Belchamp Walter eCommerce

This is a subject that I am currently researching. At the present time I have no advice to give on the matter only that the implementation of a "Shopping Cart" needs to be done properly.

However, I think that this is rather a "storm in a teacup" as a Paypal "Buy Now" button seems to be easily configured. This is also the same for an Amazon Pay button.

Shopping Cart Software Review

I start with Shopify as there is a business in the village that uses that platform.

The shopify platform seems to have a pretty good shopping cart but I cannot say as I have made a purchase from an online store that I know uses it.

My research continues for other offerings, Ecwid advertise on the W3C Schools website, on which I spend quite a bit of time. There is a bit of a dichotomy here as those that would be looking at W3C coding are not likely to be the same as those that are looking for solutions where they have limited experience.

Building it myself

On researching this I find that there are many solutions for both "hard coders" like myself, platforms similar to Shopify and even solutions for integration with Wordpress. In fact the Wordpress solution can actually be free using WooCommerce.

I can find code for a shopping cart written in php and I have the capability to implement it on any of my sites.

Ecwid and Wordpress

There are a number of other options available to add an eCommerce package to an existing website. From what I can gather Shopify has an opensource sdk that can be added to pretty much anything and Ecwid claims that you can add a free account to an existing website.

Ecwid give pretty comprehensive instructions on how to add their eCommerce account to Wordpress and pretty much any platform, including sites built with a "site builder" such as Wix, Squarespace and Weebly. The emphasis is as usual the fact that you don't need to know how to code websites - I do!

Ecwid's "free" account limits you to 10 products. It is not clear whether this 10 maximum over all time or 10 maximum at any one time. If it is any 10 at one time and you can change these over time then that is more than adequate for the "Friends" eCommerce store.

Ecwid also offer a "Buy Now Button" that they say can be added to blogs and forum posts. However, you need to signup to Ecwid to find out how that works. Similar to Shopify, Ecwid seem to rely a lot on getting you to signup for free and it is somewhat difficult to determine what you can do with the "free" offerings. I seem to feel that there is too much effort placed on getting potential customers to commit on the hope that they will either upgrade to a paid package once you have made the initial time commitment.

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Belchamp Walter eCommerce