e-commerce solution for WordPress site?

[EdwardMartinIII]

I'm setting up a site that's based on WordPress. As part of the site, I'd like to set up a "shop" page where people can go and, well, buy products.

At first, there's about half a dozen products, but we intend to grow that over the next year to a hundred or more, so it needs to be something that the inventory can be modified regularly.

I've been reading reviews of various e-commerce solutions, and haven't run across a clear winner.

I should state that I'm pretty much a newbie to e-commerce stuff. My only experience with such things has been selling products via Amazon.com (by clicking the "sell yours here" link), and setting up (a couple years back) a VERY rudimentary shopping system that used Paypal's heinous shopping cart.

I'm hosted on Dreamhost, in case that helps.

Advice is sorely welcome, links, encouragement, etc. 8)

Thanks!


Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

By the way, it can be something in a subdirectory that's a completely different app -- it doesn't HAVE to be WordPress. I could probably tie the "shop" link on the WP site to, say,

http://www.shop.MyDomain.com/

...I think.


Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door

 

[ChrisHirst]

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-e-commerce/

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

Yeah, looks like a mixed bag of responses on this.

One of my buddies says that there's really no e-commerce solution that integrates WELL with WordPress, but that it's more a matter of picking which chunk of pointy wickedness you're willing to put up with.


Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door

 

[audiopro]

I am told that Wordpress is a good tool but having never used it I cannot offer a valid opinion. The main problem with CMS is that it needs to cater for so many options and possibilities.

There are a few options:-
You could learn how to do it yourself using proper tools.
You could hire someone local to build it properly for you, then you wouldn't have to settle for second best.
or you could settle for a cheap and chunky solution out of a box and hope it does the trick.


Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

I would be more likely to hire someone to set it up for me. One of my buddies tells me that ZenCart is a bitch to set up, but otherwise works great. I may hire him to set it up and train me in maintenance.

I guess my next step is contacting my bank for information, and hooking up with their preferred gateway...


Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door

 

[audiopro]

I have no experience of Zencart either, preferring to build the solutions from the ground up. It works out a bit more expensive but clients get what they need rather than what they can get to work and help is only a phone call away.
For payments, my personal choice would be Paypal which has come a long way since the early days. Setting it up appears to be quite complicated but I have found that once I had shut myself in a dark room and bothered to read the instructions - it was quite easy.
Banks in the UK charge a monthly fee whereas Paypal charge per transaction - many people like that, especially if they sell low volumes.



Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

I had to stop considering Paypal (or at least their shopping cart) a viable option. There wasn't enough control and intelligence behind it (based on what I could read in the dox).

I was selling objects and needed to also charge shipping, based on where I was shipping it (basically, foreign or domestic). Paypal's shopping cart wouldn't force people to pay for shipping, and wouldn't charge them appropriately based on their location.

What happened was that a lot of people simply ignored the shipping tick and tried to order, and then I would write to them and said they had to add shipping charges, too, and they would bitch about having to fiddle with this twice.

My makeshift solution was to up the price of everything and just say it "included shipping."

I certainly don't mind using Paypal for this, but I need to have that functionality -- I can't be screwing around with every person who orders stuff.

Another thing I tried briefly was a little JS on the site that would do the calculations and add shipping and basically compose the whole order before they banged it off to Paypal. But (shrug) that was pretty dodgy, plus the first time someone tried to use the "I'm a JavaScript coder" discount, I pulled the plug on THAT adventure.


Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door

 

[audiopro]

I think you have misunderstood my use of Paypal - I use it for taking payments only. Once my shopping cart has concluded it's work, only then is the transaction sent to Paypal for processing.

You don't say where you are and where you are shipping to. I am UK based and have a list of counties in a database with appropriate shipping charges for each county (it is a bit more complicated as we also take weight into consideration). The same could be done for US states if that is your location.

The user selects there own County / State when they fill in the delivery address details.

Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

I'm in the US.

Yeah, if I had some server-side tool that collected all their data, worked out their postage costs, and THEN submitted it to Paypal, that would have been a lot better.


Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door

 

[kjv1611]

In case you end up considering Drupal over Wordpress, since you've posted a question about Drupal otherwise - maybe it's not related..

Anyway, if you want to go that route, here's a very popular one for Drupal:

http://www.ubercart.org/

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

Yeah, I switched over to Drupal for the site.

My current tool I'm experimenting with is Zen Cart.

Much to learn, much to learn...


Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door

 

[kjv1611]

Oh yeah, I guess it would've helped to look at the thread post date.

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

Heh -- it's okay -- I browse around at times looking to help answer things, too. Once, I answered a question that was, like, four years old. The guy who wrote back was nice about it, though.

Near as I can tell, Zen Cart would work for Wordpress, too -- I would just install the Zen Cart in a subdirectory of the Wordpress site, and then manually connect the "Shop" buttons to the subdirectory.


Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door