Help: Website software needed

[jdude]

I need some help finding software and information on how to setup a website where you can get a shopping cart full of items and easily purchase them.

 

Basically I want it to be like futureshop's website:

https://www-ssl.futureshop.ca/profile/login...=&langid=EN

You setup an account, fill in the required information, and the order when you place it get alerted to the web master 'aka me'.

 

I'm currently getting hosted with Telus and I need to know, will I need some sort of special website to do this with? Or will any old registered web domain work?

 

Also, I severely lack and coding skills in html, java ect. So is there any software I can get that can make a website like this for me?

 

I've looked around at programs but I'm getting contradicting evidence about the validity and properties of these programs, so could anyone recommend me a good one?

 

Many MANY thanks in advance

[HappyCheeze]

Also, I severely lack and coding skills in html, java ect. So is there any software I can get that can make a website like this for me?

What you're looking for is WYSIWYG (Wizzywig) web editing software. They are handy, but also expensive.

 

Dreamweaver has a nice reputation. I used DW for a little bit in highschool. Its pretty sweet, you make pages easily, and if you know some web languages, you can do even cooler stuff. Overall it is easy to use. I don't know what its like now, I used an older version back in highschool, this was before adobe was doing the "CS" versions of things. On the site you can download the trial version and give it a go.

 

And there is Microsoft Expression, which is similar to dreamweaver, but has more tools in it for graphics and video. This is actually more advanced.

 

For coding, I'd recommend getting a book, just so you know more about what you're doing. I don't know how much time you have to spare learning one. But HTML is very easy. I taught myself HTML when I was like 14.

 

Some webhosts also have a built-in web editor.

[Crispy]

What you're looking for is WYSIWYG (Wizzywig) web editing software. They are handy, but also expensive.

 

Only if he wants to roll his own, which I personally wouldn't recommend. There's a lot of work involved in doing it properly. There are tons of shopping carts floating around on the net which I'm sure are easy enough to re-use. On the other hand, even installing a shopping cart and hooking up all the e-commerce rubbish might be too much work, in which case you may want to outsource, depending on the purpose of the website. (General rule: Outsource your non-core functions, perform your core functions in-house.)

 

For example, on my website I've chosen to outsource e-commerce to Fastspring. I've also used BMT Micro and Plimus, both of which are fine. BMT has fewer features but awesome support, whereas Plimus is more fully-featured and merely has OK support. (Also, I don't like some of the anti-fraud procedures that Plimus sometimes subjects customers to, such as phone verification.) I use them for selling software for digital download, but you can presumably also use them for selling services and shipping physical objects (if you're willing to do the shipping part yourself; the e-commerce provider will just take their money, tell you that they've bought it via email and/or an automated system, and optionally deliver a file; if you want to do anything additional to that, it's up to you to handle).

[Jeb]

There are a few decent free web stores out there. Magento is one of them. I've also used VirtueMart which is a Joomla CMS component. Both have relatively easy user interfaces for both the customer as well as the shop owner.

 

Both are relatively easy to install. Your web host would need to be a linux server running LAMP (linux, apache, MySQL, PHP).

 

These stores are also very easy to template, and you can also purchase templates and easy to install addons for the stores.

[HappyCheeze]

I forgot about Joomla. For our site gamersoutreach.org, we had joomla for a while before we got it done by professionals. Wasn't too bad.

[Crispy]

I hate Joomla with a passion, but that's just me. Some people do seem to like it - for some utterly inexplicable reason. (Fools, all!)