Hello community,

My elderly mother wants to sell homemade candles on the internet. She believes her young son (read 38...lol) can build/maintain the website for her. I am happy to help her but I am lost on the different choices of software. What program(s) do I need in order to create a website with wysiwyg functionality as well as being able to edit code if needed? Also I will need to create a shopping cart with a personalization option at the end. She will be using Paypal, and fwiw I have to foot the bill for this whole project...sucks to be me.

Thanks to all of you in advance,

Joe

P.S. have to = want to...lmfao

well use the Coffee cup HTML editor to build your site it a easy way to create website.

If the shop is priority (ie) cart, then shopping cart creator will be your budget version, and unless your after something with lots of drop down options (ie) colour, length, strait, fluted, upgrading to SCCP might not be necessary (NOTE NOT AN UPGRADE totally sold separately as different altogether to SCC basic)

On a budget chances are in the store, templates section you can find a design to get you started.

You can at any time buy matching SCD or SCDP which will allow you to re design the template to something bespoke.

both above have about 4 descrition pages for information etc.

If you want something very informative, lots of pictures and details, and very google friendly (easier to SEO) for getting found by search results VSD is WYSIWYG and can be made to match SCC so you get more control

Example in my signature, delorean site made mainly with SCCP & SCDP & VSD, with a few other programs besides for odd bits and pieces.

Both carts use Paypal, and Google checkout, what is fwiw

Just to keep Viv's post from being too cryptic lol

VSD = Visual Site Designer (that would be the choice for you I think if you want a visual designer instead of doing it code wise. You can use the HTML Editor free version for manipulating any basic code you need to utilize then)

SCC = Shopping Cart Creator (Viv did mention that one already)
SCD = Shopping Cart Designer (to create and edit themes for SCC
SCCP = Shopping Cart Creator Pro (Many more features available than the basic version)
SCDP = Shopping Cart Designer Pro (Many more features available than the basic version and can do themes for both basic and Pro)

Keep in mind that you should trial these programs before you buy because once you buy the basic versions of the Cart Creator or Designer, it's not an upgrade price to buy the Pro as they are totally separate entities so if you think you need the Pro versions, you should get that and not get the basic ones at all or it will be more costly.

One thing I noticed you mention is the ability of customization in orders and right now the Shopping Cart Creator programs do not have that ability. What many people do is use the Web Form Builder (HMTL version is the newest and best, Classic is the older Flash version) and create forms for their people to fill out. This can be done pretty easily, and the biggest inconvenience is that the form and the shop are not connected so it's 2 different submissions.

One good way to do this is to add the form to the Checkout page or to the landing page that they come back to after purchasing and put a nice note in saying "IF you have any customization that goes with your order please fill out the form...... and so on and so forth". I'm sure there are a few people that have forms setup on their shops to help with the customization situations.

Good luck on your choices and hopefully CoffeeCup will be your software of choice as it's a very great company to deal with. The forums are helpful and friendly and the staff and support is top notch here

If all she needs is a site to sell some candles I would go with SCDP and SCCP. You make the front of your shop look like what ever you want and integration with Pay Pal is a snap.

I would agree that http://www.coffeecup.com/shopping-cart-pro/ and http://www.coffeecup.com/shopping-cart-designer-pro/ are your best choices. They do everything you asked for...

I list about a £1.00 worth of Ebay items each month if i am a little quiet.

And the proverbial, for more designs and more sizes go to del.........co.uk

I usually get 1 ebay order, and 10 referals to my website.