# how hard is it to set up a shopping cart on a website?



## punkapalooza (Oct 18, 2006)

i am a novice with html and only know the bare essentials of dreamweaver, so how would i go about putting a shopping cart in my site and determining what forms of payment i will accept?


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## CrazyTeeShirts (Oct 31, 2006)

try Mal's e-commerce


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## Vtec44 (Apr 24, 2006)

Most web hosting companies offer mySQL database & PHP. So if you know how to setup a database with your host, upload via FTP, and follow instructions, there are quite a few free shopping carts out there that you can try.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

Depends on your level of knowledge  

When I started, it would have taken me a couple of weeks because I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't know HTML from a QPC.

Over the months/years I learned more, so now probably I could install cubecart in about an hour or less.

If you have a hosting account, it might be worth it for you to give it a shot and see if you can muck your way through it. You might find it's easier than you thought. They usually come with lots of instructions. 

The shopping cart at CubeCart.com (and some other carts) is free, so it will only cost you your time to give it a shot.


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## j.james (Sep 25, 2006)

Thougt I would add my experience on this for what it is worth. I was introduced to CubeCart when I first started searching for the cheapest way to add a real shopping cart to my website. The intro came about when I contacted a local web designer and he was willing to install and customize it for the minimum price of $1200. Not really my idea of cheap and luckily for me my brother is a whiz when it comes to coding.

The basic CubeCart installation is pretty bland but with a little research it can become a great low cost option. All toll it took us about two weeks of coding and tweaking to get it looking some what like the rest of my existing site. It is a work in progress as I learn more about CSS. After installation you can copy one of the folders in uploads/skins/(name of desired template) to create one of your own skins (the look of your store) and begin playing with it. You can do quite a bit to at least match the color scheme by editing the layout.css. (Learn basic CSS on a web forum)
That being said it has a good backend management system, with lots of options such as inventory, product options (e.g. size, colorway etc.), order tracking, newsletter tool. All handy tools for this kind of business. It also has a lot of cool ad-ons and some good support forums. Now I am not a sales rep for them but I am pretty satisfied with the product considering that it is for the most part completely free just takes a bit of work.


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## DjBrennan (May 14, 2006)

After installation you can copy one of the folders in uploads/skins/(name of desired template) to create one of your own skins (the look of your store) and begin playing with it. 

Hey j.james I have just installed cubecart and made a copy of the skins folder. Now i'm not quite sure how I 'begin playing with it'... I have opened some of the skins files in dreamweaver but they don't make much sense to me (i have done all my creating in design view so i only know very basic code) Is this how I play with the files or am i on the wrong track...?


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## DjBrennan (May 14, 2006)

hey j.james can you put your site address in your signiture so that i can see how you have customised your store?


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

DjBrennan said:


> hey j.james can you put your site address in your signiture so that i can see how you have customised your store?


The link is in his forum profile.


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## StickerNut (Feb 4, 2007)

I started with zero experience and just played around with multiple programs. Everytime I got to something I did not understand I just cut/paste and hit google. I am sure this was the long/hard way but I bet I will never forget it 

After using multiple programs I ended up with CubeCart. Very easy to set up and work with, but most important I found it the easiest to "make it my own". 

This is what I did ....

I took one of the free skins that came with the free cubecart and made a copy called myown in the same folder. Using notepad I played around with a html (remember no experience) and then refreshed my website to see what changed. It took me a long time and even had to start over because I changed something I should not have but in the end I got something I liked, but more importantly I designed myself. All my images was either photos I croped (Items for sale) or designed in Fireworks (links, words, ect).

With you having some background you should be able to do it real quick and easy. I have been told that if I can do what I did then I should buy a Dreamweaver and use that program. I probally will not do that because I am happy with my current design and want to work on expanding my business into T-shirts.

Remember I had zero experience, I just played and googled until I got what I wanted.

GL


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> I started with zero experience and just played around with multiple programs. Everytime I got to something I did not understand I just cut/paste and hit google. I am sure this was the long/hard way but I bet I will never forget it


That's what I did as well. Although along with Google I searched the cubecart forums.



> took one of the free skins that came with the free cubecart and made a copy called myown in the same folder. Using notepad I played around with a html (remember no experience) and then refreshed my website to see what changed. It took me a long time and even had to start over because I changed something I should not have but in the end I got something I liked, but more importantly I designed myself. All my images was either photos I croped (Items for sale) or designed in Fireworks (links, words, ect).


That's a good breakdown of how it's done


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## creativebunny (Jan 11, 2007)

I don't know anything about CubeCart.com, but if you have a PayPal account you can set up a cart through their site. They have a free option available and several others if you experience a lot of traffic.

Bunny


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## JPD (Nov 8, 2006)

A lot of hosts have the Fantastico Installer within their CPanel (you have to see if they offer that). If so, you can have CubeCart installed within minutes. I did that with my first one, went ahead and purchased my SSL and was up and running within a week (including a couple of mods). I licensed the CubeCart afterwards so it is completely branded to my site.

The one I am working on now will be on a different host (godaddy), so I just paid the $100.00 for the CubeCart license and installation. Add another $20.00 for another SSL and another $35.00 for a CubeCart mod or two and it should be good to go for $155.00. I am using the merchant account & gateway I already have, so there is no added fee there. The $155.00 should pay for itself the first week I have the store up.

My other store seems to be working okay, with orders trickling in a couple a day right now. This one should do as well.

Don't forget, the CubeCart has an option to print out a form and mail it in with payment, so if you do not have a merchant account right now, you can still use it.

Eric


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