E-Commerce Solutions? Any ideas?

[tybrenis]

Hey guys,

In my latest business endevor, I have been working on opening up an online paintball store, selling paintball gear and supplies. They say that a great business is fueled by passion, andso far that's been true for me. Anyways, I'll be extending the Power Packed line into Power Packed Paintball.

I am setting up an online store and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for a free/way cheap <$20 E-commerce solution. I have used OS commerce before, and I don't like it so much because of it's touchyness. Also, I am not much of a programmer like Dave in the essense of customization, so I'd like something easy to customize.

Any ideas? I know someone will help me out, you guys are really the best - this is such a great community.

EDIT: P.S.: Here is my logo so far. How do you guys like it? Give me honest opinions - I don't want a crappy logo forever. This should be set in stone first off so I can do promotion.

http://www.powerpackedpaintball.com/pics/logo.gif

[Crimson Sky]

Yahoo small business solutions is pretty great. Manage your store online, track inventory, etc.

[DaJe]

The web host I use offers a few things for managing an online store.

[tybrenis]

Yahoo offers some great stuff, but $40.00 a month isn't so great for me... especially just starting off. I really wish I could though, I do know how good Yahoo! is.

[Airbozo]

My domain hoster (making words and sticking to 'em) provides free e-commerce products.

Are you just looking for shopping cart stuff? You could try these:

http://www.cubecart.com/site/home/

http://www.zen-cart.com/

[tybrenis]

Thanks airbozo, I all ready have webhosting, so that isn't a problem, and they also offer installs of both of those services through the use of Fantastico.

Is it possible to make a layout that I want for my site using Dreamweaver and then put these elements in place? Or can I create a highly customized look and feel to the site?

There are all ready a lot of sites out there and I want to make mine look very unique - it just seems like OSCommerce, CubeCart, and Zen-Cart are too tricky to do that with. However, I might be wrong.

Any ideas as to which is better/easier?

[Airbozo]

It looks like it is difficult to make cubecart customized since they charge for removing their company info, Zen Cart may be easier to change to make it look like your own. Not played with any of these yet so I am not sure about how to change the looks.

[SgtM]

My server runs Agora Cart. It's completely free software. I haven't played much with it yet (no e commerce customers) but there are some helpful forums at their site at www.agorcart.com

[jdbnsn]

Hi Ty,

I like the logo, but I don't think it's quite done. Here is my opinion; the figure on the left is recognizable, but too choppy. I would try to make him smoother and more detailed in some areas like the gun and headgear while keeping other aspects like the torso more vague as it is. And his body is cropped in such a fashion that the composition is muttled. I think for a one color silhouette like this there should be more to his figure to make it representative of infantry. Example being the famous Tom Clancy figure (let me know if you don't know the one and I'll find it). The other thing I would recommend is merging the figure and the lettering. The way it's set up looks like two separate entities side by side rather than one flowing composition. Anyway, I think it's a great start and hope no offense is taken.
Jon

[tybrenis]

Thanks a ton, Jon! That's exactly what I was looking for - I want honest opinions and feedback - if you think it sucks, tell me!

How does this one look?

http://www.powerpackedpaintball.com/pics/logo3.gif

That's what it originally was, and I like it betetr like that, however, my brother told me it was too cluttery looking. However, I think that it looks better than the plain silhouette.

What I really wanted to get was a guy stretched out in the superman pose, diving into a bunker or something with his gun out in front of him. I just can't find a picture like that, though. If anyone wants to help out, that'd be great, but it's been tricky so far for me to find.

Jon, I'm not sure what you meant by merging the text and the picture together, perhaps you could clarify?

Thanks everyone! Also, I'll be looking into Agora cart.

[Commando]

You might want to check out prostores.com. It is an Ebay company and also fully integrates with ebay. I used it for a little while until I came to the realization that I didn't have time on top of my regular job to sell stuff. You can have a Express Pro Store for 7$ a month. The limitation is 10 products, but the products can have several options. Like color or size. I would recommend it. I like the logo w/ the more detailed guy. Let me know if you have any graphic design questions. I do alot of that stuff.

Tony D.

[tybrenis]

Thanks Commando - I did look into Prostores, but they don't seem to offer what I'm looking for - something free, highly customizable, with unlimited options. I will definitely call on you for graphics stuff though if I need any help - after seeing your work with an airbrush on the mouse I need no more proof of your skill.

[tybrenis]

Hey guys,

I installed Cube Cart and so far I really like it. I tried my hand at doing some customization, tell me what you guys think:

http://powerpackedpaintball.com/store/

Anyone have any idea how to move the whole thing down a bit, like where it starts at the top of the "Shop by Category" and "Shopping Basket" boxes? Right now my label is obstructed by them a little bit. I can always size down my logo, but I'd like to keep it like that if possible.

[jdbnsn]

What I meant by merging the image and the text is simply squishing them a little closer together or finding an elegant way to place the text over part of the image. I'll post a crude example here. I think you should try taking that picture which has clothing detal and play with it some. Might look good if you toned down/removed some of the details of the clothes and left others. I would go further to see how it looks accenting some of the gear (airgun and goggles) with a mid-dark shade of gray. That would probably look cool.
Forgot to ask, do you have the original picture? Or others I can see?
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f395/jdbnsn/misc/Untitled-1.jpg
Obviously this example wouldn't work because the text is way too light to overlay that pic, but you get the idea.

[DaveW]

Hm...that makes it harder to see the text, maybe put some white space around the text, like an empty white drop shadow?

-Dave

[tybrenis]

Thanks Jon,

That's not a bad idea. I'll work on something with it tonight - that silhouette image is giving me some hassles, I'm no where near the best graphics editor, and I only have lousy Macromedia Fireworks to work with - I need photoshop so damn bad.

Here's the original:

http://www.iup.edu/publications/iupmag/backissues/Sum03/Images/paintballer.gif

It's not my picture, but I have permission to use it.

You're right about the gun and hopper, it'd be nice if I couuld outline them somehow while remaining subtle, but I'm not the best at that stuff.

Thanks again guys!

[jdbnsn]

I'll mess around with it and see if I can come up with anything like I was thinking.

[tybrenis]

+Rep for you, Jon. Thanks a bunch!

[Commando]

Just another idea to help out.
http://www.commandosystems.com/worklogimages/paintball.JPG

[tybrenis]

Sweet! I like that one a lot. What font did you use for that?

[Commando]

Cube Cart looks cool. Your store looks good. I've always thought simple yet clean looks really good. I tried OS Commerce also for a while. It was just a little over the top. I might try Cube Cart out.

[tybrenis]

If OS Commerce is not for you, you might love Cube Cart, I know I certainly do. It's very easy to customize, and I can't script for crap, either, so it's pretty beginner friendly.

[jdbnsn]

Nice Commando, that is exactly what I was getting at when I meant overlay the composistion.

[Commando]

The Power Packed Paintball is Revolution and the comic looking font is BaDa Boom BB. I go to dafont.com to get most of my fonts. They have a really cool function that you can type in your text and see it in all the fonts that are listed on that page.

The splatters are actually another font called Split Splat Splodge. Using a font that is actually clipart like that is a design trick alot of graphic artists use to save a ton of time. It ridiculously easier than having to find a splatter clip art or brush.