# Decisions Decisions Decisions - ecommerce



## JoeJon (Mar 16, 2007)

Hi,

I have been reading these great posts for days now and have learned a lot - but need some help.

My friend and I want to put up a small online store (15 designs). Neither of us know anything about HTML, PHP, mySQL, CSS, etc. 

Because of this, we are looking at a hosed ecommerce solution like Volusion, Monstercommerce etc. However, most of the people on this forum, seem to separate their hosting and shopping cart duties. For example, they host on Lunarpages, and then install a cart like Cubecart. 

However, it seems as though most people are saying that merging the two requires knowledge of these languages or outsourcing to renacoder.com etc. But is it really necessary - or is there a shopping cart that is truly dummy-proof?

For someone who has no idea about HTML, PHP, mySQL, CSS, etc., is there a cart that makes it easy and seamless, based on their tools, to merge a shopping cart with a template hosted on another server? 

Thanks for any thoughts!


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## Jasonda (Aug 16, 2006)

If you want a really "dummy proof" solution you can try Shopify or BigCartel. The cart is integrated with the template already, and the payments can be processed through PayPal if you don't want to set up a merchant account. There is no HTML knowledge needed, although you can modify the templates with CSS if you want.


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

Carts like osCommerce, etc. are extremely easy to install without any technical knowledge. The problem is that the base install is kind of ugly and featureless. To get the cart to the point where it would actually make a *good* solution requires the knowledge that people are referring to. But if you are content with the standard installation, anyone can do that (especially these days since many many hosts have it available in a one-click install area).


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## Ross B (Apr 28, 2006)

Also, I guess a lot of us on this forum are very design conscious, but it is highly debatable whether the average punter who is interested in buying a T-shirt from your online store could care less about how a shopping cart looks - as long as it works fast, and works as easily as the shopping carts of well-known sites like Amazon, for example, I think you're fine. 

Of course, every little bit helps, and it is obviously preferable to have a cart that is well-integrated with the rest of your site in terms of design, but I don't think it will make a huge difference for many prospective clients.


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## expo (Mar 22, 2007)

the off the shelf freebie scripts are easy to use. If you have a little coin you could hire a designer to create a custom look and install.

After that you could manage it pretty well.


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## carguygarage (Mar 29, 2007)

Go with a Yahoo store.

OScommerce is horrible code. MonsterCommerce is known for the worst support (not that Yahoo support is that great either.) Yahoo stores have the most subscribers and is completely hosted, so it's the safest bet overall -- it's got it's quirks too though.


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## guest29928 (Mar 30, 2008)

Yahoo i believe you pay based on how much you sell.

Volusion you dont need any knowledge of programing language. You just fill out the sections with text and add photos.

Its all pretty easy.

I dont have any experience with the others.


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## peteVA (Nov 11, 2007)

JoeJon said:


> Hi,
> 
> I have been reading these great posts for days now and have learned a lot - but need some help.
> 
> ...


You are getting tangled up in the mechanics that you'll never even see. 

Just as you don't know how to build a car to drive one, you don't need to know any of the things you are concerned about to drive a shopping cart site.

There are thousands of folks who do know and thnk that everyone should know and anyone who doesn't know is just not going to be able to cope.

They are wrong. Just follow this mantra - "There are dumber people than me with good shopping cart sites." Easy, actually.

With CubeCart, OSCommerce or ZenCart you have to click your mouse and enter a username and password and they are ready to add products. set up shipping and payment processors, no more complicated than posting on this forum.

You might want to change the look of your cart. There you will need to know a bit of some of those things you mention. (Never MySQL.) But even then, you can buy skins and the people will install them. 

Even the poeple offering free skins will install them for $ 15 or $ 25 or so.

So just put all that crap out of your mind, find a cart that fits your needs and get on with it.
.


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