# Can I have this kind of website?



## homesteademb (Apr 22, 2008)

We are a printing and embroidery shop and we sell to some sports teams. We would like them to be able to purchase spirit wear through our website instead of the group taking orders a couple of times a year. The groups we have talked to are very interested in this because they have a hard time finding someone who is willing to take on this task.

My question is, is there a website where they have to have a password to access their groups ordering page and then the order info gets sent to us as well as to their treasurer, so they know what they are selling and earning.

We kind of want it to be like pikiware without the shirt designer program and to be a lot cheaper. We have no website experience so we are really looking for a plug and play kind of option. Or is this something we would have to have specially designed by a webdesigner?


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## Teeser (May 14, 2008)

If I were setting this up in my normal out of the box store software (Volusion.com), I would set the treasurers up as Automatic Dropship Vendors so when an order is placed they would also be emailed the copy of the order too when you collect the payment. Then each product for Team A would be assigned to vendor (treasurer) A. Team B products would have Vendor B etc.

I'm not sure what purpose the "group" page would serve from your description. How would you want that to work? Keeping their products private? Do you still want just one big total order? Keep the public out?


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## homesteademb (Apr 22, 2008)

Thank you very much for that info. 

I was thinking of keeping each group separate so only that group could order because I have had several organizations concerned about keeping their items private. Mostly fire departments have raised this issue.

My current website host will give me an option like this that they usually use for wholesale but I can only have one. I was hoping to have the option of having more.

I guess my best explanation of this would be having a separate store for each group without having to pay for separate websites.


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## PositiveDave (Dec 1, 2008)

Maybe you should ask this to a 'making websites forum', you'll probably get a better answer?


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

PositiveDave said:


> Maybe you should ask this to a 'making websites forum', you'll probably get a better answer?


This *is* a making websites forum (that's what the ecommerce section of T-ShirtForums is all about )


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## n.signia (Nov 21, 2007)

I know what your looking for is out there... the photography webhost smugmug has galleries set up this way, the links/galleries are password protected, then the the group can go in, enter the password, veiw the goods, and checkout.


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## Teeser (May 14, 2008)

Yes, with the fire and police you'd need that privacy. With Volusion you could create separate categories for each team or organization with their products and keep them hidden. Give the direct link to the category to the organization and just they know about it. I don't know if Google would eventually pick up a hidden category?


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## PositiveDave (Dec 1, 2008)

Rodney said:


> This *is* a making websites forum (that's what the ecommerce section of T-ShirtForums is all about )


I just wouldn't ask a programmer about t-shirt printing


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## homesteademb (Apr 22, 2008)

You are right, if I need to have a programmer set up the website I want, I will definately go to a professional. Just like if I was on a forums for programmers and I wanted t-shirts made I would ask if anybody knew someone who makes them and then I would go to a professional.

I am just looking to see if anyone knew if there was already a place that did things this way to save me the hassle and expense of starting from scratch.

Thank you everyone for your help. I am getting a better idea of what I need to do to get this done. I am going to check out volusion to see if it will work for me and if I have enough knowledge to do it myself.


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## ggraphics (Nov 20, 2008)

Check sageworld.com They are like ASI - for promotional products distributors. They have something called a company store. I believe that may be what you are looking for.


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## homesteademb (Apr 22, 2008)

Thank you so much, I think this is exactly what I am looking for. I am going to contact them for more info.


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## lindsayanng (Oct 3, 2008)

I know the perfect solution for you. 

You can do one of two things with oscommerce (a free shopping cart) 
You can make main categories like "softball teams" "cheer squads" etc and then create sub-categories with the name of the actual group that wants to purchase from you. Then you put "THIER PRODUCTS" under their name, and password protect the subcategory.. You can make the categories as deep as you want.. meaning you can have it like this
Cheer Squads
------Bunnell High
------------- Jackets
------------- Sweatshirts
------------- POM POMS
------ Stratford High
------------- Jackets
------------- Sweatshirts
------------- POM POMS
And no matter where they click, tehy would have to put in the password for that particular school. The coaches can give out the passwords to the members
My website does this if you click on my signature you can see an example

OR 

With oscommerce, there is an addon called HIDE PRODUCT GROUPS FROM CUSTOMERS
This allows you to create a product group that only certain customers can see, so you would need to know which "group" the customer belongs to when they sign up.. but it works REALLY well.. 

I think there is more to it, because i have never used it before, but i suggest going over to teh oscommerce forum (forums.oscommerce.com) and ask some questions.


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## homesteademb (Apr 22, 2008)

That is what I want to do but I have a few questions. I really do not understand the basics of setting up a website, I have one now but all I had to do was load pictures and put in explanations. When you say it is a shopping cart, does that mean that I have to have a separate webhost? Right now I am going through a company that has everything in one and all I had to do was sign up and pick a layout. Is it something that I could do with little experience or do you think I would need to have someone else do it for me?


