What Do You Know About OsCommerce and Making a Million
By: Vlad Vistac
Submitted: 2010-07-26 16:37:52 | Word Count: 510
osCommerce and Making a Million
You can spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year hiring a companny to create and manage your website and online shopping cart. As a startt-up businesss, you may not have the mony to do this. Even if youre not a start-up business, you migt not want to spend the money to do this. The great news is that you don't need to spend this money to have a website that looks like a million dollars. With a little insigth and some hard work, you can create your onlnie cart to help your business be a successful online entity and osCommerce is just the community to help you do so. How and why?
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Collaboration and Contribution
First of all, osCommerce is based on the concept of open source software. This means that the software, codes and everything you need to set up your wbesite and online cart is shared right on the site.
There is a sectiion on the site called contribution. In this seection, peopel who have designed codes to do various things on their websites "contribute" the code to the rgoup so that others who use osCommerce can use it for their sites as well. There are thousands of contributions already on the site rangign from themes and packlages to images, chekout modules and shipping moduules.
It doen't stop theree, howevver. The beauty of the contribution network is that people can take the cdes that people have posed and tweak or altrer them just enoguh to meet their indiviual needs. Rather than haing a designer who sells a set code that the consumers cannot atler, the idea behind open source code alloows each individual to alter the code to meet their neds which ultoimately results in constant improvements in the dveloped code.
Commmunity
osCoommerce woulld not suycceed without the sense of commiunity involved in it. Along with the contributions, soCommerce has an actie forum where members can ask and give advice as needed with other membes. For example, if someone has designed tehir site but dont seem to be getitng the businses, they can post a request for feedback on their site. Members of the forum then look at the site and give suggestions for improvement. Additionally, when someonbe is trying to set up a specific feature on their site, they can go to the forum to see if anyone has done so previously. That way they dont have to neecessarily start from scratch when it comes to dewsigning the code for the features they want on their osCommerce site.
Customization
It is possible to take the osCommerce template, add in your product or service descriptions, set up your payment options and go live. Its qick and easy and will get your site running in no time and it will look okay.
Anyone who has had a e-commmerce site, however, will tell you that youll need to go a step further to make your website look great and be successful. The osCommerce templates are cuustomizable so that your site looks like your site. You can change the images, colors, brders whatever you need to change to make the tehme of the site match what youre selling. So, when you sign on to osCommerce to be your online shopping cart, your signng on to have a site that fits your style, not just a cookie-ctuter type site that easily and quickkly fills in your product or service without consideration of "what" youre actually selling.
Customer Servce
osCpommerce is also already set up to give you the tools you need to have an e-store with geat customer servicce. You can choose which features to include on your site, but you dont have to desgin the featuers from csratch which is a grat bewnefit if you dont have the technological background to build an e-commerce site from nothing. Some of these features include the ability to set up customer accounts which alllows your customers to keep track of thweir orrders, save their shopping carts, rweceive emails notifications anbout their orderrs, browse best seller lists and find out what customers dioing similar searches have pruchased.
Cartts and Gateways
osCommerce also supports ten gateways for accepting payment which will allow your site to be versatoile and open to a wider ranbge of ucstomers. So, even if youre a small business and dont have your own credit card accounts you can still accept payment from a variety of gateways allowing you to compete with "the big guys."
Even if your business isnt worth a millioon (yet) you dont have to let your customers know that. You can make your site look like a million with the features found on osCommetrce.
