What’s the best way to setup an online store/shopping cart?
Thursday, June 19th, 2008
Most of you know I’m the producer of The WordPress Podcast. I’m currently redesigning the entire blog theme, and I’d like to begin to offer merchandise like t-shirts, ball caps, coffee mugs, etc. I’d also like to sell at least books, and possibly other items through Amazon.com.
For the t-shirts and coffee mugs I’ve settled on using Zazzle, because I don’t want to carry inventory or be responsible for shipping myself. If a listener wants 1 t-shirt of a certain size, Zazzle accepts the order, handles the payment, prints the t-shirt, ships it to the customer and sends me the profit… I don’t have to lift a finger. It does, however, mean that a dark t-shirt with printing on the front only, for example, costs $19.95/each. Add a 20% profit margin and it sells for $24.95, which is about $9.00 more than a comparable t-shirt purchased at Think Geek, Jinx, etc. Don’t get me started about printing on the back or sizes larger than XL. Alas, it’ll probably only sell to devoted listeners who don’t mind paying an extra $10 a shirt to show their support for the podcast, but it beats buying hundreds of t-shirts of every style and size, storing them, processing the orders, shipping… you get the picture.
I face other problems and concerns with dealing with Zazzle: When I link to the storefront I’ve created with them, I’m sending my customers/listeners offsite and beyond my tracking reach. I’ve sent them to a site that clearly appears different than my domain, and one that has branding all over it. Another concern is I cannot prevent them from altering the colors, or even the designs to suit their own whims. A third concern is not being able to limit any gift certificates I give away to my online store… they could use my substitute for cash to buy a Hannah Montana or an Barack Obama t-shirt. (I don’t mean to pick on Zazzle, I believe things things to be true of CafePress, Spreadshirt, et al.)
Add to the mix my desire to sell books such as WordPress for Dummies
Which is why I’m considering using a shopping cart system and designing a store that would be located within my domain and have my branding, yet go offsite to the appropriate vendor when an item or items are selected for purchase. The trouble is: I don’t know if this is a solution that works. Have you implemented something like this? Have you ever used OpenCart, a GPL v2 shopping cart I’m considering? (You’ve got to love free!)
I’d appreciate your help if you can offer any suggestions.