Want to Launch My Online Store Without Going to E-commerce Packages ( Shopify / Bigcommerce , etc ) (server, setting)

[domabozo]

I know that the easiest option is to use such ready e-commerce platform packages like shopify / big commerce

but I want to customize my website not to use ready templates AS Customizing options with those platforms are very expensive


I think to tailor the whole process in other words design my website template per my need then reserve a domain


My query is if I designed my store will I be able to do the below myself ??


- Add a shopping cart to my custom designed site

- Easily add payment options like Paypal / Authorize myself

- launch a Facebook store


Thanks

[eGeekUniverse]

Hi, for what you are looking to do you might want to look into setting up your site using Wordpress and the main CMS(content managment system) to build the website and then add the available WooCommerce plugin. You can choose a wordpress theme that is designed for WooCommerce and lay it out how ever you want. You can also use Paypal, Google Wallet + some other payment gateways that are available for customers to pay through. Search Google and there is a lot of information on building a site this way. I haven't done one this way myself but plan to soon. There is also tons of information for support on this type of setup.

[swagger]

There are plenty of self-hosted shopping carts. Try some of them out and see how you like them.

I've used CubeCart in the past, and it was pretty decent. Don't know how it compares these days. Also, zen cart is fully open source and customizable. When I tried it, MANY years ago, it was very rickety and while it was the best free shopping cart out there at the time, it was not very mature. Don't know if it's even still being maintained, but it might be worth a look.

If you have a pretty decent web server, look at Magento. It's a free shopping cart system that truly is full featured and modern. It's got a heavy "footprint" though, which means that it uses a lot of resources on the server, so make sure you've got a good setup.