I want to start an ecommerce site, but HOW?

[glenntamis]

I want to start an ecommerce site, but don't know where to start. I will be starting a photo website pretty soon, but I am looking to also sell cameras and other photo related items.

[onlinebizwiz325]

are you looking to dropship or are you going to store the cameras somewhere?

[Ankur Bolia]

Through E-Commerce, First thing is you will make yourself available on Internet. Apart from that, you can:

1) Manage your own Inventory
2) Manage your own Catalogue
3) Order Management,Discount, Pricing & Shipping cost management.

Result= More Client + More Leads + More Business

= PROFIT

We are E-commerce solution provider.

[mackone]

There are many e-commerce packages out there. Alot of them are free and some cost a substanial amount of money. Google it and you would find them.

[anditucker]

As a web developer i can suggest that first you have to collect information about your products and then make a plan for your e-commerce web site like how your look of your e-commerce web site, what kind of payment gateway suitable for you e-commerce websites there are many CMS available in market specially for design ecommerce website like joomal,magento,oscommerce but magento is very popular to develop ecommerce website because of it admin penal.

[AirForceOne]

Collecting product images to be used on your e-commerce sites firstly.
Targeting right money keywords for your niche and setting up your e-commerce sites using open source projects like zen-cart would be OK. :)

Have a nice day,

[ibizara]

I want to start an ecommerce site, but don't know where to start. I will be starting a photo website pretty soon, but I am looking to also sell cameras and other photo related items.

If you have some knowledge of websites and how to set them up then you could try Total Shop UK eCommerce. It can be freely downloaded from SourceForge - sourceforge.net/projects/totalshopuk/files/

Live demo - totalshopuk.com

If you need some help on setting up the website / hosting then it may be worth getting in contact with some web developers in your area.

Regards,
ibizara

[charlis]

If you have some knowledge of websites and how to set them up then you could try Total Shop UK eCommerce. It can be freely downloaded from SourceForge - sourceforge.net/projects/totalshopuk/files/

Live demo - totalshopuk.com

If you need some help on setting up the website / hosting then it may be worth getting in contact with some web developers in your area.

Regards,
ibizara

I would like to suggest before starting your site, first of all make plane that how you can advertise your products best, after that purchase domain name and then start your ecommerce business.

[salman80]

Well, being keen in starting a new e-commerce (ecom) web site is a good step, though not enough! Make a simple web surfing throughout the internet, maybe a much more precise one, a local search around your living zone, you can find plenty of UNSUCCESSFUL newly popped-up ecome websites! So what would be the solution?

My recommendations(what comes from my experience):

Generally talking: "mimic the steps that a real shop wants to start-up!"

what does that suppose to mean?

1- What's your idea of starting a new ecom website? Just to sell anything?!
To be ahead of others, think innovative and competitive , that would lead you to a unique idea(your zone's habits in shopping, etc) or at least creates competitive market(such as an special offer) to attract shoppers!

2- Same as a real store, find the right place to express yourself, that is, your interesting domain name! and later on would be SEO(search engine optimization)

3- A real store needs a plan! a structural plan which an architect will be implementing it! this is, the way you want to shape your ecom website. How do clients are supposed to get through your ecom website? how they interact with your website? the design of your shopping cart, payment methods, shipment, generally featured simple options to highlight your website for customer, ease of use and convenience. Not loaded with bunch of unsorted items plus an old style layout design.

note: there are hundreds of books at book stores regarding user experience, what I describe here is just a glimpse of what are essentials.

4- Now construct the store's structure and outlook, in IT world means, design and develop.

The crustal question(!) can you proceed from step 3 or maybe 2 onwards? Do have the technical knowledge in doing so?

You got different paths to follow:

- you're a computer gig and perhaps you know PHP or .NET or JSP and start developing a platform for your new idea(if so, you'll never be around here in first step! ;) ) It take a few months depending on your skill to lunch your nice and neat project.

- you don't know anything and depending on your budget, you order for an ecom website, to any IT company out there. Check their profile and get a picture of their proficiency. Careful on wasting your money, invest properly.

- but a common trend these days are the open-source, ready to use platforms. They've done most of the job you require (step 3 and 4), you need a little tickle to the platform, customizing it for yourself.
the well-known platforms:
- I recommend, Magento :cool: for those interested people in learning a bit of html/css/php. Magento is a bit difficult to learn and getting to start it, but up until now I found it as the most perfect ecom open-source solution;
- OScommerece is simple and less modification is required but anyways needs to be customized to your desired looking ecom website;
- and PrestaShop is my favorite :* because of two reasons, it's fast and compact! Got a lot lees to offer than Magneto but it's faster and lighter. Indeed same as all the other platforms, if you want a unique looking ecom website, you had to be familiar with PHP/Css/Html to create your own theme and modules with Prestashop.

