We are a team of web site designer and programmer.
We provide Magento ecommerce site designing service.
There is no problem for designing a furniture of 100-150
items shop site. We will provide all the service of designing, hosting,
database designing in MySql, Paypal payment gateway plug etc.

I sent a PM to you also.

our designed sample sites are
www.bd-biz.com
http://newhalalshop.com/

for costing please contact me at sndas44@gmail.com

Thnaks
Satya

mnd99

Thanks for the replies. I have been in contact with several desingers and one of them wanted me to work with payvment and gave me a $3k quote. None of us were happy with any of the offers.

We were recommended Interspire shopping cart and the professional edition seems interesting.

We have three main concerns

1) Need to integrate with our freight carrier's rate estimate service which is a web based service built on Axis SOAP engine.

2) Need to have an inventory base so it will automatically show which items are in stock and not

3) Need user reviews

What you guys think about going with Interspire professional and having someone design a custom template and integrate the freight shipping?

Thank you