Hi all,

Looking for some website design help and would appreciate if you could give me some input!

 

I'm looking to construct a website that presents a multitude of products from a number of websites. Online retailers often have a product page with a list of their products with a name/price/image, with the image or button linking to a direct product page. Essentially I want to lift this listing on certain areas of the site (eg. only the TV listing from a electrical appliance store or drill listing from a DIY store) and copy this directly onto my site. Additionally I want to have each item linked to a product page as on the source website (automatically copy pictures/info).

 

Essentially this website will be a dropship site, it's content depedent upon specific 'parent' (source) website pages. Once an order is placed an order will be placed with the original company. I looked into affiliate programs however in the area I'm looking at not many of the websites have a one, thus I'm trying to create a 'commision program' myself.

 

 

While each website is different would it likely be a hard thing to implement? What language would I be looking at to get this done?

 

 

Thanks for reading and any input/advice!

Tom

Hi I am not sure what you describe, but if I got this right, first thing that comes to mind is multiple rss feedsfeeds from the different websites. A shop without a shopping cart, is that it?

 

Seems to me that a shop that displays the latest products from these sites through rss maybe will do the job. You need various skills, PHP, XML (I think for the feed).

 

Hope that helps a bit

Thanks for your reply teodora.

 

I'd have 'live' products listed on my site with the ability to 'buy' them although there will be no actual stock. When orders are placed on my site orders are then placed with the parent sites to be then sent to customers.

 

eg. reemclothing*com/Mens-Clothing/Mens-Designer-T-shirts*html

 

For example I wanted to lift all these products (desc/price/sizes/category) - I'm guessing the easiest way to do this is having access to their online database where each individual item will have all the information I need?

 

Regards,

Tom

Hi Tom. Sounds as though you want to scrape the merchant's site?

 

I'm not sure whether you are talking about being an affiliate or actually dropshipping. As an affiliate your "buy now" button would redirect to the merchant and they would take the order and deal with payment; but in dropshipping you would take the payment and then pass the order on to the merchant, you would probably also be responsible for any returns, depending upon the dropship merchant's terms.

 

Bearing in mind that many merchant's do not allow scraping of their site I would suggest you go the datafeed route. I personally use Price Tapestry to deliver all the information to my site. This program is extremely flexible so that you would be able to call whatever information you want and display it how you want.

 

However, as with all good software, it takes time to learn how to use it proficiently. But the author provides help and support that is unbelievable it is so good!

Hi Tom. Sounds as though you want to scrape the merchant's site?

 

I'm not sure whether you are talking about being an affiliate or actually dropshipping. As an affiliate your "buy now" button would redirect to the merchant and they would take the order and deal with payment; but in dropshipping you would take the payment and then pass the order on to the merchant, you would probably also be responsible for any returns, depending upon the dropship merchant's terms.

 

Bearing in mind that many merchant's do not allow scraping of their site I would suggest you go the datafeed route. I personally use Price Tapestry to deliver all the information to my site. This program is extremely flexible so that you would be able to call whatever information you want and display it how you want.

 

However, as with all good software, it takes time to learn how to use it proficiently. But the author provides help and support that is unbelievable it is so good!

 

 

So True , I Agree Babrees..

Thanks for your reply babrees

 

The products listed will be below market price, I will simply be selling them on at market price. As I mentioned a lot of these sites don't have affiliate programs unfortunately, and those that do offer poor commission. Essentially I'm buying products and reselling - but I'm trying to do this with minimal investment/capital hence the apparent dropshipping.

 

I shall have a look at Price Tapestry and see how I get on, thank you again