Hello Everyone, this is my first time posting and I hope I am doing this right. I have a web design question. I currently do web designs and I know the basics of Dreamweaver (I currently don't use is because I still have alot to learn) but I have a new client who wants an ecommerce site for her clothes line and I have never done one of these before....HELP PLEASE

What is the best software to do this in? I am not sure. Something thats user friendly would be good but I am willing to learn. Any help would be greatly appreciated, (my heart is beating 100 mph at this moment - breath!).

Plus I want to say - even though this is my first post, I want to thank you all for all the great posts that has helped me along the way in my VA business.

Thanks
Mary H

I love 1ShoppingCart. However, without more information, I can't tell if that's the right solution for your client. They're fantastic, with quick an helpful support.

There's also dreamweaver plugin that's helpful for ecommerce sites: DataAssist (http://www.webassist.com/professiona...ls.asp?PID=117) makes a catalogue site without having to code.

HTH,

Erin

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~Erin Banister
TheMarketingVA | TrinityJacobs

One really cheap, easy and reliable service is mal's cart:
http://mals-e.com/
no installation, easily fits right into the existing site and easy to customize cart pages. They've also been around forever.

OSCommerce is another that I've used, altho it's a bit more complicated to customize.
http://oscommerce.com/

Hope that helps...

k

I have used OScommerce too. Though it can be rought to customize, they have an add-on that allows you to customize it using html and css. I used it that way and the customization was way easier. I basically just recreated the css that I used for the rest of the site and put in the shopping cart information by using the information included with the add-on. Best of all OScommerce is free. Magento is another free one, but is relatively new so there is not as much tutorial type info out there. I really liked the Magento back end better, but the customization was a little more than I was ready for.

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Kellie Stotsky
The Essential Virtual Assistant
www.theessentialva.com

Thanks for the help. So I can create the site as I normally would and just add a shopping cart feature that will link to the product? Keep in mind that I'm sort of a newbee to the fancy web design stuff.

Mary H

You can with mal's cart or some other hosted cart solution. no installation necessary

With mal's you can create your own graphics for the add to cart buttons or just use text links...

i've used them extensively in the past for smaller shops... some shops would grow out of it, but it's a great way to get the store online inexpensively and test out the viability of it. If it gets really sucessful later, an upgrade to a more robust cart can be done easily.

k

With OScommerce you can, but after you get it successfully installed you have to use the add-on/contribution that they have available. It is called the Simple Template System. You still have to edit the php a little bit to get it to say what you want it to say, but it wasn't terribly hard. There is a thread that is about 200+ pages long on their help forum to help with all of the specifics of the add on and it's changes throughout the course of time. This was the first shopping cart that I ever did and I managed to get through it okay.

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Kellie Stotsky
The Essential Virtual Assistant
www.theessentialva.com

Originally Posted by sfsupport

You can with mal's cart or some other hosted cart solution. no installation necessary With mal's you can create your own graphics for the add to cart buttons or just use text links... i've used them extensively in the past for smaller shops... some shops would grow out of it, but it's a great way to get the store online inexpensively and test out the viability of it. If it gets really sucessful later, an upgrade to a more robust cart can be done easily. k

I started a similar thread and didn't get a response so I hope no one minds me asking a quick question in regards to the above post...

I am one of those smaller shops (in my other life) that started out with Mal's ecommerce and have outgrown them. sfsupport mentions that an upgrade to a more robust cart can easily be accomplished. Can anyone give me a couple of examples of a more "robust" cart that is not extremely expensive? I have looked into Optioncart which integrates well with Mal's and is not expensive. It is, however, pretty basic.

Thanks so much for your help!

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Jill Tirone
DanceFit Marketing LLC

Originally Posted by Jill T

I started a similar thread and didn't get a response so I hope no one minds me asking a quick question in regards to the above post... I am one of those smaller shops (in my other life) that started out with Mal's ecommerce and have outgrown them. sfsupport mentions that an upgrade to a more robust cart can easily be accomplished. Can anyone give me a couple of examples of a more "robust" cart that is not extremely expensive? I have looked into Optioncart which integrates well with Mal's and is not expensive. It is, however, pretty basic. Thanks so much for your help!

WahmCart is great - easy to use and cheap (only $29/month). It's the next best thing to 1ShoppingCart.com (and all it's rebrands).

~Erin

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~Erin Banister
TheMarketingVA | TrinityJacobs

Thanks for the fast response, Erin! I'm not entirely sure WahmCart is what I'm looking for either... I'm looking to keep the same look and feel of my existing site and add a database catalog to it so I can easily add/remove products. I'd like to set up catagories (Gifts Under $20, etc.) and give my customers searching capabilities.

I plan to do the trial of WahmCart to get a better feel for the product. I was hoping to find a link to some stores that use their cart so I could browse around a bit, but at first glance I didn't find one on their site.

Thanks again!

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Jill Tirone
DanceFit Marketing LLC