Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with ecommerce and web

How do I set up an e-commerce site that accepts photo uploads and takes credit card payments?

designbot — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:42:48 -0800

How do I set up an e-commerce site that accepts photo uploads and takes credit card payments? I've been asked to set up a website for a client who wants to custom-print an item using photos uploaded by customers. They need to accept credit card payments.

As one option, I am considering setting up a custom front-end for Shopify, but I'm not sure whether that's overkill, or whether they can accept an uploaded picture sent as part of the order information.

What's the simplest/best way to do this? My PHP/Javascript skills are rather rudimentary, but I'd like to learn more. Should I try to do something from scratch, or are there good solutions out there already?

It seems like there would be a few parts to doing this manually:

Getting the customer's order info from a form (I can handle the HTML for this)

Getting the customer's photo, making sure it's within specs, and displaying a reduced preview (I don't know the best way to do this… I assume there a image processing libraries available or something)

Processing a credit card payment (I don't know the best way to do this)

Doing something with that order data (could it be emailed to the client, or is that too insecure? would I need to set up a front end for the client to access orders stored in a database?)

Hope me, Metafilter! You're my only help.

How can I build a homebrew online music store?

serial_consign — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:30:19 -0800

What are some open source/inexpensive e-commerce solutions for developing a homebrew online music store? I've been charged with designing the site of an independent record label and the only concern I have is their desire for an online record store. They want to sell both physical media and dowloads.

Ideally I'd like to use Drupal for this site as that is my platform of choice. However, I don't have much experience with the e-commerce or ubercart modules and I don't anticipate connecting cart functionality with a music player/browser would be much fun.

Beyond Drupal, I'm curious as to if there are any open source or affordable music oriented e-commerce/cms solutions out there. Since the store will be one of the central features of the site - it may be worth choosing the e-commerce solution first and reconciling the rest of the site design with the limitations of that platform.

Any suggestions as to platforms to investigate would be greatly appreciated.

E-commerce orders for a gift list

Kirklander — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:11:40 -0800

Question about setting up a Web shopping cart that would send a list of orders to a list of different addresses. My client owns a winery, which currently ships out individual orders using the Nexternal e-commerce software.

He'd like to set up a system so that, for the holidays, a business could send bottles of wine to a list of dozens of clients at different addresses.
If possible, he'd like them to be able to copy a list from an Excel spreadsheet, paste it into the Web site, and have it talk to Nexternal to put in a single order for all those people.

Was wondering if anyone knows an easy way to do this. Open to switching to Zen Cart or another system. Any help much appreciated. Difficulty level: I'm pretty good with PHP and stuff, but new to shopping carts.

Recommendations for shopping carts that don't use money?

jmevius — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:26:59 -0800

Is there a shopping cart-like web application (hosted or not) that could work if I don't want to have prices or sell anything? Square peg - meet round hole. I recently met with a web client (a wholesale distributor for multiple vendors / product lines) that wants to upgrade their current brochure-ware site to one that is more focused on the products they offer. I've setup a few smaller shopping cart sites, but they're asking for something a little different, so I thought I'd query the hivemind.

They'd like to display products (grouped by vendor or type) with multiple variables (size and color) in a standard manner. They don't want to put pricing anywhere on the site.

Whenever customers are finished adding products to a shopping cart and are ready to checkout, they'd like the entire order (shopping cart, contact information, *no billing information or cc numbers*) to be submitted to them via email. This way, they could contact the person individually to arrange an account.

Any ideas?

I've used Shopify before and loved it, but their pricing model is based on a percentage of sales. I used Digishop on a similar model (no actual credit card processing), but was never really impressed with the options or customization. I've used osCommerce and have hated every second of it.

Looking for a good ecomm partner

shotsy — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 10:38:59 -0800

I have been tasked with finding a Ecommerce vendor for my company. Basically, we're looking for a company that can handle the whole process for us; ordering stock, taking orders, delivery, etc. We'd like to provide branding for the storefront, but let them handle the transactions and delivery. I've looked through a number of the top links when Googling this, but it is difficult to tell quality. I'd really hearing if anybody has had a good experience, or knows of a company to avoid. Many thanks.

We can pay, so I'm not just looking for the cheapest option.

Need an artsy yet simple web design firm in NYC

mfherman — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 11:54:25 -0800

I'm looking for a small, arts/music oriented web design firm to design a webpage for a retail shop with web sales (preference for firms located in NYC). Any recommendations? I don't need/want any crazy flash animations, just simple, classy, musical, yet somewhat hip, if that makes any sense. Just for reference, I very much enjoy the look and feel of the Enja Records website.

Software recommendations for creating an affiliate program?

jxpx777 — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 12:55:38 -0800

Greetings, hive mind. I want to start an affiliate program for my web design and hosting business for folks to refer others for hosting. What software is good for tracking referrals? For clarification, this is not a request for what affiliate program is best (Commission Junction, LinkShare, whatever) but a question about what software to use to set up an affiliate program like they have.

Paging Herbert Kornfeld - ecommerce with purchase orders

Wild_Eep — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 14:27:28 -0800

Is there an open-source ecommerce store system that has built-in support for purchase orders? You see, I was all set to just use ZenCart, when the client informed me that the first 3 interested customers he has all want to pay with a PO.

Personally, I'd rather just tell the potential customers to go find a credit card, as writing/testing/debugging/shipping/maintaining a bolted-on PO system seems like a lot of effort. Then there's the additional 'back-office' administration of dealing with the purchase orders, collections, etc. Seems like a hassle that could grow unwieldy.

So, is there a LAMP-compatible e-commerce system that supports customers paying with a purchase order instead of a credit card?

Help me do my new jobs and save our company.

anadem — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 15:12:34 -0800

Our small company has been spun off and now we're in startup mode; luckily we have four software products (we make network-control apps) almost ready. Suddenly I've got more hats: from being a lowly install programmer, now I'm also to write docs, do phone support, organize product packaging and fulfillment, and set up our website for online sales including choice of download of software or mailed CD. All by the end of the month, spending as little as possible. The first three are manageable, but although I’m a programmer I don’t know web stuff, and need advice please. First thing that seems obvious is to go for ready-made ecommerce and not roll our own shopping carts etc. Preferably it will be a ready-made that can fit into a template, which I’m asking a graphic-design friend to create for the rest of our website (originally designed a long time ago in-house, and it shows.)

Our web hoster (Verio) has three online store offerings, but they don’t seems to connect to download capability; the monetary cost for their store is minimal, but there are manhour costs of course. I’ve been told MIVA Merchant has a download plugin module, but haven’t looked at it yet. And there are probably lots of others.

I’ve used Dreamweaver some, in helping local non-profits’ websites, but only know the very basics and have never created a page from scratch. I know perl quite well, with a smallish bit of SQL. Unfortunately our current site uses ASP, which I don’t know at all (yet?) How realistic is it to think I can cobble something together from the pro-designed template plus off-the-shelf ecommerce? In two part-time weeks?

Any advice will be very welcome. The company can keep going only a few months before either getting sales up or cutting heads, and I’m high on the chop list by virtue of the other people here being founders and me being the new guy. If I can pull this off it will be a big plus in staying here -- and once we get over the initial pain there's a good chance of doing well in our special niche; I'd like to hit the jackpot!