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funkdrmr

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 29, 2006
Messages
46
Location
Honolulu, Hawaii
I've been pondering this for a few months now, but before I start I wanted to bounce it off everyone here.

For my day job, I'm a network engineer and I do web design on the side. I got out of the web design gig for a while, so now I'm trying to come up with a few cool projects to build my portfolio back up.

That leads us to the question at hand......

I've been thinking about creating an online shopping mall that could be used by everyone in this great DIY community....buyers and sellers alike.

For the sellers, it would function as any other online store. Sellers can manage products, inventory, pricing, shipping pricing and other details all through a web browser. Although there will be multiple "stores" in this mall, each seller will only be able to manage their own store.

For the buyers, this would result in the ability to search through the entire "mall", say for 312....and the results would be all of the 312 pieces that are for sale at the different "stores" within. Along with easier search functions, a lot of the redundant "still in stock?" and "how much is shipping?" questions will be null & void, as the details are plainly provided without the need to search through threads or going back to the "first post".

Of course, many more details come in to play like the payment gateway and things like that....but I think I've got most of it worked out. I would be more than willing to work with the sellers on those options to make it easy for EVERYONE.

I'm really interested to know what people would think about this....so please do! I'm not the most savvy at electrical engineering and all the other good stuff that get written about here, but all the information here really excites me, and I'd love to be able to give something back this way if the community thinks it would be a good idea.
 
I know it sounds complicated, but that's the part I hope to take care of. :cool:

I understand it's going to have to be easy to use for everyone, but I really think it can be.

Can I ask what sounds "sketchy" about it?
 
multiple vendors, money, accountability. Sounds like there's a really good possibility of there being problems.

Don't get me wrong, i like the idea, i just don't see it as being that feasible.
 
I'm glad you like the idea, and thanks for being honest with your concerns.

When I initially came up with the idea, I had the same concerns.

The way I "see" it, having the ability to purchase multiple products from multiple stores with 1 checkout would be key to making this easy for everyone to use. I'm actually on a good run right now finding some solid ways to make this happen.

I might move forward and start getting a demo site set up to get the kinks worked out. I'd really like to know if everyone likes / dislikes the idea, or any concerns during that process.

I'm open to any feedback, positive OR negative!
 
Sounds cool if you can pull it off.

This sounds like a complicated project though. I'm not really concerned about the technical side, that could be difficult but if you say you can pull it of i believe you.
But the stuff around it could easilly grow into a nightmare.
Running a server, keeping out unwanted people, handling complaints, backing up the database. You're essentially running your own Ebay
You would be handling a database that has potentially critical information for some of the users. And security would be a concern too since there's money involved. Even when you keep the handling of money to the sellers there is probably some scheme people can think of that abuses a site like this to scam people.

It's not that I don't want you to do this. I just hope you have considered all the implications :grin:
 
[quote author="Mendelt"]Sounds cool if you can pull it off.

This sounds like a complicated project though. I'm not really concerned about the technical side, that could be difficult but if you say you can pull it of i believe you.
But the stuff around it could easilly grow into a nightmare.
Running a server, keeping out unwanted people, handling complaints, backing up the database. You're essentially running your own Ebay
You would be handling a database that has potentially critical information for some of the users. And security would be a concern too since there's money involved. Even when you keep the handling of money to the sellers there is probably some scheme people can think of that abuses a site like this to scam people.

It's not that I don't want you to do this. I just hope you have considered all the implications :grin:[/quote]

Thanks for pointing all this out. I've done some e-commerce before (a custom pay-site for a graphic designer out here). Although this is a little more complicated, the concepts are still the same.

I won't be coding this completely from scratch. There are some tried and proven e-commerce solutions that can be modified easily.

Along the security lines....I'll more than likely use a hosting provider like GoDaddy so I don't incur the overhead of having to host my own server. I might be able to get a good deal at my companies data center, though...so that's an option.

As far as c/c, personal information, and money security, here's a little info on that....

