Hey everyone,

 

I'm new here so please excuse any 'newbieness' from me.

 

At the moment I am rebranding my business which is called Zasprex. I created it when I was 16 and haven't updated it in over year. Now I am older and more mature, I think its time I offered 'higher-end' services such as e-commerce.

 

However, my problem is with pricing and knowing what resources I need. At the moment, I know I need a coder to code it, as I can do the design, but I don't know where to find one. I'm also unsure what is the price they will charge in general, and what price I should advertise the service, as an estimate.

 

I have never designed for a e-commerce website, but I believe I could design a simple one as I am reasonably good at designing. However, is a coder the only thing I need?

 

Therefore, if anyone can offer me some resources in terms of where I can find some coders who code an e-commerce websites, the different CMS' and types of e-commerce sites and also anything else I may need to know.

 

Kindest Regards

Bjion

Welcome to WDF!

 

As far as pricing goes then ecommerce sites are really no different from any other site, in that you charge appropriately for the job either in hours or a fixed fee - whichever method you want to use. However, the amount of work you may need to do can be more with an ecommerce site because there are extra things to take into account such as setting up payment gateways, supplying/installing SSL certificates when used and so on.

 

For the most part you won't need to get a site custom built unless you are doing something out of the ordinary, there are already over 500 shopping cart systems out there (according to some estimates) that cater for all types of product and budget - http://www.webdesignerforum.co.uk/topic/20654-complete-list-of-shopping-carts/ has a couple of dozen listed. At the end of the day most shopping cart systems are Content Management Systems albeit with a few extra bells and whistles. You'll find that most cart systems have their own templating system, Smarty is quite popular, others have their own system, while others are pure PHP.

 

As far as what cart to use that depends on a few different things:

 

1. Can you client understand how to use it?

2. Will it handle the sort of products that are being sold?

3. Does it support your clients choice of payment gateway(s)?

 

In the ecommerce world it's important to use the right cart for the job, you'll find a few names banded about a lot, but they aren't always suitable so do your homework!

Welcome to WDF!

 

As far as pricing goes then ecommerce sites are really no different from any other site, in that you charge appropriately for the job either in hours or a fixed fee - whichever method you want to use. However, the amount of work you may need to do can be more with an ecommerce site because there are extra things to take into account such as setting up payment gateways, supplying/installing SSL certificates when used and so on.

 

For the most part you won't need to get a site custom built unless you are doing something out of the ordinary, there are already over 500 shopping cart systems out there (according to some estimates) that cater for all types of product and budget - http://www.webdesignerforum.co.uk/topic/20654-complete-list-of-shopping-carts/ has a couple of dozen listed. At the end of the day most shopping cart systems are Content Management Systems albeit with a few extra bells and whistles. You'll find that most cart systems have their own templating system, Smarty is quite popular, others have their own system, while others are pure PHP.

 

As far as what cart to use that depends on a few different things:

 

1. Can you client understand how to use it?

2. Will it handle the sort of products that are being sold?

3. Does it support your clients choice of payment gateway(s)?

 

In the ecommerce world it's important to use the right cart for the job, you'll find a few names banded about a lot, but they aren't always suitable so do your homework!

 

 

Thank you very much.

 

Are the CMS' easy to style and re-skin? Also, is a lot of code required?

 

Moreover, is there a list of CMS' which shows the pros and cons of each, and does it require a purchase?

 

Lastly, what is a SSL certificate?

Are the CMS' easy to style and re-skin? Also, is a lot of code required?

Some are easier than others! Most carts have a "skin" / template system that you can modify to your hearts content so you'd need basic HTML and CSS skills. Is there a lot of code? - that depends on the system, some carts are quite small code-wise but others are monsters with 1000's of files.

 

Moreover, is there a list of CMS' which shows the pros and cons of each, and does it require a purchase?

I've never seen anything useful for comparisons, best thing is to start researching yourself and learn about all the different systems out there. Write up a shortlist of all the features you may want.

 

Some cart systems and addons are commercial, others are free to use under various licence options.

 

Lastly, what is a SSL certificate?

This provides encryption for transmitting sensitive data such as customer information, credit card numbers etc, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Socket_Layer

Thank you for all your help.

 

Would you recommend any carts?

It's not a good idea to "recommend" any particular cart because what I suggest may not work for the site in question (one size does not fit all!). Every cart system has it's own good and bad points so it's really a case of finding what your client and site visitors actually need then locating a cart that will do the job in the most effective manner.

 

If you can make a list of specific requirements that the site needs it would be easier to suggest some carts that might fit.

Thanks!

 

By the way, what section do I go to to enquire about branding/identity?

Post it in General Chat