how do i start this

[girly25]

hi everyone. i came across os commerce today and i would like to create a accessories shopping website. but the thing is im really confused with all this. is all this really free?..........or is there a catch? whats the first thing i do and can anybody, absolutely anybody create a website with this. plus witrh all the payment gateways etc, is this really free? if anyone can help id be very grateful thanks

[Andrew Yuen]

Running a business is NEVER FREE. Yes osCommerce is free with no catch as long as you abide by the GPL. Payment gateways will cost money and so will hosting, domain name fees, as well as an SSL certificate. All businesses start by loosing money in the beginning before money is made.

 

I suggest visiting this website:

http://www.oscommerce.info/

[Guest]

hi everyone. i came across os commerce today and i would like to create a accessories shopping website. but the thing is im really confused with all this. is all this really free?..........or is there a catch? whats the first thing i do and can anybody, absolutely anybody create a website with this. plus witrh all the payment gateways etc, is this really free? if anyone can help id be very grateful thanks

 

Hi. I'm just a little further along the line than you are so maybe I can answer your question!

 

Yes, oscommerce is entirely free, but you do need other stuff which isn't. The two main issues are your website hosting and the way in which you charge your customers money. You need to be able to run a mysql database wherever you host your site, which some providers charge for. To take money, you'll probably want to take credit cards which will cost you set up fees with noth your bank and an online clearing house. This will probably cost you a couple of hundred quid or dollars and you'll lose 5% of each transaction.

 

As for ease of set-up, if you're happy with the basic set-up then it's easy, but if you want to modify the look of the program it's quite involved and you need tobe a bit of a programming geek!

 

On the positive side, it's a fantastically powerful shop for free, so it's well worth trying!

 

I hope this helps.

[girly25]

Hi. I'm just a little further along the line than you are so maybe I can answer your question!

 

Yes, oscommerce is entirely free, but you do need other stuff which isn't. The two main issues are your website hosting and the way in which you charge your customers money. You need to be able to run a mysql database wherever you host your site, which some providers charge for. To take money, you'll probably want to take credit cards which will cost you set up fees with noth your bank and an online clearing house. This will probably cost you a couple of hundred quid or dollars and you'll lose 5% of each transaction.

 

As for ease of set-up, if you're happy with the basic set-up then it's easy, but if you want to modify the look of the program it's quite involved and you need tobe a bit of a programming geek!

 

On the positive side, it's a fantastically powerful shop for free, so it's well worth trying!

 

I hope this helps.

 

Hi thanks for your help so far! I just wanted to ask one more thing, this is really bugging me, if all this os commerce is free then how do the os commerce staffmake their money and get their wages? please reply, thanks

[jasonabc]

if oscommerce is free then how do the os commerce staffmake their money and get their wages?

They don't. But if you are a memer of any core development team on any popular open source project (PHP, Firefox, OSCommerce etc etc) you will usually find doors opening to well-paid consultancy jobs and programming positions within the industry.