E-commerce area in a website – how? :/

[EamonnMac]

Hey guys (and gals),

A friend of mine wants me to build him a website. No probs, I said. He wants to sell dvd’s he said. Oh, I replied…um.

How exactly does e-commerce work? I see on c-Panel’s fantastico suite they offer Cube Cart, OS Commerce, and Zen Cart. I’ve also had a browse through the Foxy Cart website, but I first need to know the fundementals: do these cost money, how much? What kind of financial setup is required? What security steps must be taken? How do these programmes integrate with e.g. wordpress or ‘regular’ sites? etc. etc. etc.

I don’t expect anyone to ‘learn me good’ here, but if anyone knows a good website they could point me towards, that would be great.

Ta in advance!

[apostrophe]

Hi,

Chris has made a couple of vids that you may like to watch at your leisure. A couple on FoxyCart http://css-tricks.com/video-screencasts/45-using-foxycart-for-ecommerce/ and http://css-tricks.com/video-screencasts/56-integrating-foxycart-and-wordpress/ and one on good old PayPal http://css-tricks.com/video-screencasts/53-customizing-paypal-forms-buttons-and-headers/

Without knowing anything about your friend or what exactly he wants it’s tough to give advice. If the whole purpose of the site is to sell dvd’s then it’s definitely worth going down the custom paid solution route with something like FoxyCart, and if, as has been pointed out in this forum before, your friend baulks at the small monthly fee then he probably needs to look at his business plan. If, on the other hand, it’s a site about something else that will just sell the occasional dvd then PayPal is probably a better bet.

[EamonnMac]

No, no – he’s a freelance cameraman and just wants the option to sell the odd old documentary every once in a while. if he sold ten in a year he’d be doing great!

I’ve seen Chris’ screencasts, and I’m okay on that front I think – it’s just, as you say, he may very well baulk at the fee. I said I’d see if there were options. I just know nothing about security certificates and the like.

[apostrophe]

Well then, for my money your best options are PayPal (Ireland) https://www.paypal.com/ie/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_merchant-outside. With a few "how to’s" here https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/howto_overview, or GoogleMerchant http://www.merchantaccountguide.com/google-merchant-services.php.

As for integration into WordPress there are a whole host of plugins available:
http://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/
http://www.freerobby.com/artpal/
http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/WordPress-easy-paypal-payment-or-donation-accept-plugin-120
http://pixline.net/2008/05/paypal-shortcodes-plugin/en/
http://www.fatfreecart.com/wpplugin.html
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/eshop/

Hopefully that was a bit more helpful and should give you some ideas. :idea:

[EamonnMac]

That’s brilliant. Thanks a mil ap.

[Donna]

@apostrophe – Good set of resources! Thanks!

[AshtonSanders]

"Donna" wrote:

@apostrophe – Good set of resources! Thanks!

True that. I’ve been very unhappy with instinct’s ecommerce plugin and haven’t found any good ones. I’ll check those out though.

[thinkofmedia]

I would give prestashop a whirl. Just make it as a extension of your existing site.

Really easy to get into the css code and mess about with it.

[tomwalters5678]

Well e-commerce is a funny thing. E-commerce sites are the most expensive and so need to be done properly – after all a poorly designed one can be open to attack and will be easily exploited. If I were you I would start off with a simple solution, go with Paypal. Although they do take some of your money each transaction they are very safe and well known. If you don’t want to go with them I recommend Foxycart – their service is really smooth and from a designers point of view excellent.

One thing to remember however is the look of the page. although the most important thing about e-commerce is the security of the thing, design is paramount. In my signature you will see that I have put always design a site as if you could buy something off of it. The users need to be reassured by the site’s design, and although it looks good to you – you know exactly what’s going on behind the scenes, so I would make sure you spend some time looking through other site’s and thinking carefully about how the page should look.

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