Can anyone here design a budget e-commerce site?!

SuperMum2008

I am looking for someone to build me a basic ecommerce site with a restricted budget! I have a pretty clear idea of the style I would like but wondered how much it might cost me to steer clear of the template style sites that I could do myself - I just want something a little bit more funky and different than the templates are offering! Any advice or shoves in the right direction would be much appreciated!

fuzzball172

I use zen cart to create websites for my clients. With a little work it can be made to jump through all sorts of hoops. But to make it look individual it will take a bit of hard work. (Thats why they pay me I suppose). The customisation can be achieved by using add ons that are freely available.
As to helping, When you get started I'll quite happily drop by your store and offer constructive critisim but I'm sorry but as computers and web sites are my main source of income I can't be doing freebies and I think your term 'restricted budget' means my prices are probably a bit on the steep side.
Have a look at the zen cart site and see what can be achieved, for a free product it is very good.

Good luck and keep us all posted with a link to your shop

Lee

schneckster

I'd have suggested osCommerce (again, free download) for the same reasons. Again, it can be made to jump through hoops and the way you can style it is almost limitless. But like Zen cart, it does take time and effort.

However, if you can come up with how you want it to look, then an add-on to osCommerce called STS means you can use a single html page to style most of the site, with further html pages styling the rest. That add on is, I believe, the most popular for osCommerce as more people know html than those who are capable enough with PHP to hack the core code and STS makes it very easy to play with the style and positioning of site elements.

I don't know Zen, but I do know osCommerce. I also know that both carts mentioned on a single forum thread will usually lead to a "which is better" argument... so I'm going to say now, that I don't know which is!! :rotfl:

Schneckster

wilkies0106aw

If you're looking for somebody to design it for you and not just offer software post a request on elance. Search google for it.

Why not contact your local college? Many run web design courses. The students there have to complete 'real world' projects. They will do it for free, normally. You'll get free advertising too. Why not contact your local paper, get them involved.

W

ukbill69

right im sure there is loads of people that would design to your likling and install https://www.prestashop.com, add your post to the forum and someone will do a great job of this great shopping cart.

JazzySheep

It is much easier to change how Zen Cart looks than OsCommerce.You don't need the STS add on, the template structure is very easy to change on simple things with Zen Cart. It does require a bit of patience though! There are some cheap templates available, some even under a tenner but if you want something whizzy, it will cost.

Prestashop is quite good and the basic skin is nice enough to just add your own logos. Not as functional as Zen Cart but it depends on what you want it to do.

Gavf123

zen cart is nice and easy to use.

If it comes down to price mr site is good, it is mostly based on templates though unless you use a different editor, you can save money on mr site by visiting zazzygifts and theres a link to discount the packages.

SuperMum2008

Thanks everyone for your fantastic suggestions. I looked at zencart and couldnt get any further than what I thought was downloading it to my laptop, but then couldnt see what to do next, so that definitely doesnt bode well for my ability to design a site does it?!!! I will look at Mr site via zazzygifts - thanks for this pointer too!

SuperMum2008

Ok, have looked at Mr Site and am impressed with it in terms of simplicity and the sites others have created (including one which as it happens I have bought from before, without knowing it was a Mr Site site!). Next questions is - should I go for the pro package - do I really need all those search optimisers? my gut feeling is yes, get the best I can afford, but would appreciate any other input!

fuzzball172

A well optimised site will perform well in the search engines. That means people can find you and thats half the problem. To optimse a site you basically need good contnent that google search bots can read. I don't know what MrSite offers in the way of optimisation but with a little research and work, you should be able to optimise it yourself if you need to save money. But be warned SEO is not easy and its hard to garuantee results and it can take several weeks for the results to show

Lee

jamesb1239

Hi SuperMum2008, Nobody has really asked what exactly YOU want from a site, you say that you want it to be different and not an off the shelf template but that isnt a lot to go on.

It's best to plan what you need ie. Do you want a main page with info about your business and then a link to your shop, or would you like to go straight into the shop.

Are you going to have many products? Do you want the facility to be able to use gift vouchers/discount coupons? Do you want to pay a premium per month for the shop service or do you want your own shop hosted where you choose?

I am not familiar with MrSite, but from a quick look on the website they dont seem to be very accomodating. With a good busy site you will tear through that 2gb bandwidth (i dont actually know if thats a monthly or yearly allowance), you also need to consider future growth and how easy it is to upgrade from one package to the next.

Do you have any experience in web design? or at least an idea of what you want your shop to look like?

If you do decide to go down the DIY route then I "MAY" be able to assist you but my knowledge of ecommerce is limited, but i have done it before