There are a lot more steps to be taken, follow the concept of a real store and add a little of IT taste to it then see what will come to you next; later you'll have marketing issues, inventory and a lot more.

Hope this gives you some idea how to start...

Cheers! :)

[JamesHarran]

First of all you need a product then hosting service and finally you need a website.

[RobertGrabe]

First of all you have to develop a online website on which the customers can take a view about your product and purchase through that website and give payment via Debit/Credit card.By this method you can do e commerce business of your own.

[Traditional]

I want to start an ecommerce site, but don't know where to start. I will be starting a photo website pretty soon, but I am looking to also sell cameras and other photo related items.

First decide on a cart, Zencart, Cre-Loaded, CoffeeCup, OScommerce and whatever your preference. Zencart and OScommerce are free to use being GNU programs.

Now decide if you want to accept creditcards or not. If you do accept creditcards you have two choices. Accept them through Paypal or set you up an SSL (secure socket layer) and certificate so you can accept cards yourself but remember there is new regulations soon to be popping up with the PCI-DSS rules coming into effect.

Most of the carts have templates, set up your "look" and features or get someone to help you with the details. it can be daunting for a noob. I have been setting up ecommerce for many years and will try to make it back to see how you are doing. One word of advice, don't pay a large amount of cash for a decent ecommerce site. They are fairly easy to get going if you have help.

[newviewit.com]

PayPal on a Wordpress blog template is very easy.

Magento is the best overall ecommerce CMS

Joomla with Virtuemart is great if you build a social community site

[BretlenHock]

If you want to do e-commerce business by using your own web site then by promoting your products on internet and by using SEO techniques you can do it easily.

[InsightsDigital]

Also, remember that you do need to recode some script if you do buy or download a free template. I explored some WordPress ecommerce site but it does need some customization.

[mahesh2011]

I recommend you to go for joomla because it is an open source management systems.Where u have a administrator panel u can have a choice dedicated or shared server there ..It as a user menu where the clients can change their content by putting a message into the server .."this site is down because of maintanance" and set a time for maintanance and come with a new look there..we can totally handle the page to ur requirement and interact the clients there..
If u have shared server there u can manage for website promotion with all techniques and tactics of seo..
follow off page optimization for the good promotions of ur sites

[mahesh2011]

follow cms technology for your website...opt for high security >>like papal system,where there is no issue of fraud....joomla also helps in e-commerce and shopping cart....

[mahesh2011]

As a web developer,I recommend you to go for any cms technology with more components and plugins...the only cms i heard from different forums is joomla....it provides the shopping carts and pay pal-system ..(which is highly secured)

[xylonrayenz]

Decide on a web hosting company that combines a website builder with hosting. You have a company that specializes in e-commerce sites and already comes with an integrated and secure shopping cart'd choose.

[ravinblaze]

As a web developer before I can suggest you to gather information about their products and make your own e-commerce web site for a way to plan how your e-commerce web site See our payment gateway appropriate for the way you do e-commerce website design there joomal, magento oscommerce, but magento admin so it kind of punishment because of the ecommerce website development ecommerce website, especially for many popular CMS market Are available.

[simpson123]

Want to build an e commerce site, that's good. But a lot of thing you must have to learn before going to implement your idea. Always note two things into your mind--
1__The e commerce you developed are meet's the user need( self evaluate).
2__ Don't try to send customer to irrelevant link.
That's the basic facts to get a successful e commerce site. There were many open source site available on the net that provide you the free hosting to your e commerce site.
Thanks and regards,
Simpson.

[webdesigns12]

Hello friend i will recommend you, go to joomla extension, download virtuemart component,it's one of the best shopping cart i used till now.if you need any assistance ,i am here for you.

[jaleelblaze]

As a web developer before I can suggest you to gather information about their products and make your own e-commerce web site for a way to plan how your e-commerce web site See our payment gateway appropriate for the way you do e-commerce website design there joomal, magento oscommerce, but magento admin so it kind of punishment because of the ecommerce website development ecommerce website, especially for many popular CMS market are available.

[ecmcircle]

hello dude..
If you want start ecommerce site means..i prefer you magento..here its features.

Marketing Promotions and Tools
Search Engine Optimisation
Analytics and Reporting
Mobile Commerce
International Support
Checkout
Shipping & Payment
Customer Service & Accounts
Order Management

thanks..

[TheCPU]

I'm having also ecommerance project now.
I'm planing to get Magneto Community source code, and modify it to my needs (basiclly write new stuff/scripts that I need)...
I see that Magneto Community is under some OSL 3.0 license, and I don't understand it, so please can someone explain to me what I can do? what i can't?
(I google OSL 3.0 License, but I still don't get it, someone says that i need to give my changes/code in public??? i can't sell it? and so many other questions...)

