Which eCommerce software and hosting?

I basically have a package which allows me to resell - but rather than settle on something that you don't need yet you can have an account and give things a try.

I used to have 10/20/30 but now have an unlimited setup so i can have as many accounts as i need.

Most clients use a fraction of what they need so i have no risk of running out of space or bandwdith anytime soon.

I normally charge £30 a year for the hosting but you're welcome to use it as long as you like while you get things setup.

Soudns like a great big bag of WIN mate, thanks!

I need to put some things down on paper, and register at Companies House and things, I'll be in touch over the weekend though!

OTTO


interspire, never looked back.. but then again never tried anything else :) but im sure barnsey will back me up

Yep, ISC is very good IMO, very user friendly. If you're aiming quite small as it sounds, try BigCommerce - their hosted plan - http://www.interspire.c...gcart/compare-hosted.php - $25/m should cover your needs. Payment gateways are well supported, template modification is easy, etc.

I tried Magento once, went fricking insane trying to work out how to do a product import. Took me about 4hrs to work out how to do it, and for it not to work properly. Same job on ISC took about 5 minutes...

With regards to you not wanting paypal, you will be charged a monthly fee by most (all??) gateways, so be sure to factor that. Again Interspire have just started their own gateway, which is pretty competitive - http://www.interspire.c...rt/merchant-accounts.php

Chris, how do you find OS Commerce, I've heard a real mixed bag of reports...?!

1ManRiot


Soudns like a great big bag of WIN mate, thanks!

I need to put some things down on paper, and register at Companies House and things, I'll be in touch over the weekend though!

Go for it mate 

Blue_Lagoon3000

1ManRiot

Soudns like a great big bag of WIN mate, thanks!

I need to put some things down on paper, and register at Companies House and things, I'll be in touch over the weekend though!

Go for it mate 

For once in my life I'm going to go through with one of my ideas!  Risk vs. reward is actually not too bad.

I have enough contacts/links to get me going nicely.

If it falls on its arse, at least I'll have tried it.

1MR your taking the step that 99% never got the balls to do, thats one of the biggest steps. Whatever you do just give your best.

We talk to MD's all day every day as thats who we target and my god some of them are fcuking dumb asses and if they have become successful then anyone can.

1ManRiot

Tony Barnes


lol!

How cheap? How many products do you have? How much bandwidth are you looking at? How many monthly sales are you expecting? What payment gateway are you planning to use? Do you want a full cart or a bolt on to a design?

etc!

£200 setup & ~£50pcm running costs.

Bandwidth not too important to begin with.

Monthly sales = ~20-40 in 6-12 months time.

Not decided yet, ideally a proper bank one though, rather than PayPal crap.

Full cart I think, but it needs to feel quite "British", so no use of the word "cart" haha.

You want shopping trolley instead ? haha Hope all goes well mate

Tony et. al.,

Is it worth/necessary registering as a Limited Company for an online shop?  Or is acting like a sole trader enough?

I'll look into the payment gateway thing, and look at some of the bank CNP processing systems too.

Also Tony, do the payment gateway options here:
http://www.interspire.com/shoppingcart/payment-gateways.php

mean you (as a potential customer) will need to be signed up to the scheme to use it, or can they simply insert their card details?

Being a sole trader is enough. You can always 'upgrade' yourself and the business to a limited company at a later date.

If you are planning relativelyt small turnover and testing the waters a bit i'd opt for the sole trader option. It's the simplest - but it does mean a transition later. But it's no big deal really and there is no reason it should affect the look of the site or the workings.

Personally i'd cover the change in a news update on the site. I like seeing a site grow and do well and would like to think other people do too. It's reassuring to buy from somewhere on the up.

essex_chris


Being a sole trader is enough. You can always 'upgrade' yourself and the business to a limited company at a later date.

If you are planning relativelyt small turnover and testing the waters a bit i'd opt for the sole trader option. It's the simplest - but it does mean a transition later. But it's no big deal really and there is no reason it should affect the look of the site or the workings.

Personally i'd cover the change in a news update on the site. I like seeing a site grow and do well and would like to think other people do too. It's reassuring to buy from somewhere on the up.

Sounds good- setting up a LTD company looks easy enough and gives it a "professional" edge, but bit wary of what I'd use as a registered office.

The gateways are just that - gateways for you to pipe card details through. So no, people just use their card, provided it is supported by the gateway, lol!

Most gateways require a merchant bank account, however you can actually use Paypal as a credit/debit card processor too without having one, one of the options when setting up. I did this on a car stereo site I did, worked fine. I'm not sure if the ISC gateway requires a merchant account or not - I'd of thought not as they're targeting small business.

From a company point of view you likely need to register the company with companies house, and sort out tax issues. For a "foot in the water" I wouldn't bother - I was going to do this with media players from China, but then exchange rate died...

the ISC gateway as far as I am aware (I enquired about 6 months ago) was only available in the US

You would probably be best testing the water with google checkout / paypal for free - and then if you start getting some orders get a worldpay or sagepay account

Just registered for a 15-day free trial of BigCommerce to see how it feels.

get to grips with the features, and choose an appropriate template, its really good, it does have its bad points but I have 4 stores all running the cart and it works smooth

Ive just asked a guy and he said Nochex is good, you download a software and then pay £50 to get a log in etc.

http://www.nochex.com/

Good luck with Big C - as per otto, make the most of the trial, and do all testing you need to make sure it suits

Seems ok thus far, but it does a little bit too much for you which I'm not too keen on!

Really can't decide which eCommerce software to use!  Currently getting to grips with OSCommerce, mainly because its free, but I'm told it is a bit sh't!

BigCommerce looks pretty good mate - what don't you like about it?

I would offer some help, but I don't know much about off the shelf solutions - we make bespoke shops for our clients. I would go with something simple to begin with and keep sunk costs down - you can always improve as the sales grow?