# E-Commerce website design clarification !



## Intermission (Mar 28, 2011)

Hello everyone, 

I recently started a clothing line and I really need a professional E-Commerce website to bring in sales. I am not looking to pay a lot at first because this website will just be to help me get some international sales until I have the funds for a fully designed website from scratch.

I expect to be selling up to 10 products but if that is going to raise the price then I will keep it to 5 products.

I need a shopping cart that calculates tax and has a shipping and handling calculator. 

Any ideas?

-Intermission


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## Mr Goose (Mar 20, 2011)

take a look at 
Ecommerce Software | Ecommerce Websites | ekmPowershop

i use to sell body jewellery the web site cost me was £20 per month

Mr Goose


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## chobay (Aug 4, 2009)

Why don't you try something like Big Cartel? Its a cart that provides hosting and credit card processing, and it's free up to 5 items.


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## Intermission (Mar 28, 2011)

Thank you guys for your suggestions. The three that are now looking good to me are:

-Shopify
-Bigcartel
-ekmPowershop

Why is Shopify so much more then the two others? Is it a better service?


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## KHill (Oct 21, 2009)

Hi Andrew! 
There's lots of free E-commerce options available. Try Opencart, Zencart, or OSCommerce. I'm sure there are more, but I've heard good things about these three.

You can also purchase E-Commerce templates to further customize your site. Some templates are even less than $100.


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## Intermission (Mar 28, 2011)

I don't mind paying a monthly fee ($99 for Shopify) if I am getting a professional service and can carry a positive image for my brand until I have enough money to professionally have a website designed for me.

Does anyone have a preference over Shopify, BigCartel or ekmPowershop? 

Also why is Shopify much more expensive then the other two options? Like I said I don't mind paying the $99 a month fee but I would like to know why I am paying that price apposed to paying $9.99-$19.99 type prices.

Thanks,

-Andrew


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## Mr Goose (Mar 20, 2011)

try the free trial offer at ekmPowershop
and see wots its all about


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## Intermission (Mar 28, 2011)

Mr Goose said:


> try the free trial offer at ekmPowershop
> and see wots its all about


I guess there is no harm in trying the free trial with Shopify either. 

How would you say your experience was when you used ekmPowershop and why don't you still use their services?

-Andrew


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## Hiway (Apr 8, 2011)

I have not fully utilized the features or set up the site, but my host (inmotion.com) offers a free e-commerce option on their templated wysiwyg website tools- it has everything you seek. 

The beauty is for about $100 per year- you can have a website and e-commerce all in one.

Check'em out. Business Web Hosting | InMotion Hosting


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## Mr Goose (Mar 20, 2011)

Things changed in my life so could not carry on selling anymore but the web site worked very well and if i get back on my feet again i will be useing ekm thats for sure


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## Intermission (Mar 28, 2011)

Hiway said:


> I have not fully utilized the features or set up the site, but my host (inmotion.com) offers a free e-commerce option on their templated wysiwyg website tools- it has everything you seek.
> 
> The beauty is for about $100 per year- you can have a website and e-commerce all in one.
> 
> Check'em out. Business Web Hosting | InMotion Hosting



Thanks for the link, how would you rate their services?

And does anyone know why Shopify is so much more? It has honestly looked like the best option to me so far regardless of the $99 price tag and the 2% they will be stealing from me.

BigCartel offers very little information on what is available with their services.

At this point its between EKM and InMotion.


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## BeforePrinting (Sep 17, 2010)

Another cheaper than shopify example is corecommerce.com

and for a elegant and super simple store that is free for now check out goodsie


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## evolvebranding (Mar 30, 2011)

I agree bigcartel is pretty good.

I have recently built a site www.deepingfudge.co.uk which is built in wordpress using wp-ecommerc plugin
was easy to install and add products and bolt onto a paypal cart.

