E-Commerce: Advertising vs. Direct Sales - where to go from here?

[dauthi]

I'm really relatively new to e-commerce and have designed the commercial site for my company.&nbsp;&nbsp;It is still very much a work in progress.&nbsp;&nbsp;The site is currently more information and advertising than sales, as I am not sure just how to proceed with a storefront.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br><br>The website was designed using hard-coding HTML and some frontpage.&nbsp;&nbsp;Our inventory is on an Access database, which I am not yet familiar with.&nbsp;&nbsp;It seems to me, the easiest thing would be to use Access as the searchable database for our catalog and then incorporate a cart program with secure credit card service and forms submission.&nbsp;&nbsp;My desire is a minimum maintenance storefront with just about everything automated.<br><br>My problem, as I said, is where do I go from here?&nbsp;&nbsp;I am just learning website development.&nbsp;&nbsp;Am I on the right track here?&nbsp;&nbsp;Does anyone have any software suggestions that will automate a good majority of the website functions?

 

[mxs]

Check out net.db from Centura Software.<br><br>Works with any SQL back-end including Access, Informix, SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase and Centura SQLBase.<br><br>Great demo here.&nbsp;&nbsp;Haven't used it myself, however I will be taking a close look.&nbsp;&nbsp;Although the distributor is in England, Centura is headquartered in Redwood Shores, California.<br><br>Great demo and free 45 day download.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br><br><A HREF="

http://www.redsite.net/"

TARGET="_new">

http://www.redsite.net/</A>

 

[1manedp]

Don't forget security.&nbsp;&nbsp;You don't want people from the web to be able to get directly at your database.&nbsp;&nbsp;A piece of middleware that has only the specific priveleges you give it to your database might be one response. Another might be parallel databases. <br>I know that there are a number of tools out there at the moment that can provide shopping cart-type services basically out of the box (although I don't know the names).&nbsp;&nbsp;There are even some 'online malls' that will do that part for you (for a fee I'm sure).&nbsp;&nbsp;A well thought-out web search might turn something up.&nbsp;&nbsp;I would also check the sites of some of the major site building tools for leads (or bundled toolsets):&nbsp;&nbsp;IBM (websphere), Adobe, Cold Fusion, etc.<br><br>Good Luck.<br><br>