Web Design s/w for Ecommerce

[SR71]

I created my first (and only) website 5 years go using Frontpage - currently hosted by GoDaddy. I'm going to make another website but this time I want to embed an ecommerce solution (online ordering via credit card etc.)

I ran the numbers on using Amazons tools (and Ebay) - unless I made a mistake calculating all the charges, these guys both take 16+% of the sale - I can't believe that people use them (crazy)

Anyway - users reviews of Volusion are consistently bad (in spite of the professional reviews which rank them as #1)....

Recommendations on software - web hosting?.....

[Martin]

For basic sites, use google sites with the free plug ins. For more advanced try WordPress and a few pluginshat are free, or oscommerce.

Martin

[Mad Dog]

Try BigCommerce. We're using them right now and there's no transaction fees. Just a monthly package fee which start as low as $24.95 a month. There's also a two week trial if you want to see if you like it first. The only downside is you will need to use a service like authorize.net or PayPal Checkout or a number of other payment providers and that's where you'll probably see some fees come into play. But chances are you can find one that charges a lot less that 16+% of the sale. Hope that helps!

[ehansen007]

www.wix.com is a fantastic way to get a site up that looks great and can use a shopping cart pretty quickly. I love it. It's flash based but they also just came out with an HTML5 version so I'll be converting soon. They've got tons of templates as well. I tried godaddy, wordpress, frontpage, dreamweaver, 1and1, etc and this has been my favorite by far. And they are pretty cheap. Take a look at www.33machine.com.

[SR71]

Guys..... thanks.....I have grown to trust the knowledge of this community - even though the ideas are not always the same .... the knowledge helps to drive a final decision