Building a website advice needed?????

dannyjlloyd

Hiya,

I'm looking for some advice on designing and building a website. I need something that people can purchase items on so need to be able to link it upto my paypal account. What would be the best company to go to for this.

Thanks

beaujolais-nouveau

dannyjlloyd wrote: »

I'm looking for some advice on designing and building a website. I need something that people can purchase items on so need to be able to link it upto my paypal account. What would be the best company to go to for this.

Can you narrow this down a bit? What's your budget? What are you selling? Have you already registered a domain name? Which ISP are you using?

chillipuss

Hi you could look at a thing called Mr Site. its template driven so very simple to use and has the facility to add a shopping basket linked to Paypal. Have a quick google as I think they do a few versions.

Hope that helps.

Regards Chilli.

edgex

er, if your just starting out:

ebay
amazon

RedShark

I've built a fair number of websites and ecommerce sites for various businesses and if your just starting out and if your looking to do it yourself, then the paypal shopping cart and buy it now buttons are the easiest way to add items for online sale. Just login to paypal and go to merchant tools, follow a simple wizard for building the buttons and it produces all the html coding for you. Add that code to your webpages and your done, it's the simplest way. Feel free to pm me if you need talking through to process.

Sweetpea32

I used Mr Site for my website. It was so easy to do and there are loads of features. Great if you are just starting out.

smartguy411

You should look into selling items on ebay if you are just starting out and eventually as your grow, you can just have your own site with your own backend. Ebay gets tons of traffic and you will fine it easier to sell products. Also, ebay accepts paypal, so you can setup a business account with paypal and sell products on ebay.

If you want to have your own website with shopping cart, look into x-cart or interspire shopping cart - http://www.interspire.com/shoppingcart/

Keep in mind if you start your own website, you will need to get SSL certificate, also get a merchant to accept cc unless you want to go with paypal business. Paypal does charge more if you decide to use them to accept cc on your site.

Personally, I think ebay is the best solution if you are starting out. Just sign up, put your products on ebay, sell them, use paypal to accept payment and ship it.

beaujolais-nouveau

smartguy411 wrote: »

You should look into selling items on ebay if you are just starting out ... Personally, I think ebay is the best solution if you are starting out. Just sign up, put your products on ebay, sell them, use paypal to accept payment and ship it.

Forgive me but I think this advice is out of date. I have been selling on eBay since 2003, and it is MUCH less advantageous to do so now because of the listing fees, the commission taken on your sales, the fact that UK listings do not appear on US eBay, the changes to the feedback system, and the recent alterations that make it really easy for a rogue customer to rip off the seller.

I use PayPal but never leave in it more than I can afford to lose. It is very convenient - although much less than it used to be - but the OP should read https://www.paypalsucks.com to make himself aware of the pitfalls.

The OP might like to look at Google Checkout

http://checkout.google.com/sell/?utm_campaign=en-gb&utm_source=en-et-emea-uk-bserv&utm_medium=et&hl=en_gb&promo=uk-et-bserv

beaujolais-nouveau

RedShark wrote: »

I've built a fair number of websites and ecommerce sites for various businesses and if your just starting out and if your looking to do it yourself, then the paypal shopping cart and buy it now buttons are the easiest way to add items for online sale.

I have been a web consultant and web developer since 1996. There are more alternatives to PayPal now. Please read https://www.paypalsucks.com so that you know what can and has gone wrong. Some businesses have lost everything.

If you are using eBay and the Buy It Now (BIN) function, please do the maths on the commission that eBay takes. By all means, PM me if you would like to ask me anything.

Dime_Bar

I have to say that it does not have to be an either / or situation with ebay. Ebay is a good place to build a customer base and then in your follow up materiel you can send them to your site.

beaujolais-nouveau

Dime_Bar wrote: »

I have to say that it does not have to be an either / or situation with ebay. Ebay is a good place to build a customer base and then in your follow up materiel you can send them to your site.

Again, the OP should check if that would be possible for him. Eg does eBay still allow you to put the web address of your own site into your personal page? Also, there are new rules for people using eBay as a business, rather than to sell their clutter.