# looking for something like pikiware to create my online store



## mlsalters77 (Nov 7, 2008)

hello all,
after reading the post on pikiware I checked the site out and "WOW!" its really a cool service. I am thinking of hopping on and building a site. my issue is that I am not really interested in the fulfillment aspect of it. I do however like the other services offered so my plans are to use it to create my online store to sell my shirts and use pikiwares administrative services to manage my product orders. my question is are there any other sites that offer this type of service but are not geared to being an oline store without the fulfillment? 

thanks all


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## zhenjie (Aug 27, 2006)

So you just want to sell your own designs? It sounds like you are better off using a free opensource shopping cart system like OsCommerce,Zencart, Magento or Cubecart.


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## mlsalters77 (Nov 7, 2008)

thanks for the direction i will check into those. sorry for the late reply just got back from vacation.

thanks


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## lindsayanng (Oct 3, 2008)

What type of FUNCTIONS made you want to use pikiware? If you can list your NEEDS, i can probably help you find the right, free open source cart. 

they each have different things available to them, but isnce they are open source, they ALL have the ability to be whatever you want them to, but you need to know how to code or hire a coder to do it for you. 

i love oscommerce, but zen cart has more administrative options pre intsalled, where as oscomemrce you have more options to install your own administration options and functions..

Give a list of the requirements you have for a good website, and i can come up with links to show you how to make those things work for opensource


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## nateslate (Feb 7, 2008)

If your not good at web design I would recommend Big Cartel. It's really easy to set up a shop and depending on how many items your selling it's also free.


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## mlsalters77 (Nov 7, 2008)

hi, 
well, what i liked about Piki was that so much of the admin support was included as far as customers placing orders and them being tracked, even taxsation (wow dont think i spelled that right.lol) was handled. plus, i dig the fact of how much freedom i have to make the sight look like i want. I read a post here from a chick (ut-oh) who had started a line some how based on this old madona movie. i think she used piki as well and her site is pretty good. if i can find the link i will post it. but at any rate, the ability to use say, Golive or Dreamweaver to hook up the site is very important becaue i want to be able have a look that fits into what I'm doing but more importantly i need the administrative options because I am working in iraq so the less stress to contendwith the better

thank you


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## skreenbuddy (Dec 24, 2008)

If you're looking to at get some "free" traffic out of the deal as well and aren't feeling you need your own specific url, I would suggest http://www.etsy.com , http://www.ecrater.com or http://www.bonanzle.com

Etsy being the largest and most established at 650,000 members and I've seen many tees go for well over $30 if the design is right. Traffic to the other sites is fairly low, but with a ton of people fleeing ebay in droves, you will see many more smaller marketplaces swooping in to fill the needs that are no longer being met by the current industry leader.

Aaron


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## Jamey (Dec 22, 2008)

Pikiwear is now DecoNetwork. 

What I like about it is the affiliates system, and the onsite designer. Looks pretty slick.


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## lindsayanng (Oct 3, 2008)

ALL shopping cart systems have the ADMIN capability. With oscommerce specifically, you get the basics - order tracking, order updates, automatic emails to your customers when you update their orders from received, to printed, to shipped. You can track which customers visited which pages of your site. You can ask your customers to sign up for your newsletter which you can then handle whichever way you want (from oscommerce or third party newsletter like constantcontact) You can also set up zones for taxes - with this, you will ONLY want to charge tax to people who live in your state, you CAN do this from the stock install.. 

THEN, you can ADD additional admin options. You and set up coupons codes with expiration dates, gift certificates, links manager how your products list (grid mode or list mode), you and set up order in which all different types of info displays, you can choose what information you want to REQUIRE fo ryour customers to sign up and what you want ot just put there but NOT make it required. 

THERE IS SOO MUCH.. you should go to the osc demo store.. If you want i can post a screen shot of my admin which is VERY modified, but ALL with pre-coded addons)


Also, you can not change ANY php website with DREAMWEAVER or any other HTML editor. HOWEVER, ocommerce has an addon called STS (simple template system) which allows you to set up the LOOK in dreamweaver and apply that to your php website. I know that is not available on Zen Cart, but then again, zen cart has lots of pre made decent looking templates.


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## Prinsz (Oct 6, 2008)

Hi I am looking for the online design function. Do any of you where i can find this free or cheap. Pikiware and others look great but costs a lot of money. At pikiware they want anual money and money for each transaction. My webdesigner can make the site for me but the online design part is pretty difficult. So I was wondering if you guys/girls know if there is any free software for this part.

Thanx in advance.
Greetings from Holland


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## lindsayanng (Oct 3, 2008)

You want a flash type t-shirt designer?? if thats it, you can search this forum and you will find all sorts of info.


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## Prinsz (Oct 6, 2008)

lindsayanng said:


> You want a flash type t-shirt designer?? if thats it, you can search this forum and you will find all sorts of info.


Dear Lindsayanng,
Forgive me if I get you wrong, English is not my first language.
But to design my own shirts and for customers we use adobe but what I need is an onsite design function build in my website. So that customers can design their shirts themselves online. Is that what you mean by flash type tee designer? And if yes do you know a thread.
Thanks again


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## Prinsz (Oct 6, 2008)

something like speadshirt or rsk does but they are pretty expensive.
Maybe expertlogo is cheaper I am gone find out tomorrow.
But my webdesigner will build my site, he just needs to build in the tool to design the shirt in.


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## lindsayanng (Oct 3, 2008)

if you have a designer who can build the tool, then why are you looking for other ones? I am confused.. 

