Need advice for a e commerce site

HUNTER.P · 5 Mar 2012 at 09:09

Basically my friend and I have taken the plunge to start a small shop online. We both have knowledge of html etc albeit on a basic scale and me more so than him

What i am not clued up on is what's available to us to start a shop online and can accept paypal and card payments.

We need to update the site constantly with new products prices, live stock levels would be nice but not necessarily to advertise how many we have left etc

Where is the best place to start in terms of.buying our domain too?

Djwayne · 5 Mar 2012 at 11:38

Maybe worth having a look as OSCommerce

http://www.oscommerce.com/

its been around a fair while it very easy to setup and install and accepts payaments pretty much out of the box through paypal etc.

As regards domains lots of choice out there I personally use 123reg but I am sure others will give an opinion where is best.

muzzler · 5 Mar 2012 at 11:43

Hi,
A lot on here recommend vidahost and tso host for website hosting, i am also with 123-reg and they seem good for what they offer (i got the webhosting and free domain name offer). Check their domain name checkers to see if your website name is available.
I'm not sure on what sort of ecommerce site you are looking for but Prestashop is free and easy to set up on your hosting package if that is the sort of thing you are looking for?
There are people on here with more experience than me so i'm sure you will get some good advice.

gord · 5 Mar 2012 at 11:55

I think you'd be best off looking at hosted ecommerce solutions that include things like hosting, SSL, transaction processing and PCI DSS.

That lets you focus on your store, selling and marketing your products.

Something like http://www.shopify.com or http://www.bigcommerce.com/

Pho · 5 Mar 2012 at 13:08

I woudln't touch osCommerce nowadays (though to be fair it might have been improved since I last used it). If you want to host it yourself then OpenCart is brilliant.