You’ve probably thought of it before. You’ve got a cool idea to sell something online, maybe it’s artwork, t-shirts, crafts or items you bought at wholesale. Before you sink a lot of money into it, test it out with the following hosted eCommerce store engines first.
So, where do you start?
There are a quite a few options available, if you’ve done any research into this you’ll find that hosting providers often offer osCommerce, Miva or some other tool. They take varying levels of technical knowledge to get going and are generally ugly as sin until you put some work into the design.
I’d like to point you to a couple options and outline what I like about them and why I think they’re better for aspiring eMerchants to cut their teeth on. They lower the barrier to entry so that almost anyone can get an online store setup in just minutes and look professional out of the box.
Shopify (example store)
Perfect for boutique sellers, Shopify provides plenty of tools for you to get started quickly and realize success. One of their most interesting benefits is their customization tool that allows you to take any of their already incredible themes and make it yours. They offer a wide variety of payment options, but are not the cheapest with their 3% commission on sold items rate. The good thing is, if you don’t sell anything, it won’t cost you a dime.
Big Cartel (example store)
Get started for free and never worry about losing any money to Big Cartel on commissions. Their pricing structure is the most “growth friendly” – though they have a limit of 100 items. They’re no slouches on the design side either, Big Cartel starts with some excellent looks that are fully CSS customizable. Get immediate marketing traction with their Stores Directory, where others can search and find you.
RightCart (example store – sidebar)
RightCart is the wild card in the mix. They offer an eCommerce/Store widget that you can place on your website or blog. This is particularly intriguing and useful for individuals whose blog is their main point of contact to the world. The widget fits in your sidebar, which you can customize to fit your look and feel. You can upload your own items to sell and make them “public” or “private” to allow other RightCart users to sell them.
Others to keep your eye on:
E-Junkie – Perfect for those who only sell digital products.
Wosbee – Just released in Jan 2007, this looks like it will be a top-notch product.
Flying Cart (Still in Beta and was unable to test it, but it looks promising)
MeCommerce – Similar to RightCart
February 5, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Thank you! I am going to check these out. Great resources and sites to have on hand.
February 6, 2007 at 3:01 am
Great post. No prizes for guessing what I’ve dreaming of selling 🙂
February 6, 2007 at 6:58 am
I’m surprise you didn’t mention Yahoo’s small business website builder. What’s your opinion on it?
February 6, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Ke, I’m familiar with the Yahoo offering, but I was trying to highlight services that are free to get started on and Yahoo charges $29.95/month.
It’s probably a decent platform for established businesses to work on, but definitely not something I would recommend to someone who wants to test the eCommerce waters.
February 6, 2007 at 5:54 pm
An update from Robin at e-Junkie (via email):
It appears that there have been some new features added at e-Junkie since I was last reviewing their service. If their fatfreecart is as good as their digital services, I’m sure it’ll be worth testing.
February 7, 2007 at 4:49 am
Thank you for adding our Wosbee to your nice (really good looking) site/blog.
I just add that wosbee is based on our long-developer (7 years) e-commerce platform, so even it is new release the software is througly tested.
– Tapio / Wosbee
February 7, 2007 at 7:37 pm
cafepress might be a different kind of option…
August 28, 2007 at 11:52 pm
Wosbee was just updated. Its getting more mature!
See http://wosbee.com/node/620
May 22, 2008 at 9:12 am
I think setting up the shop is the easy part. Getting traffic to your site, and having the site setup so that it is user friendly and converts visitors into sales is the hard part. Just like any business this is based on good customer service and marketing.