Power Sellers Unite

markw10 · Joined: 19 Aug 2006 Posts: 13

I have sold on ebay for around 2 years and started as a hobby. Now I'm planning to grow my business in the new few months a lot and have formed a LLC, am getting hooked up with distributors, may look into drop shippers, etc. but with the way EBay is I've decided it's better to go elsewhere. I may look into other auction sites with times but overall I have decided it's best to go it my own and cut out the middle man in a sense and not have to pay all those seller's fees.
I am starting a e-commerce business that will be selling a wide variety of products such as audio/video accessories along with other unrelated items such as books. I plan to keep all these items in separate categories but the important thing is I plan to set up my web site as follows:
50% store, 50% content. The store part will be as above, simply a online store. I want options such as user reviews of products, pictures, sale items, feature items, etc.
The content part I want to be able to write my own reviews of products, articles on the industry, do it yourself guides, etc. With time I may offer some blogging activity as well as forums and possibly advertising.
I currently have a web hosting account with westhost and bought Macromedia Studio 8 and planned to use dreamweaver and possibly Flash to design my web site. It is not but so important to have it but so customizable. The important thing is that it's easy to set up and easy to maintain (such as add products, reviews, etc).
My main question is can I get one all around solution or an individual solution for each? I have looked at both miva and oscommerce for shopping cart since Westhost offers that. Can I use other solutions as well or not since they aren't listed as being offered by Westhost. I guess my question, can I buy another and then upload it to westhost to use? If I ever have forums I like vbulletin a lot but can I create a web site in Dreamweaver that would work with both vbulletin and miva? I guess what I'm saying is I see myself having modules for content/blogging, a shopping cart, forum program, etc. but can I simply tie this all together in dreamweaver and can you use this programs with just about any host? I have also looked at storefront.net as a possible solution for shopping cart. I have seen wordpress listed as a good content provider. I want more than basic blogging activity but a way that I can easily on a daily basis post reviews, articles, etc. Overall this is very overwhelming for me and I'd rather spend time running my business but will be doing all work/development on my own so want something that is easy. I am open to any suggestions. Thanks.

psunite · Joined: 27 Jan 2005 Posts: 6213 Location: Columbus OH

It looks like you have spent a lot of time on this. So you are looking for a good shopping cart software and good content software. Packages like oscommerce and zencart are good for shopping carts but bad for content management. Have you looked at Joomla? It is an excellent content software and you can add virtuemart to it which is the shopping cart software. You can install both of these on your current host.

You can also take a look at the PSU Stores that this site offers http://www.powersellersunite.com/psustore_about.php. It is built using the Joomla and Virtuemart software and comes with hosting. You do not have to worry about install or updating the software and it is modified to provide extra features for ecommerce.

markw10 · Joined: 19 Aug 2006 Posts: 13

Thanks for the response and ithelps a lot. If I can get a all in one that does content management and shopping cart that would be great but I will look at the combo. you mentioned as well as what psu offers.

2BOYSandTOYS · Joined: 14 Mar 2005 Posts: 10095 Location: Kansas

Welcome to PSU - glad you're here and you're in good hands if PSUAdmin offered you advice!!!

Glad you're here and best of sales no matter where ya list!!!

angelsolutions

Quote: › docWrite("quote")If I can get a all in one that does content management and shopping cart that would be great but I will look at the combo.

You can do exactly what you're looking for with PSU stores. Joomla is a content management system. Virtuemart is a shopping cart that operates under/inside Joomla in the PSU store model.

Lots of variations out there; you can do it yourself...or you can get great service with PSU Stores. Best wishes to you. Content management systems are fun.

For a forum, I'd recommend phpbb as it is the easiest one to manage that I found. And I looked at alot of them. LOL

Good luck to ya and welcome to Powersellers Unite!

sylvia

markw10 · Joined: 19 Aug 2006 Posts: 13

It is great to be here. EBay has really upset me these last few months. I can't wait to be on my own. I wish I had come here earlier before I signed up with Westhost. Seems PSU offers me what I need. I just happened to come across this in a post on another web site a couple days ago.
I will look into phpbb. Seems great and I've used a few boards that have it. It's nice that so many products like this are free and open source.

markw10 · Joined: 19 Aug 2006 Posts: 13

I realized I left out something important . I will be writing ebooks soon and selling these online. They will be in .pdf format and what I need is a store where someone can purchase these ebooks just like any type of item but then be presented with the file to download. Is this something that this could handle or do most shopping carts handle this?

angelsolutions

Yes, you can sell downloadable products with the PSU Stores. Here's a link to the feature list:

http://www.powersellersunite.com/psustore_features.php

You can find more info about them at the yellow box marked Ecommerce Hosting on the left side of the boards.

Best Wishes.

sylvia

markw10 · Joined: 19 Aug 2006 Posts: 13

I am looking heavily at VirtueMart and CubeCommerce but would consider others as well. It is important that products listed in my store be searchable and show up on search pages such as froogle, etc. Do these do that?

angelsolutions

Quote: › docWrite("quote")It is important that products listed in my store be searchable and show up on search pages such as froogle, etc. Do these do that?

To clarify for you....

1st Part of your answer...Nearly all shopping cart programs come with a searchable database, meaning that potential customers can search your products while at your store.

2nd part of your answer....As the webmaster, you would have control of how search engine friendly your shop is---such as, whether you allow bots and spiders to crawl your site, how well you put up content that attracts them, etc.

3rd part of your answer...As the webmaster and shop owner, you must perform the task of submitting your products from your store to Froogle.

That said, I know that PSU Stores can export a file in froogle format for you and you must then CONVERT it to the new google base format. Many shopping carts have not yet converted their export format to the new google base format yet.

I am not familiar with CubeCommerce, so I cannot speak to that. If it is a "child" of osCommerce, then it is the same, you would export a froogle feed, convert it to google base format and submit to google base. I haven't kept up at the osCommerce boards to see if they've converted their export files yet. Sorry.

Hope this helps,
sylvia