As
a long time web designer I've dealt with any number
of eCommerce options over the years. In general you've
always had two major options:
1)
You build and code from scratch. This required a
great deal of knowledge in various coding languages
in addition to the ability to design an attractive
interface which will work within the construct of
the website's structure.
2) You pay a company with pre-built systems. This
was not only extremely expensive but rarely allowed
you freedom to create any sort of pleasing design
as it would have to conform to their limited header/footer
customization.
Well,
I've seen the light now! The future is here and
(unfortunately for people in "the business"
like me) it's unbelievably easy to do.
These
free solutions are Open Source based online shop
e-commerce solutions that are available under the
GNU General Public License. They all contain a rich
set of out-of-the-box online shopping cart functionalities
that allows store owners to setup, run, and maintain
their online stores with minimum effort and with
no costs, fees, or limitations involved. Most of
these Open Source solutions provide an e-commerce
platform, which include the powerful PHP web scripting
language and the fast MySQL database server. With
no special requirements, they are able to run on
any PHP 4.1+ enabled web server running on Linux,
Solaris, BSD, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows environments.
Unbelievable
right? Well,, it's true and I'm loving it.
In
addition to the obvious advantages of these open
source stores, there are many less obvious benefits
such as
- Active user forums where you can get answers to
most any question without dealing with charges or
"canned responses" from a profit company.
- The ability to change the design of your store
nearly instantly by simply selecting a new "template"
from within your administration panel
- Countless free "add-ons" and "modules"
which add all types of additional features to your
store.
- As the projects continue to grow and the stores
improve you can upgrade, and of course the upgrades
are free also.
In
my opinion once of the greatest of the above features
is the ability to change the design and/or appearance
of your site with the ease of a few uploads and
button clicks (ONCE YOU HAVE A DESIGN DEVELOPED).
The most common complaint I found from OS users
was the same one I've heard about other e-commerce
packages. People weren't aware of how much work
would be involved in getting an original design
put together. They would get to a certain point,
hit an unexpected bottleneck, and be unable to keep
going. The majority of the work involved in getting
your store up and running was getting a design to
function within the limits and restrictions of the
store's code. Every implementation will run into
these problems, and everything takes longer and
costs more than you plan for it, whether it's proprietary
or open source. There are now; however, easy solutions
for this issue which will prevent you from getting
overwhelmed. Many businesses on the web (example:
http://www.bg-website-templates.com & http://www.bluegelmedia.com.com
) who focus on web template development have entered
a whole new era in template design. They have begun
development of stunning designs for Open Source
eCommerce solutions such as OScommerce, ZenCart,
and CRE Loaded (the most popular of these Open Source
eCommerce solutions). This allows you to easily
implement a perfect store design within minutes.
While these design templates are not free like the
eCommerce solution, they are worth the mere $50
average price, saving you weeks of frustrating design.
You
can find more information on these Open Source eCommerce
Solutions at their hub sites. Just type in the OS
solution name you wish to research into your search
engine and their home pages will show up. The most
popular solutions are ZenCart, OScommerce &
CRE Loaded. But there are many other ones out there
to choose from; however these three have proven
themselves over time and have such large user bases
and support groups that I would recommend trying
one of them first before attempting to delve into
lesser known solutions.
To
sum this all up. While large companies will always
need a custom built solution for their online stores,
the average small business no longer needs to spend
five or ten thousand dollars to have a quality store
developed. The use of a free OS solution along with
an inexpensive design template will have you selling
online for pennies on the dollar compared with a
custom built store. Even if you don't feel you have
the skill set to work with the OS solutions, you
can hire any competent developer to implement it
for you. Sure you'll be charged, but the price will
be a small percentage of what you would have paid.
Written by Gene Torrey
Webmaster/Lead
Designer.
I
have spent nearly seven years in the pursuit of
how to make high end websites using small business
resources.
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