SB - Shopping cart which intergrates with iweb page

heatherbelle_3

I currently have my main business (children's parties) running on an iweb made website - it looks fab and gets lots of compliments and I am VERY happy with it.
I am looking to expand a little and have a side project in Party Bags and Decor. I already source a lot for my own use and would like to offer these further afield to bump my income up a bit!
I want a shopping cart (free if poss as I want to experiment with this cheaply in case it doesnt take off!) that I can put into my iweb website and I am having difficulty finding one that is compatible (and also ideally with Google Checkout)
It needs to be able to list upto 50 items and I would like to have an inventory so that people can't buy more than what I have in stock!

Can anyone recommend anything?

It may not even have to go into iweb if I can host it on my domain name without it?

vangirl_2

Hi, I use www.oscommerce.com, its free and compatible with google checkout. They have quite a good forum to help you but its a bit tricky trying to navigate through it.

heatherbelle_3

thanks vangirl - i'm looking at it at the moment. Does it allow you to put an inventory in on the admin side - so if I have only 10 girly party bags in stock then someone cant choose to have 11?

I'm guessing I can use my hosting and email addresses as is at the moment and maybe buy a new domain name (linked in brand and also between websites) and then not have to worry about iweb. These shopping carts do the whole layout for you so you don't have to design it right?

dacouch

I sell online shops for a living, if you do need to buy a seperate domain you can always have a button on your first website saying something like "Click Here To Shop" this could then link to yournew shop website.

If you want some advice on things you can do to get your website higher on google and therefore more visits from potential customers have a look at my post for some ideas that are mostly free. You could also put a post on the Techie Forum for advice as the guys and girls in there are good on IT and Websites

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1487945

vangirl_2

heatherbelle, Yes it has full stock control. Your host needs to support php and mysql to use it.

heatherbelle_3

alas it seems 123-reg which hosts my current sit does not support mysql

What is my next port of call? Get a host especially for this site? (and new domain name)

vangirl_2

Yes, you can always put a link on your website to your store.

heatherbelle_3

can anyone recommend a good host that will host oscommerce?

dacouch

Don't know post a question on the techies forum, they will know

vangirl_2

try swdshosting.com cheap and have offers on at mo.

save-a-lot

I use https://www.fuzioned.com - it used to be called machosting (based in Scotland) and was recommended on MSE a few years ago. I am so impressed that I have moved all my sites to them. £30 / year for hosting, inc PHP and MySQL databases. Also, has fantastico on there for installing scripts automatically. In my cPanel I have fantastico and there are

CubeCart
OS commerse
Zen Cart

the wizard in Fantastico allows you to configure the basic settings and install very easily.