E-commerce help

[kyraneth]

I have come to the point where i want to sell online and offer paying services. I have experience with using cms, i have hosting, but i don't know how to write a single line of web code. I have no idea where to go from here, i seek some words of wisdom and guidance from our veteran users

Maybe guide me to some easy to use shopping carts, some e-commerce portals/services, your experience on the matter etc... Any help is very appreciated.

[Torniquet]

http://www.oscommerce.com/
http://www.zen-cart.com/
http://www.pinnaclecart.com/


theres a couple for u to look at. never used shopping cart progs... wouldnt know where to start coding one. so tis all the help i can offer you :p

[Noctrine]

most ecommerce store solutions are horribly irritating to implement in any kind of useful manner. And extend far beyond the scope of what you want to accomplish. I recommend getting a nice paypal/amazonfps/googlecheckout button, its not the fanciest implementation but it will suit you well.

[Last Known Hero]

I've looked into the Paypal shopping cart button. It seems like the basic account for paypal will only allow you to have a few transactions sent to you, its a VERY low limit and the only way around it is to upgrade your account, forget what they want for it but I think they want a royalty pay or something like that.

[Noctrine]

All ecommerce anything requires some sort of financial something. Those ecommerce solutions all will also require you input the details of an account at some merchant transaction thing (paypal whatever) anyway. The business account should allow more, and thats transactions with your bank account.

No bank allows you to move around money at your leisure, even business accounts limit the amount of transactions you can do. And an actual merchant account (through a bank instead of one of those e-dudes) will cost you far more.

[kyraneth]

Thank you for all your replies, i will look into it further.

Noc do you happen to know some "merchant transaction things" other than paypal? my country is not supported by it and this is very frustrating

[Jackolantern]

I highly suggest going through Paypal. If not, you will have to set up your own e-commerce solution, get an account with a credit card authenticator/biller (there is another name for them, but I can't think of it as I just got back from the dentist). I disagree with companies now offering roll-out, push-button e-commerce solutions. If the person using them does not have a very solid foundation in e-commerce security, you could be opening yourself up to lots of problems. The worst case scenario is a cracker getting all your credit card transaction data, and leaving you to clean up the mess. It is an ugly situation that can cause you grief for years.

[Noctrine]

Google Checkout, Amazon FPS

[kyraneth]

Thank you for your suggestions, will look further into it

[Noctrine]

I strongly recommend checking out Amazon FPS, they have a 100k competition for people who can use their service well. Suffice it to say, my next project revolves heavily around it :p