Setting up an online Store

Hey guys,

I am after some advice, I am about to set up an online business selling various products. I stock these products in store and wish to use the same stock for both offline and online sales.

What are the best opensource options available to me? I want something that could incorporate postage and packing prices for the UK (Possibly royal mail or something)

The ones I've seen are Magento, OsCommerce and Zen-cart but I am not sure which one to go for.. which one has the most/best features?

How best would it be to start promoting the website? I already have a facebook page, a twitter account but I want to be listen in google shopping and various price comparison sites.

What's the best way to start a successful launch?

Thanks in advance

 

Those are the two worst apps for this. Oscommerce is a nightmare. If you have a brick and mortar shop I would suggest using Magento or perhaps open cart. That stuff is pretty nice as well. I have been fiddling with it a bit.

Syncing stock is going to require a third party mod that may or may not be a tad pricey. This depends on your Point of Sale app.

Marketing is really another animal here but off the top of my head you want to be capturing emails for newsletters etc. Its a good idea to kindly ask folks if they wouldnt mind signing up for sales/specials... what have you when they come in.

Hope that helps and feel free to ask questions. I am largely an e-commerce consultant but we are sorta moving on to bigger things.

regards,
Nigel

 

Yahoo Stores, hands down
edit: well that's not opensource, still my choice though.

 

Hey Nigel,

Thank you so much for your help. I had a look around and Magento seems to meet all my demands, a bit complex but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it.

I think I'll keep track of all my offline sales and deduct them manually for the time being, it would be alright to start off with but I am sure it could get more complex later on.

Once it's set up, I'll get a mailing list and make use of it. Do you think they work?

Anyway, thank Nigel for all your help Much appreciated buddy!

 

Hi, You can try with zeuscart which is the best open source shopping cart software to create your online store.

 

+1 for Opencart as it is very easy to use. You could try Megento but Oscommerce and ZenCart would be a nightmare under your circumstances and their fairly average looking scripts to.

 

For making an online store you need to have a dynamic website and it should be equipped with so many brands with appropriate category. Before starting your online business you make sure that it has been properly marketed and promoted.

 

I've built a few online stores using prestashop. It's a fork of magento I believe. Sales tax, newsletters, coupon codes, shipping all of those modules are built in and there are a ton more. Everything you need to get started

 

We can build one for you using nopcommerce, the one in my sig is the one we just done.

 

+1 for Magento - good for open source, and they also have hosted options (obviously not free, but easy to use).

 

We were using a Zen Cart script for 7 years, and recently transitioned to Magento 1.6. There are upsides and downsides to both, however Magento is fairly complex and requires more maintenance to keep running.

 

Magento for sure if you will have a larger store of planning to scale up. Changing platforms is a nightmare.

Magento is a monster. Don't fall for all of the plugins out there. Many will just slow down your site.

Make sure to get a dedicated server for magento and I suggest a host who specializes in magento hosting so you can get a little help if you need it. MageMojo (http://magemojo.com) is a good one. They are rated the fastest host who specialize in magento.

Make sure you have a reasonable marketing budget. You need visitors and starting a new site will burn through a lot of cash as you try to find profitable ways to market it. Every market is different. What has worked for someone else, might not work for you.

Press releases and social networking is a good way to launch, but dont expect your business to take off from that. You will need to find profitable traffic sources, paid and "free". Many people think search engine fraffic is free, but it is not. It will take 6 months of hard work and thousands of dollars just to get to the point of making a little money.

It is hard work. If you have the budget to burn as you go through a steep learning curve, you will end up with a nice business.

 

u can try interspire shopping cart.this really works great. more info found @ http://iscexperts.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2081

 

Want your own shop i think you can go for Magento it's open source web application using which we can create high end shops and it's so easy to work with.

web-designs-company.com

 

You can try interspire shopping cart service pack it's free to use and user friendly.
Try to add them in Skype and they'll give you free consultation that may help you in your needs
Skype : cartaddon.com

 

I'd recommend you start with a business plan. Get a firm grip on your business model before you start.

1. The steps are getting a domain name and web hosting account, then install a pre-written online store like OSCommerce and have it customised (likely by a web developer) to include your products and options.

2. The "best" web hosting is one that suits you the most. The differences between hosts are, as you say, price, services, and hosting packages. You can get an idea of the hosts people here recommend through a search on this forum.

3. A lot of sites starting out use PayPal or 2Checkout.com, and you can see the charges for these options on their websites.

4. I've never dealt with couriers, so I cannot advise on this one.

Basically I admire your spirit in jumping into ecommerce, but I think you need to clarify formally your business structure before getting too committed financially.

Good luck with your project.

 

If you are really looking for best open source script, Then my idea would be ZEUSCART.. Go for it.

 

You shall go for Magento Extension Development

Here are the reasons why you should choose Magento:
An Open source eCommerce Solution
Multi-store functionality
Product comparisons and product tagging features
Multi-address shipping
Order management tool
SEO and marketing promotion tool
Catalog management tool
Mobile friendly interface
Multiple currency payment processing scalability
Massive extension plugin available

 

If you've larger stock and looking for free opensource ecommerce software. Magento is the best one !

 

Like I've said in a few other threads; if you plan to take credit cards on your website (which you should) I wouldn't use an open source platform. You're going to be much better off using a hosted solution that's PCI compliant where you don't have to worry about that. Magento can get compliant, but it's far more work than just using something that includes hosting that's already compliant.