Cheepest way to start

[StuartDykes]

Hey guys, im completely new to this but fancey having a play around so expect many stupid qs over the next few months.
Ryt, i want to try and set up an e commerce shop. What do I need, how much does it cost, can it be done for free. I really want to try stuff for free first before i commit and start spending money on stuff.
Any advice is appreciated.
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KLX125A (http://www.cyclechaos.com/wiki/Kawasaki_KLX125A)

[Chris]

I wouldn't try to do ecommerce for free. The reason is that you'll make things harder on yourself later when you need to upgrade and if you cannot justify spending just a few hundred to launch a site, maybe you shouldn't be launching a site.

I launched my first ecommerce site for $1200, it did $500,000 in sales the first 8 months. If I had dicked around trying to launch it for nothing, I may not have made anything or gotten it launched.

Plan on spending $200-$400 for shopping cart software & skin/design.

$10 per month for your hosting, maybe $15

$50 or so for an SSL certificate (yearly fee).

Up to $99 setup fee to open a merchant account, and probably $20-$30 a month to keep it open. Or you could use a third party shopping cart (paypal etc).

Then of course, you have to buy your initial inventory, boxes, tape, packing material, etc.

[StuartDykes]

Thanks for your advice. Hadnt really been that serious about doning it, but it appears that you need to be if you want to cover your costs.
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CBR1000RR (http://www.cyclechaos.com/wiki/Honda_CBR1000RR)

[Cloughie]

Great advice from Chris...

Getting up and running properly also gives you monthly outgoings. hosting, merchant account so you need to be sure you can do well or you can quite quickly just go backwards from the start.

Take some time to think properly about your idea and what you will sell and be sure it is something you think people will want.

Then save and put some money into doing it properly. A cheaply done ecommerce store puts customers off from buying more than anything else.

I just set up www.empoweringsounds.com and it cost me $10,000 in total. Now, $5,000 of that was product and $5,000 was for the site but I didn't want to mess about.

I could have done it for about $500. Home made the cds, used the standard oscommerce template, but I just dont think it would have got off the ground if I had of done it that way.. It's only been 3 days live... so we will see if I am right :)

[Cloughie]

I should point out it can be done much cheaper than I did it - you don't have to spend $5,000 on setting up a site. I am a busy guy and needed someone to do it all for me with me just giving them direction - hence the cost.

[shaza4061]

Try using OsCommerce, its a free ecommerce store script.

[geddon]

I recommend OSCommerce. Good for start.

[Gate2Shop]

I would suggest for a start up try ekmpowershop, and there are payment providers with lower transaction fees and no monthly fees. That is a low cost start up.

[steview]

i recommend you use this for your cart: shoppingcartelite.com (http://www.shoppingcartelite.com)
It's best for starters.

[GreenOliveTree]

The first thing you should have is a well-designed web site that will attract as much as possible customers.. Another important thing is that you have to find stable and reliable company suitable for ecommerce hosting..
There are also many shopping carts available in the market.. like Magento, OS Commerce, Miva Order, etc.

SSL Certificates will be also useful if you want to secure the payment..

[melo]

Try using joomla or zencart, its a free ecommerce store script. I prefer zencart some of the

[uoften]

zencart is a free platform, it's good for beginner, you can have a try.