[saliha]

To create an E commerce website, first you need to select for the hosting company and need to purchase the required domain with them. Once you registered the domain, you can select the website tool and create the website and publish your website to on line. You can search for the hosting company via any search engines.

[LABC]

Well, being keen in starting a new e-commerce (ecom) web site is a good step, though not enough! Make a simple web surfing throughout the internet, maybe a much more precise one, a local search around your living zone, you can find plenty of UNSUCCESSFUL newly popped-up ecome websites! So what would be the solution?

My recommendations(what comes from my experience):

Generally talking: "mimic the steps that a real shop wants to start-up!"

what does that suppose to mean?

1- What's your idea of starting a new ecom website? Just to sell anything?!
To be ahead of others, think innovative and competitive , that would lead you to a unique idea(your zone's habits in shopping, etc) or at least creates competitive market(such as an special offer) to attract shoppers!

2- Same as a real store, find the right place to express yourself, that is, your interesting domain name! and later on would be SEO(search engine optimization)

3- A real store needs a plan! a structural plan which an architect will be implementing it! this is, the way you want to shape your ecom website. How do clients are supposed to get through your ecom website? how they interact with your website? the design of your shopping cart, payment methods, shipment, generally featured simple options to highlight your website for customer, ease of use and convenience. Not loaded with bunch of unsorted items plus an old style layout design.

note: there are hundreds of books at book stores regarding user experience, what I describe here is just a glimpse of what are essentials.

4- Now construct the store's structure and outlook, in IT world means, design and develop.

The crustal question(!) can you proceed from step 3 or maybe 2 onwards? Do have the technical knowledge in doing so?

You got different paths to follow:

- you're a computer gig and perhaps you know PHP or .NET or JSP and start developing a platform for your new idea(if so, you'll never be around here in first step! ;) ) It take a few months depending on your skill to lunch your nice and neat project.

- you don't know anything and depending on your budget, you order for an ecom website, to any IT company out there. Check their profile and get a picture of their proficiency. Careful on wasting your money, invest properly.

- but a common trend these days are the open-source, ready to use platforms. They've done most of the job you require (step 3 and 4), you need a little tickle to the platform, customizing it for yourself.
the well-known platforms:
- I recommend, Magento :cool: for those interested people in learning a bit of html/css/php. Magento is a bit difficult to learn and getting to start it, but up until now I found it as the most perfect ecom open-source solution;
- OScommerece is simple and less modification is required but anyways needs to be customized to your desired looking ecom website;
- and PrestaShop is my favorite :* because of two reasons, it's fast and compact! Got a lot lees to offer than Magneto but it's faster and lighter. Indeed same as all the other platforms, if you want a unique looking ecom website, you had to be familiar with PHP/Css/Html to create your own theme and modules with Prestashop.

There are a lot more steps to be taken, follow the concept of a real store and add a little of IT taste to it then see what will come to you next; later you'll have marketing issues, inventory and a lot more.

Hope this gives you some idea how to start...

Cheers! :)

Just Brilliant. Although I wouldn't use those free solutions. I'd rather use something like Shopify, BigCommerce or Volusion.

[angelinwilliams]

First you need a product or service to sell.After that, you need a place to host your website, called a hosting server.Then you need a website. This can be an existing website to which you can add eCommerce capabilities or you can build the site from scratch.

The shopping cart is one of the most important parts to having a smooth e-commerce transition.Next you need some way of accepting online payments.Then Payment Gateway process(transactions of customer for shopping) happens. Atlast you need to have a strategy for marketing your site and attracting customers.

[akash986]

Product

First of all, you obviously need products or services to sell. This can be hard products (physical) or soft products (downloadable).

Hosting Service

After that, you need a place to host your web page, called a web host hosting server. There are many website hosts you can use, but you need to make sure your purchasing wagon solution application application is suitable with the web host hosting server.

Website

Then you need a web page. This can be an current web page to which you can add eCommerce abilities or you can develop the website from the begining. Some purchasing golf trolleys come with web page magicians that let you make a web page with no code skills. Others offer to develop the website with their design professionals.

Shopping Cart

The purchasing wagon solution application is one of the most important parts to having a sleek e-commerce conversion. Elements that are critical to a purchasing wagon solution application should be, web page magicians, Vendor tools, Shopping features, payment options, shipping and taxation options, research, and security. A truly great purchasing wagon solution application is considered an E-commerce solution.

Credit Card Processing

Next you need some way of recognizing online expenses. This normally means bank cards. There are also other types of expenses that the purchasing wagon solution application should handle, assessments, E-checks, cod, phone purchases and person-to-person.

[aals]

As a developer & as an ecommerce owner i suggest you decide on you product line, core concept of your site, target audience, also the target locations you want to pan out to, immediate features & future expansion planning. In terms of the platform I suggest either prestashop, opencart or magento.
If you need more help PM me I can help you get one in no time.