Free and easy shopping cart

andrwleong · Mar 12th, 2008, 09:07

I would like to put a shopping cart on my website. The website is only a project and will not be going live. However, I would like it to be real as possible.

Any recommendations on a shopping cart. I do not know much about it, but I would like a shopping cart that works when the website is demonstrated.

from what i have read i have two options: make my one or buy one? Or could I use paypal?

Am not sure how I go about this.

The project is for my dissertation.

welshstew · Mar 12th, 2008, 09:20

yep you can use paypal

or you can use any number of open source shopping carts - one of the best is oscommerce, which can then be integrated into paypal for your payment gateway.

unitedcraig · Mar 12th, 2008, 09:23

http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...-intro-outside

Paypal has a free shopping cart, this is a good excuse to get a paypal account as well

sekuchi · Mar 12th, 2008, 14:06

Prestashop.com is another good e-commerce site.

andrwleong · Mar 13th, 2008, 15:03

hey guys

thanks for the replies

I love this site.

I was wondering do the sites need to actually be online to work?

andrwleong · Mar 13th, 2008, 15:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by unitedcraig

http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...-intro-outside

Paypal has a free shopping cart, this is a good excuse to get a paypal account as well

Ohhh I like this link, it has just made me very happy

just a query, does this mean i would have to follow thier design or could i put that shoping cart on my website that I am creating

andrwleong · Mar 13th, 2008, 15:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by sekuchi

Prestashop.com is another good e-commerce site.

waaa this looks amazing, I love you for this hahaha

andrwleong · Mar 13th, 2008, 16:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by welshstew

yep you can use paypal

or you can use any number of open source shopping carts - one of the best is oscommerce, which can then be integrated into paypal for your payment gateway.

I like this design very much, thank you for the link.

Does the oscommerce shopping cart involve me following their desing or does it allow me to install on my website?

welshstew · Mar 13th, 2008, 18:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrwleong

I like this design very much, thank you for the link.

Does the oscommerce shopping cart involve me following their desing or does it allow me to install on my website?

no you install oscommerce first then customise the look and feel to how you want it to be.

it's not just a shopping cart but an entire ecommerce mangement solution, so if you are starting off small it may be overkill.

andrwleong · Mar 14th, 2008, 08:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by welshstew

no you install oscommerce first then customise the look and feel to how you want it to be.

it's not just a shopping cart but an entire ecommerce mangement solution, so if you are starting off small it may be overkill.

yes so Ive noticed

I need to speak with my tutor as am not sure if this would be allowed for my dissertation.

What would you guys say? does it still take skill to create a Usable website usuing these tools? (I have no programming skills)

welshstew · Mar 14th, 2008, 08:46

since this isn't going live and is for your dissertation I would integrate it with paypal shopping cart.

it's the easiest option,and requires no programming skills.

andrwleong · Mar 14th, 2008, 08:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by welshstew

since this isn't going live and is for your dissertation I would integrate it with paypal shopping cart.

it's the easiest option,and requires no programming skills.

Hey Welshstew, thanks for your time and effort for this.

So you recommend paypal usuing this link http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...-intro-outside

Usuing Paypal, does that mean the business wouldnt store any details of it customers? Therefore the only table in my database will be a products table? or is there a way I can record what customers by through paypal

welshstew · Mar 14th, 2008, 09:39

should be, all other data would be held by paypal and sent to you once an order is received.

you can of course logon to paypal and retrieve this data any time you want.

depending on how many products you have will depend on whether you require a database backend.

for instance, if you only sell one type of product, then there is no need for a database as it is easier and less intensive to just add basic paypal buy now buttons, which then link through to paypal shopping cart. this is also useful if your products don't change i.e do not have options such as size colour etc. for instance, my friend has a website that has over 5000 products. however as each product has no options, he doesn't need a database, he just adds new products and paypal button as they become available (he sells collectable spoons). he uses the same technique for his sunglasses business.

on the other hand if you are selling somthing like t-shirts, then you need to take into consideration things like size / colour / type / gender etc. as such a database backend would be most useful.

mybmodel · Mar 14th, 2008, 09:43

See opensolution's shopping cart script too, It is easy, simple and nice!

andrwleong · Mar 14th, 2008, 09:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by mybmodel

See opensolution's shopping cart script too, It is easy, simple and nice!

hey thanks mate, I will give this a read now

mybmodel · Mar 14th, 2008, 10:32

you are welcome

andrwleong · Mar 14th, 2008, 14:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by welshstew

should be, all other data would be held by paypal and sent to you once an order is received.

you can of course logon to paypal and retrieve this data any time you want.

depending on how many products you have will depend on whether you require a database backend.

for instance, if you only sell one type of product, then there is no need for a database as it is easier and less intensive to just add basic paypal buy now buttons, which then link through to paypal shopping cart. this is also useful if your products don't change i.e do not have options such as size colour etc. for instance, my friend has a website that has over 5000 products. however as each product has no options, he doesn't need a database, he just adds new products and paypal button as they become available (he sells collectable spoons). he uses the same technique for his sunglasses business.

on the other hand if you are selling somthing like t-shirts, then you need to take into consideration things like size / colour / type / gender etc. as such a database backend would be most useful.

cheers that helped loads.

samducker · Mar 16th, 2008, 18:09

zencart is an alternative to oscommerence