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I feel like that guy in the office that got a job because his father knows the owner, who doesn't know anything and keeps bugging people to help him with stuff he should have learned by the 9th time you showed it to him.

So, I am looking to put up an online store with all the expected trimmings. I downloaded Artisteer (demo) just to have a look, but I don't think it would be able to serve my purposes. I downloaded a Wordpress plugin for e-commerce, but am not sure if it would give me a professional enough looking product.

I'd like to make it clear that I have NO idea what I am doing. Would it be too difficult to do it myself without any HTML or any other programming experience? Obviously I want as many paying options for my customers as possible, they should be able to view a picture and product summary onsite, basically everything one would expect from a quality online PC store. I don't want to skimp on anything.

I was looking at osCommerce as an open source option, but with some way for me to do it myself with minimal training. Otherwise I'd just have to pay a professional to do it.


Secondly, do any of you guys have any idea what kind of webspace I would need and what traffic I could expect? Cybersmart has very cheap local hosting options (R69 pm for 1Gig webspace and 5Gig traffic). I would guess that emails would count towards this webspace limit (guess I could do periodic backups).

Thanks in advance.

You're really going to have to use one of the available shopping systems out there. Something like osCommerce or ZenCart. Or even building a site with Joomla and then using one of the Joomla-related cart plugins.

If I may suggest it, drop Thinice a PM. He started DSAO by himself, did the entire setup and everything alone AFAIK. Sounds like you're in very much the same boat he was in a couple of years back. He may have some on hands advice for you.

Having had the fortune of setting up 3 online stores in the past, I can honestly say its not that easy.

If you do the research and testing you will be fine.

Look at Magento

Thanks for the advice guys! Looks like before I start, I'll have to get a domain name and a host. Do you maybe know what typical webspace and traffic statistics might be, as in, will the Cybersmart R69 package suffice? I see non-Cybersmart customers only get 500mb webspace and 3gb traffic. Would that be enough?

Thinice is hosted with Afrihost if I look at his server config - I am using Serv.co.za 39/pm option 12.5Gb traffic per month.. just cant recall the amount of store allowed now.. and the site is blocked from work..
I am looking into setting up a similar online shopping experience, and a delivery company

Lloyd was very specific about what he wanted from his server. He switched to Afrihost only after the traffic to his site really started picking up.

If I were you, KALSTER, I'd look initially at a cheap Serv.co.za or Elitehost.co.za option. You can always change servers to meet specific needs later if necessary.

A store with fairly high amounts of sales will rack up about 6 to 12gig of monthly traffic.

This includes backups, indexing etc etc etc.

The R39 per month option on Serv is perfect for that and they support OSCommerce. Just a little bit of a mission to get Magento setup.

maxxis, A BIT (SLIGHTLY OT) I want to buy a .co.za domain - the whois states it has not been paid since Nov last year.. what happens to such a domain ? I see the following message on it:

Domain has been suspended - will be deleted as per the accounts schedule -
Max Statement count is 5

Camp it

Wait for the domain to be deleted and jump on it. You should be able to get it if you are quick.

maxxis wrote: The R39 per month option on Serv is perfect for that and they support OSCommerce. Just a little bit of a mission to get Magento setup.

Aw, c'mon. We all know how much you like Mweb hosting.

Wow, serv.co.za has a great product. I will definitely use them for hosting and for domain registration. I have been playing around with Artisteer and have produced a rough Joomla template. I will look at plugins for that.

The biggest pain will be when I eventually have to do the data entering and linking for the entire store on my own.

KALSTER wrote:The biggest pain will be when I eventually have to do the data entering and linking for the entire store on my own.

You should NEVER take anything on that you are not able to finish because of creative constraints, or for that matter monetary gain to make up for the amount of work put in..

Anthro wrote:

KALSTER wrote:The biggest pain will be when I eventually have to do the data entering and linking for the entire store on my own.

You should NEVER take anything on that you are not able to finish because of creative constraints, or for that matter monetary gain to make up for the amount of work put in..

I am not sure what you are saying. In any case, I will not skimp on this. If I fail to do a good enough job on my own, I will definitely seek professional help (for the site,not for my mind). I am not interested in running a sub-par setup.

#1 Don't try something and get a bad name because you did not research it first, then when you are eventually able to do it - no one wants to use your services (I have experienced this before)
#2. Make sure the money matches the effort even if I had to do twice the work I am doing now - would still love it, because I get paid VERY well.

Oh cool, good advice then. Effort is free though and I need money. I will make sure I have everything in place, looking professional and working smoothly before I unleash it to final scrutiny. I am tired of scraping through life. Time to do something about it!

KALSTER wrote:I am tired of scraping through life. Time to do something about it!

Hence me saying in this thread, we all need to consider more than one income stream !

I think I have settled on Zen Cart. It looks pretty well featured, user friendly, good support base, loads of add-ons available and its free. I'll have to spend a while customizing the look of it (well, first learn how to), but I think the end product could look quite good. I was initially worried about it not having the ability to use spreadsheets to Easy Populate, but it looks like there is a way to do it. Comments?

Easy Populate - Stay away, far away!!!

Thinice wrote:Easy Populate - Stay away, far away!!!

Alternatives?

Anyway, I am looking to have the site designed for me, just to make sure it is professional enough. Still waiting for a quotation though. Does anyone have any webdesign companies to recommend?

OK, the quotation I was waiting for turned into a delayed rain check.

I would appreciate any recommendations.

Ok, I have a short list of possible developers I am considering.

eStart offers quite a good package at a reasonable price, but the only thing is that they don't seem to offer local hosting. I want customers to be able to view and order from the site with local bandwidth.

DiaMatrix seems to offer quite a comprehensive range of services with local hosting.

LitCreations has very customizable option available.

ZAWebs also seem to offer fairly no nonsense, cost effective options.

TLS IT Services seems to offer the complete package for a good price. Hurray for SETCOM!

Any reviews, recommendations and advice would be appreciated!

Right, so finally I have a site up and know what I need to know to keep it going. I went for Joomla in the end.

The next problem I have is with uploading products. I have the categories set up on the site, so I simply need to fill in the CSV file and import it.

The problem I have is that have 27 + supplier pricelists, selling some of the same products, but mostly different ones. To be able to deliver an up to date service, I need to be able to efficiently compare the pricelists with the csv file to check for price and product updates. So, I am looking for a way to do the following:

Consolidate the pricelists into a single file (preferably CSV or XLS) into custom fields according to a map so it knows where to look for each product.
While it consolidates it, it should be able to compare prices and either choose the cheapest option or let me choose the supplier, while also creating new products and deleting old ones. It should then be able to report what it has done.

It should be able to be readable by a module like Redmystic to keep the website prices as current as possible. Perhaps I'll need to import new products into a temporary area on the site, from where I can work with it further.


Basically, I want to be able to update my products with as little hassle as possible. Does anyone have any advice they would be willing to part with freely?

Thanks very much in advance!

You can do all that in Excel with Consolidate, Compare/Merge and Lookup functions. Would take a little while but should be relatively simple.

For what it's worth, the oversized text on the email addresses is a little disconcerting to me.

Oh, you've taken a look? (damn, should hide it better ) I agree actually, it was just a first draft to see if it will work. Tribble, I'll give you a PM if you don't mind?

While doing it trough Excel will apparently work, I am still looking for a better way. There HAS to be one!





Edit: There, offline (I am an idiot).