[WearEco]

Hey Guys,

I am currently starting a clothing line, and I will be creating a website with an online store. I am good at creating websites the only thing is I don't have the first clue when turning my .com into an e-commerce site.

If anyone could possibly give me some ideas of the best kind of software to use or who to go through that would be great. I want to be able to make my already created website into an online store, not use one of these companies templates.

And I am also not looking for the purchaser to have to create a username and password for another site to purchase on mine (amazon, google etc...) If need by im fine with them creating one for my site, but its not necessary.

Anyone with experience in this area would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks allot

-Taylor

[arooga]

It sounds like you should use an open source shopping cart. I usually use Zen Cart (free, open source shopping cart software from Zen Cart) when I make eCommerce stores for myself or my clients. That way the whole transaction is on your site. Your customers can create an account with you instead of one of those providers.

[GuyBBY]

Are you in Boston WearEco?

[jimpossible2k]

Hey WearEco,

I find that PayPal's Express Checkout option is rather simple to implement (although this only allows you to receive PayPal payments). PayPal also has a product called PayPal Website Payments Pro which combines their Express Checkout option with their Direct Payments option (direct payments allows you to accept credit cards directly). Thus, with PayPal's Website Payments Pro you can accept BOTH PayPal and credit card payments. Personally, it took me about 2 weeks to implement the Payments Pro solution, but the time it takes you could be much faster/slower depending on your skill level. One good thing about PayPal is the amount of sample code it supplies, which enables you do to a lot of copy/pasting to get it working for your site.

Also, if you require help setting up the e-commerce aspect of your website, you should definitely check out sites like My Software Project - Home. Such sites allow you to reach out to developers that might be interested in helping with your project (it is also a good way to get cost estimations). If you just need help with the e-commerce aspect of your site then eliciting the help of a professional software developer might be the best way to go, since the costs would only be a fraction of what you'de pay if you wanted an entire website developed.

Hope this information helps!

James