How much $$$ for an ecommerce site?

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.