# Need e-commerce software help



## CadenUSA (Jun 15, 2012)

I need a little help with ecommerce. I know what I want but it is a jungle out there! Web searches leave me more confused than ever and I thought I would ask here since y'all probably have active experience vs. hyped up testimonials on product websites.


What I want for my store:

Search bar
When an item from search page is looked at I want the customer to be able to go back to their original search
Search parameters (size, style, color, etc)
Remembers shopping cart 
Store's best sellers on home page
checkout on same page (not having to go to a different site)
When my store is on the internet it is readily available and easy to use for smartphones, iPads, iPhone, Android, etc)
I have a domain name already, not sure if that makes a difference or not. 

All I need is a few names so I can research over the upcoming holiday. Please help. Thanks!


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## TRMMarketing (Nov 22, 2011)

CadenUSA,

There is a wide range of options available as far as e-commerce platforms go. It is more a question of what you need the platform to accomplish. How large of an operation are you looking at? Do you need to have multiple customer service reps with back-end access for order processing? 

Personally, my firm works with Magento or Netsuite for cart solutions. Either of those has the majority of what you are looking for, or are relatively easy for a skilled developer to add to them. They are rock solid platforms. However, depending on what your needs are, they might not be right for you.

When you say “checkout on same page” what exactly are you referring to? Do you mean you want to process credit card payments yourself? 

I know many on here with smaller operations utilize Wordpress with some e-commerce modifications or Volusion / Bigcartel, etc. These are very simple and cost effective solutions for starting out, but depending on the complexity and size of your organization, these might not be appropriate. There are others on here more experienced in those platforms who can speak to their benefits’ weaknesses better than I can.

Here are a couple of ideas to bear in mind moving forward if you are making a serious run at establishing an online retail presence:
• Is there room for growth?
• Does the platform meet your needs for customer engagement? This could be as simple as allowing users to comment or even perhaps integrating your store into Facebook and allowing customers to share and discuss your products.
• How are you going to advertise your store? Will you be able to adequately track inbound customers in the framework to measure the return on your investment?
• Do you own the store or are you renting space? If you are renting space, what legal rights do you have if the e-commerce provider service begins to suffer, etc.? Remember it is not always that easy to transfer customer and sales data between cart solutions. 

If you have any specific questions concerning Magento, Netsuite, or just general e-commerce questions please don’t hesitate to shoot me a PM.


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## printingray (Apr 4, 2012)

You can get all these by custom CMS sites, the est thing about custom CMS is to chekout function is very well Pyapal integration in on the same page etc. I think you need a best developers company which gives you all these function in a site.


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## CadenUSA (Jun 15, 2012)

TRMMarketing:

I am not too skilled at web design, etc. so I thought a software program would be good.

The size right now is small. Products will be under 100 (unless each size and/or color is a separate product). 

Checkout on the same page: as a consumer I am wary of sites that ping pong me off to another page (or website) to pay. I would like the payment to be incorporated with the checkout page.

I would like for the store to interface with smartphones, iPads, facebook, and if allowed (not sure about it) twitter and myspace.


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## CadenUSA (Jun 15, 2012)

printingray:

I am quite a novice at this .... what is a custom CMS site? Which would be a best developers company?

Thanks.


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## Iano (Jul 5, 2011)

CMS simply means content management system. In web terms that means when you upload photos, blog posts and updates it automatically takes care of all the database stuff for you.

If you are a novice at ecommerce site here's two services I would recommend. 

Ecommerce Software, Online Store Builder, Website Store Hosting Solution- Free 30 Day Trial by Shopify.
www.lemonstand.com

Shopify is great for getting going quickly. 
Lemonstand is more complex but come with much more powerful features.

Both of these sites have videos etc of how they work.

I'd start there. I have built a few eCom sites I can testify that there is no perfect solution yet... but lemonstand comes close.


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## AdvancedArtist (Nov 23, 2006)

I would say the options are many I prefer Joomla but I cut my teeth on that before there was a WordPress. You should look at Magento and OpenCart they are both free open source.

