building a retail website

[MattUK]

Could someone please point me in the right direction for resources where i can learn how to build a secure website for when customers make transactions using credit card?

I have little web design knowledge but am keen to start up a retail website.

[Steve MacLellan]

You might try 1shoppingcart.com

Regards,
Steve MacLellan

[Caveman Joe]

Run a Google search on Zen Cart and osCommerce. Zen Cart is my favourite.
(also, if you're in need of a designer, technical advice or installation help, contact me for a quote)

[MattUK]

Originally Posted by Caveman Joe

Run a Google search on Zen Cart and osCommerce. Zen Cart is my favourite.
(also, if you're in need of a designer, technical advice or installation help, contact me for a quote)

Will do man, what do you make of this?

BT.COM | Help & Support

[MattUK]

also, i was wondering...

when you have an online store... can you get the/a warehouse to ship the goods for you or would it first need to be delivered to my address?

[MattUK]

Originally Posted by Steve MacLellan

You might try 1shoppingcart.com

Regards,
Steve MacLellan

i like this one because it has an affiliate program

[Caveman Joe]

Ugh. Both of those cost money, neither look as good as Zen Cart, and it looks like you have to set them both up yourself.

A good rule of thumb for the Internet - whenever you're tempted to spend money on something, check first and see if there's something free and open-source out there that'll do the same job, but better.

Getting a warehouse to ship products directly to your customers for you is known as Drop Shipping. On the one hand, you eliminate a lot of hassles that come from keeping stock in your garage or spare room - and on the other, you do end up paying a little more for your stock, and returns can get complicated. I've got a couple of mates who've tried it and done fairly well, but I haven't tried it myself so I couldn't say one way or the other.

[Dani]

If you use joomla there are also several shopping cart programs available.

You can use Paypal to accept credit cards relatively cheaply. Otherwise you need to get a special account from a bank or credit card portal.

I forget the exact details because it was too expensive and troublesome for me to bother remembering or doing when Paypal is safe secure and convenient.

[dor]

Originally Posted by Caveman Joe

Run a Google search on Zen Cart and osCommerce. Zen Cart is my favourite.
(also, if you're in need of a designer, technical advice or installation help, contact me for a quote)

zen is based on os commerce, I actually like os commerce better because you could strip it down and make it look more custom - and there were more modules for people for customization. and most importantly a large 'community' of support..but zen seems to be updated more and catching up.

but i think these days, using joomla and a shopping cart plug in is better unless you want an amazon like store and have a huge inventory and product range.

[Dani]

Especially since you need to build a site to go around the shopping cart.

Joomla will do that nicely. If you have little or no experience with programming you can have the best products and the best cart, but a trashy website. So no one is going to trust you enough to buy.

[MattUK]

I'll give joomla a try, i'm downloading it right and and its taking a very long time to upload through FTP

Does joomla come with website templates?

[Dani]

Your webhost should have a once click install of Joomla. Almost every host I know of does... Much easier than installing it manually, because you need a MYSQL database as well.

Look if your website control panel has an option called 'fantastica' or 'one click installs' or 'extras' it should be under one of those.

You can get LOTS of templates for Joomla.

Paid and free.

The best idea though is to join a template 'club'. You pay a fee for a certain period of time, and then you get access to all the template maker's templates for x-months. They should also add one or two new ones a month.

You can usually only have a certain number of actual live sites using the templates, but you can change which template you are using during that time period. This allows you to try out many different templates on your site while only paying for one.

Honestly I don't recommend free templates, especially for a commercial site, it's fine for your vanity site or moms webpage though. Because by and large they are terrible and flakey. Often they only work in one browser, or you cant put flash in them, you get no support when you have issues etc. etc. The clubs offer you great support both from the designers and from the community as well. I get most of my questions answered within a day on the forums.

I went out and took 'developer' memberships at several template clubs for my business so I have unlimited access to their templates and can use an unlimited amount on my sites.

Worth every penny.

Depending on how IT literate you are, Joomla might take a while to get started with. But once you get going you can throw a decent site up in a few days and a good one up in a week or two.

Check out my new design site in my sig. It was built in joomla and has links to a few Joomla sites I and my partners built so you can see what is possible.

It also has links to some good Joomla template sites, and will very soon have some free video training on administering, building and using Joomla sites. The first couple should go up this weekend.

I was going to restrict the videos to just customers but decided to share the wealth. You are more than welcome to help yourself to them to get you started.

[MattUK]

thanks a lot for your help Dani, i keep deleting and re-installing joomla, because the username and password doesnt seem to be going through.

I'll look for that one click install thing you mentioned though.

I also looked at your website and it looks very smart... which site in particular did you get the template from? or is that a joomla one?

Thanks

[Dani]

The template is a fairly modified one from Rocket Theme, which is probably the best Joomla template site out there hands down.

I get most of my templates from there.

If your host is the one you link to in your signature you have a one click Joomla install. I checked out the site and they said it was one of the features of every account.

So you are in luck.

PM me if you want some more help.