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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 eCommerce 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.
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Handy Guides: eCommerce
Gal Recommends...
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Here are
products and guides I personally recommend for building your online
business. There isn't a guide or tool recommended on my site that I
haven't personally used and found to be helpful. My philosophy
is to bring quality, affordability and value to as many
people as possible.
Check out my latest product recommendations.
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