Ecommerce, how, who, what? Pls help a newbie

[Radeon]

OK, Forgive my 'newbie' question :)

I'm in the UK btw,

Could someone plese give me some simple instructions on setting up a basic ecommerce website. I dont need anything fancy, just need to sell a few products, about 12.
I need to know what software, most affordable :)
And Payment handling, how is it done etc?


Thankyou very much to whoever helps me with this, I appreciate it :)

[tonderai76]

for starters you would need tools for developing a website. you can use macromedia dreamweaver mx. their website is www.macromedia.com . or you can go with microsoft's frontpage. this comes standard with the office XP suite or you can buy it from microsofts website as a stand alone application. these tools are classified as html editors.they allow you to drag and drop icons on your web page without having to write HTML code. the Frontpage from microsoft is a lot easier to use compared to dreamweaver. However the costs involved in setting up a website in frontpage are considerably higher than dreamweaver. Just commit a whole weekend to learning dreamweaver, and i assure you you will get comfortable with it.there are other smaller and cheaper, some are even free, HTML editors out there, but wouldnt recomend them for mission critical websites such as ecommerce sites. A lot will also depend on what your site will be used for. whether its for just providing information on what your company offers or people will actually be able to place orders and complete the purchase transaction on your website. if its the latter you would also need an understanding of databases (particularly MySQL). This would be the starting point. dont be scared there are so many sites that offer help on this subject in case you get stuck. you can always post more questions on this forum

[Alex_Yuruts]

Hello!

Look this e-commerce package : E-commerce package (http://www.webspacestation.com/software/e-commerce-development.html?name=f24)
I suppose it`s that`s you need (website + simple ecommerce software).

[Radeon]

Thankyou both very much for replying :)

I'm a little bit clearer about what I need now.

All I need is asimple shopping site, with the ability to add items to a cart, the usual, and instead of a complicated checkout method with merchants and the like, just a simple form for payment a delivery details that will emil me :)

i know there are security issues here, but thats all I want, so if anyone can help?

Thanks again guys ;)

[MstrBob]

(1) Dreamweaver and Frontpage are classified as WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). They are used to dumb down the process, and the HTML they generate is horribly buggy and bloated. Though there are many sites who use it, I would never recommend it. You could just as easily create a website on your own, via HTML and CSS, which would be considerably smaller in size and save your bandwith and space for your server.

(2) Your server, as said, needs to have support for a Server Side Language (Such as PHP, or ASP.net) and a database system (SQL-type servers, Oracle, ect.). You really have two options, one of which is to hire a professional developer to create a secure ecommerce system for you. However, if you wish to save yourself a bit of money, there are many pre-made apps out there. Just be careful and do research on them, as you'll be handling credit information (I assume). As a matter of fact, some hosting companies will provide/sell you a pre-made application for your website. At any rate, these premad apps are your complete system, and are easily modified.

And the complexity depends on the application. But you can generally customize it however you wish. But if you're doing ecommerce, than research your host and check that they have good uptime, that their servers are protected and/or back up your website somewhat regularly. Make sure their very trustable since you'll be handling sensitive customer data.