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Hi, I have been going nuts trying to decide where to start. My plan is to learn what I can and start a site and then hire someone when I get over my head. At that point I will hopefully know enough to be able to do some updates. From my research (alot from this site) I think I'm going with Lunarpages for a host, CubeCart for shopping cart, either NVU or CoffeeCup for the site and probably PayPal to start with for Merchant Account. After looking at CubeCart and all the Mods, skins and support I'm thinking maybe I should just start with the Cart and have someone make it look good. Bottom line is I would like to give retail store info, newsletter, collect e-mail addresses and sell a few products. Can that be accomplished with a skin and cart? Any ideas would be great.
The first impression your customer has when he enters your online shop is very important. Surveys show, that the decision to stay or to leave is made in the first second. So be sure your shop looks good..! Pay attention to the interface as well as the images of your shirts. Show them on the first page so that it is clear what you sell. Don't let the customer searh for your products.
Make the images of the shirts on the fitrst page a link to the page where they can order the shirt, the size and the quantity.
Then it should be possible that he goes back to the shop or to the checkout.
Bottom line is I would like to give retail store info, newsletter, collect e-mail addresses and sell a few products. Can that be accomplished with a skin and cart?
Yes, that can be accomplished with a shopping cart (you don't even need a custom skin...but it could help set your site apart).
Yes, that can be accomplished with a shopping cart (you don't even need a custom skin...but it could help set your site apart).
I have been looking into cubecart skins and all the mods you can add. I really like what can be done with this program. I think I can find a skin that will work for what I want to do. As far as a custom skin to set my site apart from the rest, it seems like something I would need to hire someone to do. (I have no problem with that) I did find a program (Soholaunch) that seems like a shopping cart and site builder all in one that looks like something I could change the look of myself. I just don't know if the shopping cart is as good as cubecart? Has anyone used or looked into that program? The only info I seem to find is from the company or from a host that offers it.
I did find a program (Soholaunch) that seems like a shopping cart and site builder all in one that looks like something I could change the look of myself.
What exactly made soholaunch seem like something you could change the look of yourself?
What exactly made soholaunch seem like something you could change the look of yourself?
Rodney,
One of the sites I was looking at for a host (I think it was bluehost or votahost) had some tutorials that looked like something I could handle. It's a drag and drop type site builder that also has a built in shopping cart. Some host offer the basic version for free and you have to pay for the pro edition. I'm not sold on it by any means. I was just looking for someone that might have used it and see if it was anything like cube, zen, or os. Thanks for your replies!
CubeCart for shopping cart, either NVU or CoffeeCup for the site and probably PayPal to start with for Merchant Account
I would recommend that you consider a better system for doing all that unless your confident that you can integrate all the parts properly. "patching" together a series of code frameworks for newbie developers can be a major headache and in the end if you do get a developer to fix it all up it can end up costing you more as most developers like me will almost certainly ask you to ditch the code base like coffecup for a real, and more robust framework.
I would suggest as most do going with a site like OS_commerce or one it's offshoots like Zen-Cart. Or my personal favorite Joomla and then use VirtueMart as your cart. The Joomla system uses an automatic installer script so adding code to your site is a click..literally. The VirtuMart cart comes with PayPal built in so you wont have to do anything but enable it and add your account number. There are also many other built in payment gates and it also has a credit card capture system if you just want to manually process the card.
In the time it will take you to learn coffecup, you could have a Joomla site done and running. Besides that, systems like those mentioned will have lots of free add ons that can extend the functionality of your site. Unless you want to pay a developer to add them a coffeecup site, or those drag and drop builder system will not make it easy to add them, if its even possible.
My sites use this system and there are well over 1500 free templates for Joomla, and hundreds of low cost templates that are very nice. Rocket Themes is the better of them and I resell the templates for my customers for only $25 which is allot cheaper than the OS_commerce templates which usually go for about $125 or so from the sites that offer them.
You will also benefit from using a database driven system for your site vs the html only coffeecup site as database driven sites can offer much more powerful options like customer price categories and SEO (search engine optimized) options that are much harder to do with html only code.
Starting Point-Cart? 
