shopping cart for small site

I have a web site for a very small company with a total of three products.
We now want to sell online. The more I research the subject of shopping
carts, the more confused I become. There is software, e-commerce hosting,
merchant account, gateway, paypal, etc. I am looking for a clean and simple
solution for this very simple web site. Your recommendation is truly
appreciated.

Best Regards,
T.

In article <11ld4s1jtcnql58@corp.supernews.com>, titani@airmail.net cleared
their throat and muttered...
>
> I have a web site for a very small company with a total of three products.
> We now want to sell online. The more I research the subject of shopping
> carts, the more confused I become. There is software, e-commerce hosting,
> merchant account, gateway, paypal, etc. I am looking for a clean and simple
> solution for this very simple web site. Your recommendation is truly
> appreciated.
>
> Best Regards,
> T.
>
>
>
you forgot to mention how much they want to spend...


--
Doobie Doobie Do, da da di da da

Talal Itani wrote:
> I have a web site for a very small company with a total of three products.
> We now want to sell online. The more I research the subject of shopping
> carts, the more confused I become. There is software, e-commerce hosting,
> merchant account, gateway, paypal, etc. I am looking for a clean and simple
> solution for this very simple web site. Your recommendation is truly
> appreciated.
>
> Best Regards,
> T.

How technically inclined are you? What kind of products are you going
to sell? Are you a reseller or a manufacturer? What countries will you
be selling to? Do you already have a website? If you (or your
designers) have never done an Ecommerce site, I would suggest creating
a simple store like Yahoo Store (store.yahoo.com) or the like. I
haven't used any of these type of products before, but setting up an
Ecommerce site on your own is not an easy task. So consider sticking to
a combination of hosting and software provider to make it easy. Will
this sort of thing work?

--
Arccos
http://www.landoflyrics.com

> you forgot to mention how much they want to spend...

I want to develop the site and manage it. As far as hosting, expect to pay
anywhere between $10 to $50 per month.

Thank you for your reply. I am somewhat technical. The company is a
manufacturer. Do not have the web site yet. We will sell to overseas
customers. We have not done Ecommerce before.

Some hosting companies are ecommerce enabled. Some offer OS Commerce, some
offer Agora, others offer Miva. If I go with such a hosting company, what
would I need to do in order to make my web pages E-commerce ready? Do you
think I should take this route?

I found hosting companies that host ecommerce sites for anywhere between $7
to $20 per month. What do I get with store.yahoo.com that I do not get with
these low-cost hosting companies.

A hosting company told me that they have a wizard for Miva. They run Miva
on their system, and they give me a wizard in order to make my site work
with Miva.


>
> How technically inclined are you? What kind of products are you going
> to sell? Are you a reseller or a manufacturer? What countries will you
> be selling to? Do you already have a website? If you (or your
> designers) have never done an Ecommerce site, I would suggest creating
> a simple store like Yahoo Store (store.yahoo.com) or the like. I
> haven't used any of these type of products before, but setting up an
> Ecommerce site on your own is not an easy task. So consider sticking to
> a combination of hosting and software provider to make it easy. Will
> this sort of thing work?
>
> --
> Arccos
> http://www.landoflyrics.com
>




>> T.
>
> How technically inclined are you? What kind of products are you going
> to sell? Are you a reseller or a manufacturer? What countries will you
> be selling to? Do you already have a website? If you (or your
> designers) have never done an Ecommerce site, I would suggest creating
> a simple store like Yahoo Store (store.yahoo.com) or the like. I
> haven't used any of these type of products before, but setting up an
> Ecommerce site on your own is not an easy task. So consider sticking to
> a combination of hosting and software provider to make it easy. Will
> this sort of thing work?
>
> --
> Arccos
> http://www.landoflyrics.com
>

(Moved to bottom post)

Talal Itani wrote:
> >
> > How technically inclined are you? What kind of products are you going
> > to sell? Are you a reseller or a manufacturer? What countries will you
> > be selling to? Do you already have a website? If you (or your
> > designers) have never done an Ecommerce site, I would suggest creating
> > a simple store like Yahoo Store (store.yahoo.com) or the like. I
> > haven't used any of these type of products before, but setting up an
> > Ecommerce site on your own is not an easy task. So consider sticking to
> > a combination of hosting and software provider to make it easy. Will
> > this sort of thing work?
> >
> > --
> > Arccos
> > http://www.landoflyrics.com
> >
>
>
>
>
> Thank you for your reply. I am somewhat technical. The company is a
> manufacturer. Do not have the web site yet. We will sell to overseas
> customers. We have not done Ecommerce before.
>
> Some hosting companies are ecommerce enabled. Some offer OS Commerce, some
> offer Agora, others offer Miva. If I go with such a hosting company, what
> would I need to do in order to make my web pages E-commerce ready? Do you
> think I should take this route?
>
> I found hosting companies that host ecommerce sites for anywhere between $7
> to $20 per month. What do I get with store.yahoo.com that I do not get with
> these low-cost hosting companies.
>
> A hosting company told me that they have a wizard for Miva. They run Miva
> on their system, and they give me a wizard in order to make my site work
> with Miva.
>
>

Basically, from simplest to hardest, there are three ways to set up a
cart...

1. Yahoo-type provider. They set up the site, the payment processor,
and provide the hosting. You do a bit of the layout modifications, and
process the orders. They also provide all the support and documentation
you need to run the site. Not very robust or flexible, but pretty easy.

2. Ecommerce-installed hosting provider. These vary, but they install
the cart for you. They provide the hosting. You are responsible for
changing the layout, getting and setting up the payment processor
(which you may have if you have a retail business), and anything that
goes wrong with the cart. You will sometimes need to provide the SSL
certificate. The support usually comes from whatever documentation the
original designers of the software provided. Don't expect much support
with the layout from discount Ecommerce providers. Most do not even
have someone on staff to be considered an "expert" in the software. The
quality of the software varies, as does the available options. I've
heard good things about Miva, but never used it. OSCommerce is what I
use, but don't expect to modify it much without knowing PHP. The manual
can get a bit technical, too. Agora I haven't had any experience with.

3. Ecommerce-available hosting provider. All they provide is the
hosting. You find and install the software, buy the SSL cert, set up
the payment processor, and fix anything that goes wrong. No support at
all, since they will be unfamilar with the software. You have to go
through the software provider for support.

It looks like you're considering #2. It can work well, if you're sure
you like the ecommerce software, and you're willing to do the work to
set it up properly. Step #1 is to find out which software you want to
use as your cart, and THEN find the hosting that goes with it. You'll
be dealing with your software more than your hosting company. Make sure
you're comfortable with the documentation, and it makes sense.

Hope that helps, but I'm not sure. I'm usually too long-winded, and
most people glaze over. :-)

--
Arccos

www.ashopcommerce.com

pretty good system so far iworth having a look at it.


"Talal Itani" <titani@airmail.net> wrote in message
news:11ldej64j8j7k00@corp.supernews.com...
>
>> you forgot to mention how much they want to spend...
>
> I want to develop the site and manage it. As far as hosting, expect to
> pay anywhere between $10 to $50 per month.
>