See the video below it will explain some things about what you are wanting to do. A bit long and boring but critical information.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhjOnZlEygg[/media]

Take a look at www.ostraining.com you can get free week of access and learn allot there.


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## Iano (Jul 5, 2011)

Magento is a beast... unless you are running it on a dedicated server you're site will be really slow. Important because load times are now a major factor in your Google search ranking.


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## cryptkeeper (Apr 26, 2010)

X2 on the magento is a beast post. I've developed 4-5 sites on magento and I would definitely not recommend it for a beginner.


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## AdvancedArtist (Nov 23, 2006)

Strange thing the web. Programmers and geeks have neglected to make it easy. The first one to make all this easy will tower over the likes Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.


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## kylec922 (Feb 16, 2012)

For you starting out, I wouldn't recommend anything other than WordPress. Download it, buy a theme, buy some quality plugins and the rest is simple. Coding helps, but it's definitely not necessary.


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## Iano (Jul 5, 2011)

Wordpress is a good place to start, but can be a little bit tricky to setup. I'd highly recommend buying a theme on somewhere like themeforest that is setup as a shopping cart already. You can find some themes with excellent support from the developers of that theme. If you want to take it one step further you can customize the theme graphically to make your store more unique.

A lot of them use the WPEC (getshopped.org) plugin which is free and opensource. But it can be tricky and buggy sometimes.


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## CadenUSA (Jun 15, 2012)

So if I purchase a package (ie. LemonStand, etc) or use WordPress do I need a server to host the site? I already have a domain name so the domain is not a problem.


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## kylec922 (Feb 16, 2012)

If you already have a domain thats currently up your wordpress site would go there.


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

I have been building websites for many years and it was a blessing when I switched to 3dCart from Joomla and/or Wordpress sites and shopping cart options.....So much easier to manage a store that is pretty much ready to go....


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## Iano (Jul 5, 2011)

Having a domain name is not the same as having hosting. You need to "host" your files on a server somewhere. When you bought your package you may have already got hosting from the same company. But if you paid like 10 bucks for a year then you probably just have a domain name and you'll have to get hosting separately.


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## kylec922 (Feb 16, 2012)

Iano said:


> Having a domain name is not the same as having hosting. You need to "host" your files on a server somewhere. When you bought your package you may have already got hosting from the same company. But if you paid like 10 bucks for a year then you probably just have a domain name and you'll have to get hosting separately.


I just kind of assume that if someone buys a domain they are going to have a host too, I guess. As far as WordPress being hard to setup, I have to completely disagree. Try WooCommerce too, also free as a cart plugin and I've had 0 bug issues.


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## Iano (Jul 5, 2011)

Wordpress is dead easy to setup.... for regular sites. For people with limited web experience adding in a shopping cart component can be tricky. That's why I recommend buying a theme already setup with the shopping cart component plugged in.

Remember to put a cost on your time. If you value yourself at let's say $25 an hour, and your website takes 20hours to setup in wordpress (by the time you have all the little shopping cart bugs worked out) you would have been much better off spending $500 and getting a Lemonstand Licence, as it's a product designed to be a cart. Unlike wordpress which was never truly designed to work like that.

I only know this because my store is built on wordpress which as tricky to setup as a shopping cart. I had previously being using Shopify which was a breeze, I just felt the money I was spending on monthly fee wasn't worth it.


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## Iano (Jul 5, 2011)

WooCommerce does look great though... wish that was around when I was building!


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## DeViTTo (Jul 1, 2012)

For what you require I would go with opencart.

Your Store

If you are not sure about setting it up. You could always contract from some of the freelance sites to do the initial work. The package is free, but freelancers can cost around $200 ish to get you up and going. Or as other say go with the or many subscription commercial package held route. Depends how serious you are. The largest cost of any website isn't the setup design really it's getting your self seen. SEO search optimisation work.

Good luck


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## Plus 37 Research (Jan 12, 2011)

I second Wordpress and WooCommerce. Once you get the hang of it, you can pretty much do anything with it. It was the sole reason i researched and learned how to do some simple coding, which is definitely helpful if you really want to do some customization. Coding knowledge/experience is definitely not required though.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using T-Shirt Forums


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