The point is though, you get what you pay for.. Some of those that are cheap, are not the best.. they can cause a LOT of heachaches, AND you have to make sure it integrates to your shopping cart.. USUALLY you cant just install a designer and expect it to work with your cart.


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## Prinsz (Oct 6, 2008)

lindsayanng said:


> if you have a designer who can build the tool, then why are you looking for other ones? I am confused..
> 
> The point is though, you get what you pay for.. Some of those that are cheap, are not the best.. they can cause a LOT of heachaches, AND you have to make sure it integrates to your shopping cart.. USUALLY you cant just install a designer and expect it to work with your cart.


He is just making my website but is having problems with building the tool to design onsite.
Thanks again for your reply


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## zhenjie (Aug 27, 2006)

The designers now aren't really that expensive, especially if your business model is sound, it should pay itself off within a few months at least. Unlikely you will find any of this software for free. Because why would someone give it out for free?


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## lindsayanng (Oct 3, 2008)

zhenjie, there is actually a LOT of addons for particular shopping carts for free, but not usually stand alones. Opensource is a GREAT thing for us website owners, but you have to know what to do with it. 

The old saying DOES work though, you have to spend money to make money.

What you need to ask your designer is

What shopping cart system is he using?

Do you want your "t-shirt designer" to be integrated into that cart AND have payments made after the shirt is completed?


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## zhenjie (Aug 27, 2006)

I haven't seen any full featured flash t-shirt designers for shopping carts. Can you link me to some, I'd love to have a look.


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## lindsayanng (Oct 3, 2008)

you have to figure out which shopping cart you are going to use FIRST. There are ones for almost every type of shopping cart. They are all paid.. pick a cart a google the cart name and t-shirt designer. You will be able to find loads of them


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## Prinsz (Oct 6, 2008)

Thanks dean for your message I will have a look at tprint designer.
We have a company in holland that wants to give a customized t-shirt to our customers in Holland when they sign up at my company. So I am not making money selling these shirts and have a tight budget.
Also I don't need the extra's like administration and all that, just the possibility for customers to fill out some text on a shirt.
We cut out vinyl and make them a tee.
Greetings from Holland


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## zhenjie (Aug 27, 2006)

lindsayanng said:


> you have to figure out which shopping cart you are going to use FIRST. There are ones for almost every type of shopping cart. They are all paid.. pick a cart a google the cart name and t-shirt designer. You will be able to find loads of them


I had a look at a few with oScomerce, all pretty basic and generic. I thought you said some were free? Sorry if I misunderstood.


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## lindsayanng (Oct 3, 2008)

No, i said some addons for oscommerce are free.. i meant addons, not t-shirt specific ones.. but you said you arent selling them, so no need to look at carts right?


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## zhenjie (Aug 27, 2006)

I wasn't really talking about shopping carts or said I was looking at them (already run/develop my own Zen-cart and Magento stores). My first post was directed at Prinsz and regarding online t-shirt designers in general (not shopping carts).


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## lindsayanng (Oct 3, 2008)

My last post wasnt directed at you. It was directed at prinze telling him that since he is GIVING away a shirt, he wont need a cart


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## Prinsz (Oct 6, 2008)

lindsayanng said:


> My last post wasnt directed at you. It was directed at prinze telling him that since he is GIVING away a shirt, he wont need a cart


you're right no cart needed.


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## Prinsz (Oct 6, 2008)

Well guys I 've got to go to bed. In Holland it's 03:15 in the night and i got to go to work in a few hours. Thanks for your reply and i'll this thread in a few hours again.

goodnight


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## mlsalters77 (Nov 7, 2008)

hey I checked out that site it seems pretty good have you had any troubles with it at all? they seem to admit themselves that some of their services are not stable yet. also, i saw a site when i did a google search on oscom called "nexternal" do you know anything about them or does anyone here? they claim to be so much better but they dont list there prices (we know what that means) what do you guys( & gals) think?


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## Prinsz (Oct 6, 2008)

I don't know nexternal, but did you check out tprintdesigner.com.
It's a once buy product and no montly fee after that.
It has the online (onsite) design function in it.


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## mlsalters77 (Nov 7, 2008)

i down loaded the OSCOM so I'm going to mess around with that but i will check into all the sites you guys have given me.


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## thefactionist (Jan 17, 2009)

What about Squarespace.com? Great site for designing/hosting sites. Powerful yet easy.


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## Jamey (Dec 22, 2008)

I am liking the features built into DecoNetworks. Sure it costs (they are gonna revise their prices I believe), but you can create as many stores as you want with it. Not just one.


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## jay2 (Aug 30, 2010)

I think Prinsz is looking for the Online Designer Tool that Decowork provide which allows the customers to personalize or design their T-shirts in which i'm also looking for as i really can't afford Decowork if i convert it into my currency & need to pay it monthly & with it's transaction fee, for a small business starter ... hmm there's many things to consider though their feature is great... (thumbs up)..


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## Prinsz (Oct 6, 2008)

jay2 said:


> I think Prinsz is looking for the Online Designer Tool that Decowork provide which allows the customers to personalize or design their T-shirts in which i'm also looking for as i really can't afford Decowork if i convert it into my currency & need to pay it monthly & with it's transaction fee, for a small business starter ... hmm there's many things to consider though their feature is great... (thumbs up)..


Jay I got someone who has built it for me.
if you are intersted I can let you guys meet( via internet) he is not expensive. You pay a one time fee and he makes sure the bugs you might run in to in the future are solved real quick 
I trust him cause I play soccer with him.
Let me now if you are interested.


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