I'm setting up a smallish ecommerce site for a small crafts type business. It's too big to code every page in html, updates would kill me. It's too small for the big boy ecommerce solutions. I will be linking the products to the clients PayPal accounts.

Anyone have a good freeware solution for this? I found [sapid.sourceforge.net] but choice is good.

I think Agoracart [www.agoracart.com] may have a PayPal payment feature built in.

vikm,
Thanks for the link. I've just downloaded it and plan on trying it tonight.

You're welcome. It's pretty basic but not bad from what I recall. Should have more than enough features for ya to at least get something going. I used it for the origins of a friends site some time ago. Served the purpose. Best of luck!

Neither of those impress me. The samples are fugly.

I've setup WordPress to run WP e-Commerce on a couple sites. It's simple and works well.

Here's some samples of its implementation:
[www.edenripley.co.nz]
[www.ochblog.com]
[www.standardelectronics4life.com]
[wookieweb.com]
[www.lotech.co.nz]

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I've noticed that many of the Agoracart "live sites" aren't updated or even link properly. It's all how involved you want to get I'd guess. I agree that many of them look abandoned or not as good as they could

Don't see much wrong with how this one looks...

[www.creative-cookies.com]

Agreed some look better than others.

What exactly is Word Press?
The Eden Ripley site you linked has rollovers that don't function properly for me. Is that the application or the person that created it? When I rollover "contact us", "more info" shows under the cursor.

I'm always looking for options for ecommerce so would appreciate more info about the whole Word Press thing (edit... did some searching and found the origins. Interesting).

That Crazy Label (wookieweb.com) site says at the bottom that it uses Zen Cart which would be another slightly more involved option for ecommerce stuff.

I set one up using [www.prestostore.com] but i will look at these other options.

[shop-popmart.com]

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I'd like to know more about WordPress too. I've heard of it but I'm not familiar with it other than I know bloggers use it. Their site doesn't give much insite.

To me WordPress looks like they host it. Is that the case or can it be maintained on your own server? I don't want to relie on someone elses server or their pricing poslicies changing on a whim.

OS Commerce is free/open source, and you download/install it on your own server.
[www.oscommerce.com]

Lots of setup, though... and you have to know how to set permissions on the files, etc.

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(vikm)
Don't see much wrong with how this one looks...

[www.creative-cookies.com]

I dislike it, but I'm picky. It's not as bad as the other samples I found.

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What exactly is Word Press?

Not sure if you found this site so I'll quote how they describe it [wordpress.org]
WordPress is a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability.

It's often used for blogging, I use it as a CMS.

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The Eden Ripley site you linked has rollovers that don't function properly for me. Is that the application or the person that created it? When I rollover "contact us", "more info" shows under the cursor.

The design is completely up to the developer. The cart software itself is nearly void of all design. There's a basic grid structure and that's about it.

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That Crazy Label (wookieweb.com) site says at the bottom that it uses Zen Cart which would be another slightly more involved option for ecommerce stuff.

You're right! I just pulled that off of a list of samples and it was a guy from the Crazy Label who said they used WP e-Commerce.

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karsen
I'd like to know more about WordPress too. I've heard of it but I'm not familiar with it other than I know bloggers use it. Their site doesn't give much insite.

To me WordPress looks like they host it. Is that the case or can it be maintained on your own server? I don't want to relie on someone elses server or their pricing poslicies changing on a whim.

Yeah, wordpress.org is what you should look at. It's very well built. You can host it on your own server, no problem. They just bring in some cash by hosting it for you. There's a HUGE community support. Tons of plugins that let you do all sorts of things. I built a site in about 15 hours that would have taken me 200 hours 10 years ago building each piece myself.

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incognegro
OS Commerce is free/open source, and you download/install it on your own server.
[www.oscommerce.com]

Lots of setup, though... and you have to know how to set permissions on the files, etc.

osC is dead. It's barely moving along right now. Most of the people behind it abandoned it a while back and created Zen Cart.

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OSCommerce is the one that I currently use for a site I work on and I didn't suggest it as it seemed a bit involved for what the original poster wanted to do.

Have also tried ZenCart as it is almost the same as OSC but there was a reason or two (which I can't recall right now) that I didn't like it as much as OSC. It was limited by something... and it bothers me that I can't recall what it was.

None of them are really very easy. I've set up 2 Zen Cart sites. There are always hours of customization involved because no 2 clients' needs are identical. The Zen community is pretty large/active. There were a lot of changes when it went to 1.3, many were even good changes The last update included PayPal Express.

I've heard CubeCart is easier but less powerful/flexible.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/2007 08:38PM by Elfboy.

osC boasts almost 12,000 sites.
[shops.oscommerce.com]

i will keep that in mind when i decide to move the online shop to the next iteration.

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