Can anyone tell me how to develop an eCommerce website?

[roburtardis]

Hello,
I want to start my own online business for buying and selling products through internet so first requirement is website .
Can anyone tell me how to develop eCommerce website?

 

[mantra]

It all depends on the route you want to take.

You can use a hosted service like Wix.com, Shopify.com, Weebly.com, BigCommerce.com. Volusion.com, and many more. You pay them a monthly fee and they will give you a template based store, where you can add products, descriptions, and all the stuff required. You link your payment gateway with them and you're ready to go. It's quite easy. Some of these will charge you a monthly fee + transaction costs, others will only be monthly fee. They range from $10 and up for ecommerce stores.

If you have your own hosting, you can choose to host your own ecommerce store using a number of different software like Magento, WooCommerce, OSCommerce, OpenCart, Prestashop, and many more. Most of these are open source and free. They usually require a bit of work to get it to look exactly like you want, but they may save you money in the long run and be more customizable.

You have a number of choices and it's easier than ever to get an online store ready to go in just minutes nowadays. As long as you have your payment solution ready, you can pick from a number of different options for your ecommerce website.

good luck!

 

[Rob Whisonant]

Give us more detail on what you want to do. What will you be selling? Roughly how many products? The more detail you can give the better we can point you in the right direction.

 

[EpicGlobalWeb]

Great question. Why do you want to do this if I may ask? Do you want to just make money or do you want to sell something you're really passionate about? Do you want to sell the whole site when you build it up profitably?

This makes a difference. In my opinion, whenever you answer "yes" to any of those questions you are going to want a personalized, custom solution that you really like. This is not just about design but back-end functionality such as adding new products and writing blog posts.

Also, an e-commerce store is a regular store without shelving, doors and windows. People shop online to save money or find something unique that the Almighty Walmart doesn't have. So decide there - are you unique or a money saver?

 

[FreebieBoy34]

Developing an eCommerce site is not that hard. You simply have to know which kinds of products are you planning to sell first. I created an eCommerce site once and I made it using WordPress because it's much simpler to do it there. Then, I think of which producs to sell after creating the site and I used the WooCommerce plugin to generate all the products to be sold in my eCommerce site...

 

[Salmonjames]

I have same question with slight variation. Actually, I am looking for something that is entirely free. So is there any way I can start my own e-commerce website for free?

 

[TheHost]

Shopify for the hassle free setup. You don't need to know anything before you start, and it has a trial version. If you manage to get some profit while in the trial version you can use that to pay the subscription.

wooCommerce if you want something more custom, but a bit harder to learn that Shopify.

Nothing is completely free, you need a domain.

 

[Salmonjames]

Salmonjames

say I don't want my own domain, I just want to give myself free try with their subdomain. What do I do then? And I know shopify is here and they offer me to try it free either for 14 days or for 60 days. What if I don't make any sale within first 3 months then why should I pay to them and should I pay from my own pocket?

 

[smsmbooster]

I have experienced in magento and found that it's the best.

Magento is focus on big ecommerce site. So if your business will grow fast, you should choose magento. Magento has a good server log that will help you a lot when something up compare to the other open source e-commerce platform.

If security is very very important, you can hire or outsource your website.
Develop eCommerce site is easy, but to develop an ecommerce site that has rich features is hard and may take years

 

[FoxMetrics]

learn wordpress. buy a domain and watch some youtube videos about how to build a simple site in wordpress. You will start to see how things fit together and how pages are formed and what plugins do. With a basis understanding you can start using the plugins mentioned like woocommerce which allows you to accept money.

If you have something to sell or a service to offer, dont forget about paypal too. With paypal you can send an invoice or people can send you money to an email address. Essentially you dont even need a site to accept money for something you just need a promise of something that someone is willing to send you money for it and a way to communicate what you are offering

 

[Salmonjames]

Thanks fox but I need to know if there's anything I can start free. I have heard and even tried to practice that amalgamation of WordPress and Woo Commerce but to me, these things are almost new. This is because I want something that is just drag and drop. Secondly, to buy hosting, I need to invest money. So initially, I don't want to.

 

[Rob Whisonant]

Rob Whisonant

You are not going to find what you want. It just does not exist. Maybe you should start a free service and let everyone use it while you pay all the bills. You game?

 

[Elisabeth Kuhn]

Elisabeth Kuhn

Salmonjames, do you realize that hosting can be had for a PENNY for the first month (from Hostgator, if you find their coupon) and after that for $12/month for the Baby plan (with room for dozens of domains and blogs)? Their Hatchling plan costs even less (I'm not sure that the Hatchling plan can handle a full ecommerce site, but I never checked).

Hosting is definitely not a major "investment." And, well, a domain name doesn't cost more than a few bucks either (per YEAR), especially if you find a good coupon (Godaddy). You should also invest in an autoresponder, but well, there IS a free option too.

If that's too much of an investment, I would definitely second Rob's suggestion!

 

[Salmonjames]

Thanks Elisabeth

I admit that there are things like coupons. However, if this is onetime fee then I wouldn't mind it all but did you ever imagine that 12$/month accumulates and that becomes 144 a year or many be more than that. Secondly, I don't mind getting sub domain on their server until it's free. As I am just experimenting things and new to all this so I don't plan to have my own custom domain initially. I will think this thing on a later stage.

You are not going to find what you want. It just does not exist. Maybe you should start a free service and let everyone use it while you pay all the bills. You game?

Thanks for your prompt and kind suggestion. At the moment I have an options like Woo Commerce that I already mentioned, then I have Magento, but that is also limited. Thirdly I have an option that is offering me things for free even hosting and a mobile application too. I just want to know if any one of you used it? Should I give it a try?

 

[Rob Whisonant]

Rob Whisonant

Why don't you just give them all a try and come back and report how well you are doing in a year. You can talk forever and never get anywhere. The person that takes action is the one who makes money.

 

[Salmonjames]

Salmonjames

Sure and I am glad for your kind and honest suggestion. I have set up my store and doing some changes and adding products. And tell you seriously that it's amazing and things seem a nightmare but actually are awesome. If you wish then I can even mention the link of my store as well.

 

[energizedit]

Another option to look into is called bigcommerce.com you build your store right through their site.

 

[Steve32]

Hello,
I want to start my own online business for buying and selling products through internet so first requirement is website .
Can anyone tell me how to develop eCommerce website?

If you are using Wordpress, it is more easier and you can start immediately an ecommerce website with Wordpress and Woocommerce plugin. It allows you create product categories, design product page and custom many things on your shop..etc.

If you don't want to use Wordpress, you can use top cms platforms for ecommerce as:

Magento
PrestaShop
OpenCart
Zen Cart

Hope that helps!

 

[Hazel Styles]

I wouldn't ask you if you are passionate about what business you want to have, what you want to sell and if it is about making money or so and so.. The question has a simple answer;
First you have to make a plan instead of going right away with developing website. Off course for having an online business you must need a website but even before this you need to make a prototype of your business. Physically attempt it to make sure if what you are selling has a value in market and which market segment you want to peruse for pitching your strategy.
Then comes the feedback, which will assure you for selecting the theme of your website according to the demand and need of people, what attracts them as well as what your vision about business is.
Then you have to go for an eCommerce platform which suits you the best, according to your budget and needs. Shopify, bigcommerce, magento and wix are few names that can help you create your website with good packages offered to satisfy your needs.