Is osCommerce right for my site?

[Guest]

Hi guys my website host recommended that I check into osC for our online store. I would appreciate if any of you could look over what I want to do (below) and tell me if you think osC is the right product for me. Sorry if I have posted this is the wrong area.

 

First I think I need to explain what RedTide is all about. Red Tide Clothing is a startup clothing company that will sell t-shirts with unique and original designs. We currently focussing on setting up a store at a local mall in one of those booths you always see. We don't intend to have online operations as the biggest part of our business, at least initially but we would like to add them as a number of people around the world have expressed interest in our shirts. We have big plans for the future functionality of our site: chiefly the idea of letting users upload t-shirt designs for the rating/criticism of artists who have had their designs already printed through the site (though all of this is way down the line, first we basically want to be able to sell the shirts and accept credit cards).

 

I would be the one undertaking the addition of osC to our site. I have a medium amount of experience with html and xhtml but primarily design sites through Dreamweaver (fixing the things in the code it messes up). I have pretty extensive experience with graphics and design but really haven't gotten into CSS, PHP or SQL at all.

 

My main questions are as follows:

1) Would it be possible down the road to develop a rating/upload system with the same user/password database created through osC? Would it also be possible to do the same thing with PHPBB forums?

 

2) Would I be able to create and maintain a osC store and everything that is involved therein without knowledge of PHP, CSS or SQL?

 

3) Does osC have a way of automatically updating stock quanities and forbidding purchases on items that are out of stock?

 

4) Would the interface be appropriate for us, having modest variety of stock but many otions on a particular item (size, girl or guy shirt etc.)?

 

5) What do I need to do with osC to start accepting credit card payments online through my site?

 

6) Basically before I get started I want to know, does osC sound like a good match for our company... if not can you guys reccomend another setup that would be better for me?

 

Thanks for taking the time to read all of this, I'm sorry if there is an FAQ or something I missed answering all of this already. Thanks in advance for the help, I appreciate it.

 

Tim

[Wendy James]

1. I believe there is a contribution that integrates one of the bulletinboards with oscommerce, so that should help you with that issue.

2. I edit all my sites using Dreamweaver and as long as you know the basics of html you should be able to work your way around editing the pages.

3. yes

4. yes there are many ways of handling options/attributes

5. a merchant account or you could use paypal. if you take a look through the payment contributions you can see who people use and what options are available to you

6. its free... cant get a better match than that

 

:)