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## homesteademb (Apr 22, 2008)

Ok, I think I asked the question too fast. I went to the oscommerce website and I got the information I needed. Thanks.


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## lindsayanng (Oct 3, 2008)

No problem.. The basics of running an OPEN SOURCE shopping cart you need the following

- A webhost that has PHP and MySql enabled. If you already have a host, you should do your research regarding how good they would be for e-commerce. I can tell you off the bat that there are a FEW that are HORRIBLE. Globat and Web.com are two that I know for a fact are bad.. If you tell me who your host is, I can do some research for you. 
- A merchant account. You can get one with your bank OR something like authorize.net or paypal. You can use the free paypal OR the websites payment pro account (which is $30 a month) 
- an SSL certificate. If you look in this forum, i created a nice long post explaining it. 

I am somewhat of a "pro" at oscommerce. I know the shopping cart inside and out, so if you want help with it, you are welcome to ask.


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## homesteademb (Apr 22, 2008)

We have checked around a little and found a host that is very familiar with oscommerce and is cheaper than our current host. We have printed the instruction guide and have been going over it the last couple of hours and feel we can probably do this ourselves, I guess I know more than I thought.

We already have a merchant account so that is easy.

We know what an SSL certificate is but that is about the extent of that so we will definately look up you other post on that topic.

I appreciate you willingness to help and I just might take you up on that as we get into this. We are kind of in a hurry to get this going. We have put it off for so long because we just didn't know where to start.


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## lindsayanng (Oct 3, 2008)

well, unless you have done a php shopping cart before, HURRY is not usually built into oscommerce.. Its a long, pain in the butt to learn.. 

The thing with osc is that the stock LOOK is horrible, but its meant to be that way, it is meant to be a shell so that you can fully customize it however you would like. BUT you either can do that quickly with a template (which is a pain in the butt because template providers do not support their own stuff AND they usually use such OLD versions of OSC that new addons dont work) or you do it by yourself which can be a long hard road as well.. 

If your host deals with osc, then you should ask them if they have SIMPLE SCRIPTS and can just do a one click install of oscommerce for you. That is what my host has. I can install 50 stores in 50 minutes using hostmonster.


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## homesteademb (Apr 22, 2008)

I realize that it is a long process, I just meant we are in a hurry to get started. We were looking at hostmonster so we will check out the 50 stores in 50 minutes. If we use one of those stores, do you know if we can have the password protected shops?


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## Jamey (Dec 22, 2008)

lindsayanng said:


> well, unless you have done a php shopping cart before, HURRY is not usually built into oscommerce.. Its a long, pain in the butt to learn..
> 
> The thing with osc is that the stock LOOK is horrible, but its meant to be that way, it is meant to be a shell so that you can fully customize it however you would like. BUT you either can do that quickly with a template (which is a pain in the butt because template providers do not support their own stuff AND they usually use such OLD versions of OSC that new addons dont work) or you do it by yourself which can be a long hard road as well..
> 
> If your host deals with osc, then you should ask them if they have SIMPLE SCRIPTS and can just do a one click install of oscommerce for you. That is what my host has. I can install 50 stores in 50 minutes using hostmonster.


Exactly. I know Godaddy has OSC and Zencart available in their scripts. I find Zencart much easier to skin though. You can actually modify the classic theme pretty easily by replacing 3 images and playing with the CSS file.

I have a few under my belt.


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## homesteademb (Apr 22, 2008)

But in Zencart can you password protect shops for different groups? That is really what we need.


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## bob emb (Apr 5, 2007)

Hi Guys/Ladies,

If I understand correctly in hostmonster I can set up 50 different stores . Is this similar to pikiware where you are the fullfilment center for those 50 stores.

Bob


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## lindsayanng (Oct 3, 2008)

bob... you can set up as many possible stores as you would like.. You can have 100 databases so you can only have 100 stores with separate databases, but you can have stores that share databases..

HOWEVER, you are really confusing hostmonster with a fullfillment service. Hostmonster is jUST a host that has one click installs of shopping cart software.. So hostmonster itself is NOT a shopping cart. 

Again, hostmonster is JUST THE HOST that you keep your files on, but when you sign up for hostmonster, and log in to your control panel, at the bottom you will see something called SIMPLE SCRIPTS.. there you can add Zen Cart or Oscommerce. I like oscommerce, but it has a HUGE learning curve.. Its not easy to learn.. however, if you plan on mainataining multiple stores, you SHOULD have oscommerce because it has a great multi store addon.


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## PrintMonkey (Jul 15, 2006)

homesteademb said:


> We are a printing and embroidery shop and we sell to some sports teams. We would like them to be able to purchase spirit wear through our website instead of the group taking orders a couple of times a year. The groups we have talked to are very interested in this because they have a hard time finding someone who is willing to take on this task.


If you are a Sanmar customer, they offer pretty close to what you are looking for as a free service.
They will even set it up for you.

Mark


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