View Full Version : I am nearing point of giving up...
... seriously. OScommerce can properly die in the face.
Getting to the point where I know I'm going to struggle to get it to look good because it's SO COMPLETELY RUBBISH!!
Hehehe.
Basically, if anyone knows of anybody willing to make a few bob on the side to help me set it up and actually look decent and operate properly, I would appreciate a nudge!
Thank you people.
*goes back to playing with it's ridiculous layout*
*sigh*
Kell_ee001
30-01-2009, 13:52
I'd happy help but I know nothing :( Hope someone here does though hun!
Blighter
30-01-2009, 13:59
I would help by my experience in OSCommerce also bought the same opinion... It's utter s***.
Tell me what you need and I'll have a play around over the next few days as I'll be sitting at home twiddling my thumbs (no internet but have a local web server so can use that).
:)
Pheebs, if you need any advice with e-commerce and payment gateways and what not just give me a shout. I do it every day. I've actually got my head inside a website selling turf at the moment. ;D
I haven't seen OScommerce before, but if it's like other off the shelf packages they're alright as a starter but soon run out of steam when you eventually ask it to do more complicated things like special offers, specifications, variants, minimum order quantity, delivery options etc etc etc :)
Sometimes it's worth investing in a bespoke package if you're in this for the foreseeable future but it obviously depends on your budget and the scale of stuff you're selling?
Hey hey :)
I have asked around for bespoke stuff and I would be looking at forking out £1500 bare minimum for a company to do it! I just... I can't afford that! For selling greeting cards... It's just not economic. I wouldn't make that back through the website at all at the moment. I really canny justify those prices :(
It's heart breaking - I've read up SOoooooooOOo much on bloody oscommerce threads and forums and I just cannot get on with it :( And annoyingly there are SO many people asking where they can buy my cards online and I have no where :(
I've been playing around here:
AKOF shop thingy (www.akettleoffish.co.uk/shop)
It's such a mess to deal with. Nothing is clear cut and the instance I change fonts/images everything just splurges out into random places!!
In an ideal world I would *love* something as neat as this webby:
Ellecarte (http://ellacarte.com/index.php)
I just... I hate the "standard" borders you're given, the square boxes (it's taken me a life time to figure out how to get rounded corners on the "New Products" box at the bottom) and chunky text.
Nightmare!
If anyones willing to help though - even help me to figure out round corner boxes with a black outline (SO simple! You'd think :p) I would be incredibly grateful. :)
Blighter
30-01-2009, 14:49
Pheebs, have you ever thought of expanding into different product markets? I reckon you could make an awesome alternative to a David & Goliath-like store :) And I'd buy loads more t-shirts then I would cards online.
Yep! Sure have!
Tshirt wise though, it's a bit of a pain in the backside. I would have to go through an already set up tshirt printing shop to be able to produce tshirts and make some form of profit. To buy in tshirts with designs on and set sizes and then stock them here is a mahooooooosive risk!
Little steps first for me :) Greeting cards and then the expansion onto tshirts/mugs etc. :)
Davey_Pitch
30-01-2009, 15:02
Greeting cards and then the expansion onto tshirts/mugs etc. :)
Then.....the WORLD Mwuahahahahahah!
Sorry :o
Then.....the WORLD Mwuahahahahahah!
Sorry :o
LOL!
But it's so true!! ;D
Hey hey :)
I have asked around for bespoke stuff and I would be looking at forking out £1500 bare minimum for a company to do it! I just... I can't afford that! For selling greeting cards... It's just not economic. I wouldn't make that back through the website at all at the moment. I really canny justify those prices :(
You're in the same boat as hundreds of other start-ups. They need to start selling, but to do that, you need to lay down the cash to create the method to sell. There's no easy way around it. You can sometimes get away with a crap shop for a while and hope that can deal with what you need it for and then invest at a later date. Or, as most do, bite the bullet and pay and wait for the sales to eventually pay for the site. It's risky, obviously, but who said business is always safe and easy? :p If successful though it pays many times over. One client of ours who sells baths and showers is doing great. His website cost £3,000 to get up and running. He's now averaging £800-1500 per day in sales. Suffice to say it's paid for itself many times over.
It's with anything, you get out what you put in and it's not easy to break into. The few and fortunate make money online without paying for the right gear, and it's why off the shelf DIY packages are cheap, or even free, and why the bespoke ones hold a premium. They're just lightyears apart in terms of what they can do and how flexible they are to just getting your products online in a presentable way and pursuading customers to part with their cash for them.
Take a look at what PayPal offer by the way. I read an article a while ago about how PayPal Business were attempting to shorten the casm between a standard website and an e-commerce one. They might have come up with an idea to get your website selling stuff easily.
What would you suggest package wise then icraig? Seeing as you're dealing with this sort of thing every day you probably know best ;D
Is oscommerce a complete flop then? Should I be going through some other program to deal with it?