Evolve Branding High quality screen printed and embroidered promotional items


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## chobay (Aug 4, 2009)

The ekm looked really neat. The only thing I didn't like is that the hosting is in the UK::


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## Intermission (Mar 28, 2011)

chobay said:


> The ekm looked really neat. The only thing I didn't like is that the hosting is in the UK::


Does the fact that it's UK based pose a problem to me being Canadian? Or will it not really matter?


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## vil3nr0b (May 11, 2010)

Intermission said:


> Does the fact that it's UK based pose a problem to me being Canadian? Or will it not really matter?


It will really not matter. The internet now travels at the speed of light. On the internet Canada is a neighbour to the U.K.


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## Intermission (Mar 28, 2011)

Well I have heard that big cartel requires HTML and CSS experience to be able to edit the templates so that is out of the question because I can't code. 

I would really like to know why Shopify is more expensive by quite a bit. Is there more support? Easier to use? 

Does anyone know? Because I have no problem paying the $99 a month if it is justified.


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## Hiway (Apr 8, 2011)

Intermission said:


> Thanks for the link, how would you rate their services?
> 
> ....


The absolute highest rating there is.

In fact... don't take my word for it- go read the testimonials- you will not find a better, more comprehensive, and tech savvy company. The support is positively stellar- the phone tech is epic.

I have never had any downtime... except for the one period of an hour when they upgraded servers and I was notified- and no hitches or bugs after the upgrade!

You can tell them that HiwayStar Media sent ya and I get some kind of kick back.... but I don't care about that. No matter to me at all- the hosting services are superb- the service is second to none, and the support staff ROCK it's socks off.

*The e-commerce is easy to use... and it links to paypal or your bank with no effort- I could do about $9000.00 a year on my site once it is fully set up but I am too busy printing to get A CHANCE TO WORK ON IT. WOOT!


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## BeforePrinting (Sep 17, 2010)

Intermission said:


> I would really like to know why Shopify is more expensive by quite a bit. Is there more support? Easier to use?
> 
> Does anyone know? Because I have no problem paying the $99 a month if it is justified.


Honestly, you could compare the feature lists all day, but it's easier to see for yourself. I've set up a Shopify store before, and it literally takes 15 minutes to get in there and have a feel for what it would be like to manage your store.

I'd suggest you get in there with the 14 day free trial and see what the interface is like, that's what i did. It's super simple, and easy to template with multiple beautiful themes. That's why it's more, because it does almost everything for you from start to finish.


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## beOomi (Mar 31, 2011)

Big Cartel is fine but you can only accept payment thru Paypal, unless you redirect customers to your own website.


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## Intermission (Mar 28, 2011)

I decided to go with InMotion. It is $9 a month for a year and its hosting, free domain, unlimited email, and E-Commerce.

Great customer service too.


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## 321go (Aug 13, 2011)

I started with ekm, and i stuck with ekm, they offer the best value complete ecommerse package, £25 per month including tax, they have a forum and the members there provide an amazing amount of help from helping you with coding issues, design issues, SEO, marketing.. i wouldnt have been able to get as far as i have with my website without them. they have saved me so much time and money. its really simple to use aswell with unlimited web pages, unlimited categories and unlimited products, some ekm stores have 10 000 products at no extra charge. Im using their panther template www.innerdevil.co.uk (its not quite finished yet, still have photo's to upload into the home page slider) and bare in mind i have ZERO html code experiance and i was a complete noob at websites when i started on this. check it out.


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## gotshirts2ink (Nov 12, 2009)

Inmotion hosting is what my boss uses for his site and he has 1000s and 1000s for items on his site


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## bweavernh (Jun 26, 2008)

Checking this out friday!


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## losttrail (Apr 11, 2011)

Try volusion.com they have packages as low as $19.00 per month.. You can check out my site Lost Trail Traders to see what one looks like.


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## kingmellc (Jan 10, 2012)

I use 3dcart.com. Their cheapest package is $19.99 a month. Although it doesn't automatically calculate taxes for you. You would have to pay for a service from a company like Avalera.


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## kingdom594 (Apr 5, 2011)

I recommend using the free big cartel store until you get situated then upgrade if you choose to after a few months. I use big cartel and I haven’t had any issue.


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