The site will be SSL secured. There's no reason to do it any other way.

The site will not store credit card information on file. I believe, by law here in the U.S, it's not allowed to. The C/C number gets processed (SSL encrypted), and then it's gone. The trade-off is that the buyer will have to enter their C/C when they return for an order. A small trade for a lot more security in my eyes.

I'm not 100% sure what payment options we'll have available. PayPal is a definite possibility and probably what I'll start with since it seems to be used widely here. PayPal integrates with a large number of e-commerce carts very seamlessly. If we need to go the visa / amex / mastercard route, it would be through Authorize.net, or another trusted payment gateway.

As far as people abusing the site...there will be things like CAPTCHA in place, as well as "verify your account" emails...things like that, to thwart that type of activity. I'll definitely put any and all security options into place.

I had never thought of it being "my own Ebay", but I guess it kinda is. Shoot, I've even found options for feedback and product ratings! :grin:

I really hope I can make this happen.....how QUICKLY it happens is a different story. I'm really starting to research and get everything together, so hopefully I can have some sort of a demo up in the next month or so.
 
as an alternative to what you are proposing, i would say if you could set up an online shop for yourself, and then publish a comprehensive "how to" guide that the rest of us could follow to set up our own shops, that would be very useful. i don't really like the idea of someone i don't know building a shop for me, and potentially having access to all *my* billing info.

for the shop to make my life any easier it would need to keep track of stock levels as orders are entered, integrate with paypal and google checkout, and calculate shipping costs (domestic via UPS/FedEx and international via USPS) based on weight.

good luck!

ed
 
I think it's a great idea. Someone will do this, and they will make money. There are sufficient people out there spending enough money to make it worthwhile.

I can imagine having a small store to offload surplus.

People don't have to get involved if they aren't comfortable with the idea.
 
[quote author="Ptownkid"]There's already stuff like that Ed...ZenCart being one of them. There's even a manual for those with no web experience.[/quote]

i've seen ZenCart and read the instructions, forums, etc, about a year ago... it seemed quite complicated to set up a breakpoint in the USPS shipping module so that shipments under a certain weight would go international priority by weight, and shipments over that threshold would go flat rate box. that is how i do the bulk of my international shipping, so if it can't do that, it doesn't help me much. i'll have to go wade into it again, see how the google checkout and paypal modules are doing now.

so yeah, if it is possible, i'm sure i could figure it out, but if this guy is volunteering to do it for me...

ed
 
[quote author="Ptownkid"]There's already stuff like that Ed...ZenCart being one of them. There's even a manual for those with no web experience.[/quote]

ZenCart is a GREAT product! Initially I wanted to use ZenCart, as I have for other e-commerce projects. HOWEVER, ZenCart has yet to have the functionality I'm looking for...namely, the "mall" style storefront.

[quote author="zebra50"]I think it's a great idea. Someone will do this, and they will make money. There are sufficient people out there spending enough money to make it worthwhile.

I can imagine having a small store to offload surplus.

People don't have to get involved if they aren't comfortable with the idea.[/quote]

Thanks for the positive comments, zebra. I've thought about different ways that I could make money, or at least break even on this, but they're actually 2nd to getting the site working at an acceptable level to everyone. Cost to me, besides my time, isn't going to be much more than $20 a month from what I see at this point.

I hope lots of people get involved, but I also realize it's going to have to work properly for that to happen!

[quote author="mediatechnology"]One of the things I see a need for is order aggregation to save shipping costs. For many of my overseas customers it's a big expense. [/quote]

This is honestly something I hadn't thought of yet, so THANKS! Understanding the concept, I'll have to look at a few things but it seems to make everything even MORE complicated. Maybe a release 1.1 or something like that? :cool:
 
Thanks! I'll definitely get in touch with Steve.

Is this the website he set up? http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/

I think I've found a solid solution, but I'm still reading & putting things together.

Edit: Or is this the site Steve set up?
http://www.diystompboxes.com/zencart/

Sorry...searching & replying at the same time!
 

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