Some recommendations for a small Ecommerce site

seancss · 12-05-2011, 03:25 PM

Hi firstly im new to this forum and can see myself spending alot of time here in the future, i'm relatively new to web design but have a college degree in computer programming,

Im looking to build myself a small online Shop, i've constructed one before using Joomla and virtuemart but I would think building one from scratch would suit this light weight site, ill have a main frontpage which links to a shop page that sells around four different items my question is can I just build the site in CSS and Html then after it is near completion add in the shopping cart or would it be advisable to integrate it as I go?, ill have two pages of different goods and upon selection of whichever item the shopping cart would keep track until they hit the checkout.

From reading this forum I see Oscommerce is a free shopping cart and people suggested using it,

Any idea's / advice would be good so I can divise a plan of action before I start.

MarkR · 12-05-2011, 04:16 PM

I would never discourage anyone from making something from scratch, especially since I do it all the time. But what I would say is have a look at what is available first, there is a lot to think about when creating bespoke e-commerce site. You have to be very sure it's secure, especially since you deal with money!

Anyway take a look at:

Prestashop
Opencart
Magento
zencart

OSCommerce is pretty old now and the community is dying a little bit. Most eshops you see being hacked these days are OSCommerce.

seancss · 12-05-2011, 05:29 PM

Great thanks Mark for prompt reply, the advice about Ocommerce is now taken aboard,

Regarding security is this allot to do with the integration process as myself as a noob can see it as copying already written modules for one of your mentioned carts or am I wrong in thinking this, my php is poor at best,

I've set up my Mac running Apache server, php myql etc so I can build it before buying SSL hosting.

What I'm having an issue with is the difficulty integrating the shopping card and now that you mention it the security, am i in over my head as I would love to design this site from scratch as I only have every built from a template, I have completely edited templates before but the shopping cart was always a plugin I installed.

Thanks.

12-05-2011, 03:25 PM	#1
seancss New Member Join Date: Dec 2011 Posts: 2	Some recommendations for a small Ecommerce site Hi firstly im new to this forum and can see myself spending alot of time here in the future, i'm relatively new to web design but have a college degree in computer programming, Im looking to build myself a small online Shop, i've constructed one before using Joomla and virtuemart but I would think building one from scratch would suit this light weight site, ill have a main frontpage which links to a shop page that sells around four different items my question is can I just build the site in CSS and Html then after it is near completion add in the shopping cart or would it be advisable to integrate it as I go?, ill have two pages of different goods and upon selection of whichever item the shopping cart would keep track until they hit the checkout. From reading this forum I see Oscommerce is a free shopping cart and people suggested using it, Any idea's / advice would be good so I can divise a plan of action before I start.

12-05-2011, 04:16 PM	#2
MarkR Silver Member Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 100	I would never discourage anyone from making something from scratch, especially since I do it all the time. But what I would say is have a look at what is available first, there is a lot to think about when creating bespoke e-commerce site. You have to be very sure it's secure, especially since you deal with money! Anyway take a look at: Prestashop Opencart Magento zencart OSCommerce is pretty old now and the community is dying a little bit. Most eshops you see being hacked these days are OSCommerce. __________________ Mark R Wubbleyou - Web Design Newcastle A professional web design agency based in Newcastle upon Tyne servicing clients based throughout the U.K. Home spray tan machine - Landlord Reviews

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12-05-2011, 05:29 PM	#3
seancss New Member Join Date: Dec 2011 Posts: 2	Great thanks Mark for prompt reply, the advice about Ocommerce is now taken aboard, Regarding security is this allot to do with the integration process as myself as a noob can see it as copying already written modules for one of your mentioned carts or am I wrong in thinking this, my php is poor at best, I've set up my Mac running Apache server, php myql etc so I can build it before buying SSL hosting. What I'm having an issue with is the difficulty integrating the shopping card and now that you mention it the security, am i in over my head as I would love to design this site from scratch as I only have every built from a template, I have completely edited templates before but the shopping cart was always a plugin I installed. Thanks.