Newbie need an eccomerce site, but need ADVICE!

[nemo456]

Dear all,

 

I am new here and new in e-ecommerce too! So pls pardon my newbie questions...

 

I am planning to start an online store to sell food products. Like many individuals who just want to TRY OUT first without investing arms and legs, I want to setup this online biz without having a formal company.

 

So my questions are:

 

1) I am shopping for shopping cart and it comes down to

 

a) CandyPress

 

CP is simple and easy to use (at least I tried it from the demo). But I sense that the support community is weak and is not as informative as the community as OSCommerce! The good thing is, it is ASP and can be integrated into a portal which i like so much SOOP. With the portal, I can also utilize the mods that can be integrated into the portal and my e-commerce site.

 

 

b ) OSCommerce

 

OSCOmmerce has a strong support community, but on PHP. I assume it can't be integrated into an ASP based web portal like SOOP right? (pls correct me if i am wrong...). Unless I decide to drop the idea to include shopping cart into a portal, else I can't go with OSCOmmerce. Plus, I know nothing about PHP.

 

Anyone has any advice, ideas, suggestions?

 

 

2) Abou Payment Gateway, I know I can go with provider like paypal's Website Payment Standard, which doesn't require me to signup for a merchant account (merchant accounts required my SSN or EID). But the tradeoff is, my customers will have to be re-directed to paypal site to comlete their online transactions.

 

Do u guys know any other good providers that offer similar service without requiring a merchant account? Or Paypal is so fast the BEST in the market?

 

 

As a starter, would u suggest me to start-off with Paypal Website Standard Payment Standard? 2.9%+.30 per transaction. I checked everywhere, so far paypal has the lowest rate for account that doesn't not require a marchant account.

 

3) I found out that some other providers eg: Verus or Paypal's Website Payment Pro, will accept my application as long as I have a SSN#. And they mainly use my SSN# to check my credit history. So say if i signup such account, since i submitted my SSN#, will IRS finds out i am running a business without registering a business? A friend of mine said if my transactios are over $400 a year, than by law i should report that as personal income...etc.

 

4) Any good OSCommerce developers here who can help me setup an eccomerce site? I have a low budget though... :blush:

 

5) Any good hosting recommendations?

 

 

Thanks in advance for ur help...

 

 

Nemo

[Guest]

I won't be able to help with all of your questions, but I can help with a few.

 

1. I don't know much about ASP, but as far as osC and php, I didn't know a thing about php before starting with osC, and I have managed to work through things quite well. If you go with osC, be sure to download and print the documentation, as it is a good guide for getting started. I can tie in part of your question about hosting here as well. I am hosting with Website Source, which has some good packages and great tech support. The real advantage that I can connect here is that setting up osC on a Website Source site is that they have it available as an included application and eliminates several steps of the installation process. They also make setting up phpMyAdmin and MySQL very simple as well. Their tech support gang is very helpful also. Between the tech support at my hosting service and the forums here, I have managed to work with something that I had no experience with and have it work!

 

2. Payment Gateways - I currently use PayPal standard, and there is a great contribution for paypal that puts the 'Pay without PayPal Account right into your payment section of the checkout process. If a buyer is using a credit card to make their purchase, they do not need a PayPal account, PayPal is just your payment processor. I have processed transactions through my PayPal account for items available at a couple of sites that I do, and have not had problems with people not wanting to deal with PayPal. I also use PayPal to make my payments on my hosting account.

 

As far as the IRS, you do not need to register a business with them UNLESS you are going to hire employees or have a form of business other than a sole proprietorship (such as a corporation). Yes, you do need to report earnings over a certain amount on your taxes, but that gets done when you file your taxes for the year. Stuff some money into savings to pay them! Just remember that your hosting account, supplies, and even mileage is deductible, so keep every receipt and track the miles you put on your vehicle for your business too. It all adds up!

 

Hope this input helps a bit with your decision process.

 

Lefty