How can I get a shopping cart with ajax-based product previews?

April 20, 2006 5:09 PM

If I wanted an ecommerce site powered by something like osCommerce and I wanted some additional functionality built that gave product previews via ajax, similar to what NetFlix does, where should I look for a programmer to set it all up and about how much should I expect to pay?
posted by fourstar to computers & internet (4 comments total)

I'd expect to pay a programmer to code something like this from scratch about 40/hour. Have a few of them spec out an estimated time, and go with the person with the best price/looks and acts professional enough.
posted by eurasian at 4:11 PM on April 20, 2006

You might look around on OSCommerce boards and try to find some programmers who have worked with it in the past. For someone who really knows the product, it would probably be possible to hack in what you want in just a few hours or days.

If you wanted to write an e-commerce site from scratch, I'd estimate maybe paying $10k?

Have a few of them spec out an estimated time, and go with the person with the best price/looks and acts professional enough.

It's easy to look professional to a non-programmer without actually knowing anything. Don't just go with the cheapest one.
posted by delmoi at 8:50 PM on April 20, 2006

Just a little note, though: I don't think that popup thing is at all worth the price you would have to pay some random person to add it to osCommerce unless they knew the product really well.

There are two things to consider:
1) Someone really familiar with the code at netflix added the feature really quickly.
2) Netflix has millions of users, so if a feature improves conversion even a few percent, it will easily pay for itself

I don't think that popup thing is really that cool (honestly it would annoy me a little) Unless you're expecting to have a huge site or really have some other specific requirements I'd just go with os Commerce and hire a designer to come up with a really kickass theme.
posted by delmoi at 8:55 PM on April 20, 2006

how much should I expect to pay?

You need to provide a little more background to get an accurate number:

1. What forms of payment are you going to accept?
2. What currencies?
3. What kind of product? Will you need to be able to process returns?
4. Will you allow multiple ship-tos for a single order?
5. How does fufillment work for your product?
6. Do you need/ would it be a good idea to integrate with your 3rd-party fufillment provider (if you have one)?
7. Will taxes apply? Would foreign taxes apply to non-US residents?
posted by yerfatma at 6:38 AM on April 21, 2006