Introducing the Diyparadise e-Store

I have long wanted to have an e-store but never got around to doing it as:

1. do not know how to. Blame it on my lousy grasp of programming language.
2. stock level too dynamic, hence having a store would be useless, until the day comes when stock level stabilizes.
3. prefer a system that supports multiple payment options and wasn’t aware of any that does so.
4. need a system that calculates shipping charges based on item(s) weight rather than per piece shipping charges.

Paypal has a shopping cart function but the freight charges are per item and we are forced to use Paypal which is actually fine most of the time but we can’t do business with countries where Paypal doesn’t have a prescence, like Indonesia and Philipines.

Locally there is a company that offers such online payment getway. Unfortunately the charges are so ridiculous, it is obvious that they favour only medium/large sized enterprise. Small fries like me are…. well, too small for them.

So imagine my suprise to discover Zen Cart in my webhosting package. Zen Cart not only has all the features above but it is also open sourced. Meaning it’s FREE!

Plus the fact that it’s open sourced, many developers are welcomed to contribute little “modules” to enhance the features of Zen Cart. Not only I could integrate multiple payment systems, there’s even a module to integrate Fedex/DHL/UPS tracking number to your system!

All in all, I would say this is one hell of a software. It makes my life sooooo much easier. With it,

1. I don’t have to answer all those freight charges questions. “how much is shipping to uk?”
2. I don’t have to answer payment questions. “how do i pay you?”
3. I don’t have to answer stock level questions. “do you have enough xxx in stock?”
4. I don’t have to answer currency conversion question. “how much is xxx in yyy dollars?”
5. I don’t even have to do the sales reporting at the end of the month as this report is just one click away in the system.

Did I mention I didn’t have to do any programming at all?

Go ahead. Check out my e-Store now! http://store.diyparadise.com

business, internet business online payment

21 October 2006 | diyparadise | Comments