Posted: 6/1/2012 9:18:46 AM EDT
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Be gentle, I'm not a computer guy, so layman's terms please. If I want to build a retail website, on my own, would it be advisable to use a Web Hosting site like Fat Cow or Go Daddy? Or would it be better to build a site using an Ecommerce company like Cubecart or someone else? And can you guys show me examples of a ecommerce site vs a regular web hosting site that has retail? And please give the pros and cons to either. Thanks |
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Here is the question.
Do you want to spend more to have somebody else worry about something or do you want to pay less and worry about if the version of xCart that you have is supported by the new version of PHP that you had to install in order to deal with a zero day vulnerability? |
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I see you are aware of the concerns, however I am obviously choosing to go on my own due to financial reasons. Spending a few hundred rather then a few thousand to launch what I need.
I did request the use of layman terms, which you so eloquently avoided. Can someone actually assist rather then show me my shortcomings? Thanks |
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Quoted:
I see you are aware of the concerns, however I am obviously choosing to go on my own due to financial reasons. Spending a few hundred rather then a few thousand to launch what I need. I did request the use of layman terms, which you so eloquently avoided. Can someone actually assist rather then show me my shortcomings? Thanks His question/response was a good one. And your answer revealed a lot. You are in a bit of a jam... you want to not spend a lot of money, but consider php, vulnerability, xcart, whatever to be beyond layman's terms. You can't realistically skip out on technical skill/expertise when it comes to ecommerce. Leaving people's credit card/personal information, your financial transaction/accounts, etc. open to hacking is not something you want to do. I'm not sure what your specific goal/budget are, so I don't know what to recommend. But I would suggest looking into a turnkey ecommerce setup so that all you have to do is maintain the inventory/descriptions and fulfill orders. It may cost more than a DIY job, but it will cut down your chances for having a huge disaster. Good luck! |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
I see you are aware of the concerns, however I am obviously choosing to go on my own due to financial reasons. Spending a few hundred rather then a few thousand to launch what I need. I did request the use of layman terms, which you so eloquently avoided. Can someone actually assist rather then show me my shortcomings? Thanks His question/response was a good one. And your answer revealed a lot. You are in a bit of a jam... you want to not spend a lot of money, but consider php, vulnerability, xcart, whatever to be beyond layman's terms. You can't realistically skip out on technical skill/expertise when it comes to ecommerce. Leaving people's credit card/personal information, your financial transaction/accounts, etc. open to hacking is not something you want to do. I'm not sure what your specific goal/budget are, so I don't know what to recommend. But I would suggest looking into a turnkey ecommerce setup so that all you have to do is maintain the inventory/descriptions and fulfill orders. It may cost more than a DIY job, but it will cut down your chances for having a huge disaster. Good luck! Do these same concerns arise if the credit card transactions are running through a service such as paypal or google checkout? Using a 'gui' of sorts like cube cart or zen cart? You are probably right that a turnkey will reduce the risk, but I guess Im now curious to know what kind of risk would be involved if a separate service (paypal) handled the transactions. Thanks for the help so far EDIT: Skebe, No I do not have an establish website yet |
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have you considered selling through some of the other established websites to save a few bucks now?
yes you will be charged fees for your sales, but overall it might be cheaper than selling on your own website till you can either aford someone to maintain it, or pay someone as an employee to maintain it. both amazon and ebay allow others to sell through them as retail establishments. Amazon will even store items for you giving you the free shipping from amazon tag everyone looks for. that way your website can be simple and checkout can be through amazon. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
I see you are aware of the concerns, however I am obviously choosing to go on my own due to financial reasons. Spending a few hundred rather then a few thousand to launch what I need. I did request the use of layman terms, which you so eloquently avoided. Can someone actually assist rather then show me my shortcomings? Thanks His question/response was a good one. And your answer revealed a lot. You are in a bit of a jam... you want to not spend a lot of money, but consider php, vulnerability, xcart, whatever to be beyond layman's terms. You can't realistically skip out on technical skill/expertise when it comes to ecommerce. Leaving people's credit card/personal information, your financial transaction/accounts, etc. open to hacking is not something you want to do. I'm not sure what your specific goal/budget are, so I don't know what to recommend. But I would suggest looking into a turnkey ecommerce setup so that all you have to do is maintain the inventory/descriptions and fulfill orders. It may cost more than a DIY job, but it will cut down your chances for having a huge disaster. Good luck! Do these same concerns arise if the credit card transactions are running through a service such as paypal or google checkout? Using a 'gui' of sorts like cube cart or zen cart? You are probably right that a turnkey will reduce the risk, but I guess Im now curious to know what kind of risk would be involved if a separate service (paypal) handled the transactions. Thanks for the help so far EDIT: Skebe, No I do not have an establish website yet Even though you don't seem to like the input of somebody in the business I'll try one last time. If you use a good quality shopping cart system like X-Cart you can integrate it into Google Checkout or Authorize.net so that they will handle the credit card information and therefore you won't have to be PCI-DSS compliant. But you will still have to worry about your site going down at 2am or while you are on vacation. You'll also have to protect your database to some extent because people don't like it when any of their personal information gets out there. |
| Look into an ecommerce provider, I use http://www.bigcommerce.com/plans.php, the plans start at $25 a month. I've been using them for over a year, and it has worked well for me. There are other providers also just google it. |
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If you are just starting out and want a DIY way to get your feet wet with little out of pocket then go to Google and search "open source xhtml templates" you'll find lots of sites with free templates you can adapt and they'll be in XHTML which meanx "eXtensible Hyptertext Markeup Language" which in terms of KISS (keep it simple stupid) is a fancy way of saying it's going to use CSS (cascading style sheets) to control display and layout.
This is stuff you can do on your own with a text editor, but don't use Notepad, search for a open source programming editor, there are several out there; if you are on a Mac download Alpha. Then go to W3C and take some of their online courses in CSS which is simple in concept. You can PM me if you want. |
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Being a new site you're not a good fit for our product, several forum sponsors up in that top banner use our cart/software to sell online, but something hosted that's already PCI "CERTIFIED" would be a start. Not just compliant, everyone claims to be compliant, you want a package that actually goes through a 3rd party certification process and can furnish you with the certification for your payment gateway. You won't have to worry about the geek stuff and you'll most likely end up with a more professional looking cart that is secure. If you have something cheap looking with "Websites ToGo" or something like that at the bottom, no one will buy from you and you won't instill the confidence in today's shopper, they'll look at you like some guy selling out of the back of your Oldsmobile. I'd also recommend a real payment gateway and not rely on Paypal only, maybe offer it as an option for payment, but a real gateway will only cost you $10/mo or less and again, give people an easier payment method and instill confidence in your site and your company.
Unless you're selling something very unique that people can't get elsewhere, they may look at your site for info, but will move on to something perceived as more reliable, secure, etc. Its too easy to do it right and not handicap yourself with a crappy website from the start trying to do it the cheapest way possible. |