Just emailed a freelance webdesigner. He's got a good rating and his portfolio seems pretty extensive. Currently... he's pretty darn cheap (well... in comparison to these other places) so I'm intrigued what he will say.
I'm gutted really as today is the first day I am actually quids in from some pay cheques. It's not going to stay that way for too long as I have some expenses which need paying out but yeh. I was so happy.
And now. ZAP! It's going to be gone instantly again!
Bum.
OsCommerce is a pretty good and very advanced package for free.....but fook me it's a pain in the arse to customise :/
Blighter!! Are you ordering stuff I don't have :p
*shakes fists*
;D
Right!
Well at the moment I'm a bit "wowee!"
I did some searching yesterday for freelance webdesigners and came across a site where loads of freelance people register. It's really awesome! People go onto the webby, say "I would like a webby with this this and this as well as a logo designed", state how much they're willing to pay and then these registered freelance designers "bid" on the project saying "I can do it for x amount" and yeh! The person picks who they want to do the project!
All the freelance people have ratings - so previous work they've done people have made comments about how well constructed the webby was etc. I found one dude on there with loads of reviews, had a look at his website and his portfolio and was fairly impressed. His pricing was pretty good too!
I sent him an email asking for a quote and explained how proper broke I am and he's been chatting with me on MSN this morning - going to get him to do it now!
He's doing it in either zen cart/joomla for me - I've drawn up a rough layout for him and yeh! I'm obviously very wary and making sure I don't pay up/give any details out until I have to but it's all very intriguing!
iCraig - hang fire with the playing! I know you said you would and I'm very grateful!! You're welcome to if you really want to but I'm all a bit intrigued about what this guy conjurs up!
His previous work is ace!
Cool beans! I may have me a shop soon! :D
Psymonkee
31-01-2009, 12:44
Yaaaaaaaay! :D
Been updating odds this morning website wise and whilst doing so chatting to him.
Seems like a nice genuine chap! Obviously I'm issuing caution around him but yeh! He's been going on about his studies and how he's moving to England soon (he's in Romania at the moment) and his aspirations etc!
He's drawing up a photoshop version of the webby and then implementing it later on!
Shocked at how friendly he is! Really nice chap!
Knipples
31-01-2009, 13:04
Nice one Pheebs! Hope it all works out.
:)
Blighter
31-01-2009, 23:49
Well at least he wasn't from Nigeria ;D
Want me not to bother about doing a design for ya? :)
Only solution I can suggest is a content management system with a suitable eCommerce "module". It would require a completely new implementation of your web site but there are specialist who will convert any web site into a DNN one.
Sounds like iCraig can offer the best advice on this though as DNN still requires too much development knowledge IMO.
Blighter - thank you but I'm going to see what this dude magics up! He seems to be doing an awesome design job at the moment.... he's come up with:
http://modernartmedia.eu/work/kettle/template7.jpg
so far design wise! I'm impressed! Says he can have it implemented and working within a few days :D
Thank you for the advice phykell! iCraig and Blighter have been uber helpful :D
That looks brilliant :D Hope he gets it all implemented fine :)
Blighter
02-02-2009, 18:03
OoOOoOOOOOoO sexy (Pheebs style ;D)
Knipples
02-02-2009, 18:08
Ooooooh! It makes me want to click on all the tabs so I can buy stuff just to see if works!
Psymonkee
02-02-2009, 21:45
^^Likewise
/me clicks anyway :D
Looks ace Pheebs. Quick word of warning that catches a lot of our e-commerce enquiriers out sometimes, but have you got the payment side of things sorted? Judging by the design he'll be coding this all in-house rather than pushing the handling over somebody like PayPal. In which case your orders on the site will need to be talking to a payment gateway, in order to do genuine and (most importantly, secure) transactions over the web. These gateways take care of everything on their secure system and go back and fourth from your website, to your merchant account with your bank. They normally charge you for the work, but it's the best way for new starters to handle it. Protx are very good and only charge £20.00pcm for something like 250 transactions. Others such as Streamline and Worldpay take a percentage of each sale. It depends on how you want to run it. I'd normally steer clear of percentage deals for expensive products, but as your cards will be in the lower price range of goods, you'll probably be best off with a flat fee for now. Completely up to you though, you'll find a package that's right for you.
You and this bloke may have already got this covered, but it's always worth making sure you've got that end of the system nailed down to stop delays and arseache further down the line.
Davey_Pitch
03-02-2009, 19:53
Pheebs, was it http://www.freelancers.net/ by any chance?
Thanks for that icraig! I think he's got it covered - I will ask him tomorrow :)
Davey - no... it wasn't... annoyingly I cannot find the link for it now!
Bum.
Will have a more indepth look later and let you know!! :)
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