I may build a website for a client of mine but before I commit I need a few answers, please. I am familiar with VSD and web form builder as I used them for a few websites but never ecommerce. Now I understand that to get full advantage of all features I would need Shopping Cart Creator Pro and Shopping Card Designer Pro (Correct?). By having an ecommerce website do I pay different fees to web hosting company like GoDaddy? I know this question should be directed to them but I'm sure someone here will know too. How difficult comparing to creating a website in VSD is creating a shop with those 2 software?
Thanks. I know. I just never did it, that's all.

When creating a shop with SCCP, the fees of your hosting provider should be no different. I have used it with GoDaddy and others with no problem.

Hi Eric,

I would say once you get around the learning curve of SCCP and SCDP building a website is relatively easy. You will find the hardest part with the Designer Pro and adjusting and editing the theme. If you get stuck along the way feel free to pop back in here and ask questions as many of us have been using these apps for years.

Great. I assume creating a white background, search function within the store and coupons (discounts) are also possible.

White background - Yes, you might also check the cc store for a theme that you like. I often find a theme that's close in layout and then alter it with SCDP. It saves a lot of time.
Search - Yes, it is built in
Discount - Yes and no. You can currently discount any item(s). However, the cart does not take discount codes.

You can discount an item but the cart does not take discount codes? So for example If I want to make a 10% off sale for 2 weeks on all items or selected items? And if I have about 900 items. Doable?

Yes it is doeable however you would have to go to each item individually and mark the discount then when your sale is over go back to each one individually and take the discount off.

I would use the CSV option.

What's nice about the discount system in the cart (not saying that coupons wouldn't be good, they would be a whole lot better indeed!) is that you can use the built in text Grid (looks a lot like a spreadsheet) and you can highlight a full column (in your case discounts) and you can remove them all at once. Can't add them that easily unfortunately, but here's another tip:

Run sales on categories rather than just single items. You can set a sale on a complete category in one shot and turn it off all in one shot without having to do single item on/off and that saves a lot of time too. Where there's a will there's a way.

You can also set your home page settings to show Featured items and call that Sale Items. This helps with 2 things. People see your sales right up front, ... AND ... if you do decide to put items from multiple categories on sale, you will have that Featured items to use as your base to find all the sale items to turn it off (if you don't use the Grid of course).

Lots of little tips and tricks for things like this. Yes it would be GREAT to have coupons, but sales work too

Thanks Jo Ann for the tips,

I did not know this See I have been using this software for years and I still learn something new