How to build an online shop?

Hi Silvia,

The following course teaches how to build an online shop based on t-shirt sales - Link. You could customise it for paintings..

Or you could try wordpress and use Woocommerce but I'm not sure there a course for that just yet.

Hope that helps :)

Garry

Thank you! I'll try the course :)

Here's also a list of popular eCommerce platforms.

• Magento
• CS-Cart
• Shopify
• OpenCart
• osCommerce
• PrestaShop
• Zen Cart
• VirtueMart
• Wordpress Commerce
• WooCommerce
• Jigoshop
• Cart66
• Ubercart
• Drupal Commerce

Buna Silvia, daca vrei sa adaugi un magazin online la un website deja existent va trebui sa creezi un folder in acel site si sa urci o platforma in folderul respectiv .Iti recomand opencart, este opensource si este usurel ca programare fata de Magento Prestashop etc.Ca sa ajungi in el va fi ceva de genul "www.site.ro/magazin". Astfel de platforme au deja admin-ul facut, poti cumpara o tema si nu ai nevoie sa modifici codul chiar deloc.

Multumesc! Nu pot sa deschid link-ul www.site.ro/magazin, dar Opencart suna bine, il voi studia. Pagina cu pricina este www.liv-via-art.com si vreau sa mai adaug o pagina "E-shop" unde sa comande lumea direct tablouri.

Magento is a good choice if you want to build or buy a theme, and Big Cartel is actually geared towards artists and designers; fairly cheap, too. I'd say the easiest and fastest way to get a lot of exposure would be Etsy. You could eventually provide a more inclusive store that you'd perhaps host once you get your client base off of Etsy. Just an idea.

Thank you for the list of eCommerce platforms! I was looking for a way to integrate the shop in the website, not for a service with monthly fee. Shopify is expensive and Etsy doesn't really look like it's for professional artists. I will have a look at OpenCart and PrestaShop.

Squarespace is an awesome out-of-the-box site builder. The problem would be that you'd have to set up a separate site. (You can't drop it into the existing site. You could migrate the entire site to Squarespace, and then forward your domain to Squarespace, which is fairly easy, but Squarespace would be running everything for you then.)

Stripe is a great solution if you want to do your own merchant handling. They do order receipts and everything. (But you might want to take a look at what countries they offer services for before you go to the work to integrate it.)

A few things you'd want to watch out for when handling your own system:

1. Never ever ever ever store credit card information. Use something like Stripe, or even PayPal.
2. Get an SSL certificate for your store so that user's credit card information can't be hack by a man-in-the-middle attack. (Note, this may require you changing your hosting option if you have shared hosting; you may have to pay extra for a dedicated server—not a unique server, just one that doesn't change, so the SSL certificate can be set for that server's IP address.)
3. Make sure you don't allow users to alter the price or quantity of an item at checkout. This should be pretty easy, and I think if you follow the PayPal example in the guide Garry linked, you'll be fine.

Though slightly off-topic, I thought you might find this comprehensive guide for selling art online. Seems relevant and has a lot of good information.

Great advice guys!