Help with choice of setup?

[marcc]

I am helping someone set up a website to sell gourmet packaged food. They need a shopping cart and I need for them to have a relatively easy-to-make-pretty setup (skinning in other words).

What is the best software to install on the server to get this done quickly and easily? A CMS like postnuke? And what is this osCommerce thing? It's been a long time since I helped anyone set up a shopping cart.

Tutorials etc. are especially welcome.

Thanks!

[Skunkboy]

osCommerce is the secure way to deal with your transactions. As for something skinable, postnuke is definately a better choice than phpnuke but anything is poor if you don't keep up with updates to security flaws.

I'm not a big php guru so can't be of much other help.

To enable osCommerce, log in to OPS then select Packages | HTTP (WebSite) and click on the osCommerce logo to proceed.

[marcc]

So will osCommerce create its own web pages and catalog automatically, or do I need to create the pages myself? I just want to get an idea of how automated it is.

Thanks.

[stevel]

osCommerce isn't the easiest shopping cart to "skin", though if you use one of the template contributions, that helps a lot.

When you have an osCommerce store set up, you add products to a database through an administration tool. The pages are then automatically created from the database. In the admin tool, you specify things such as product name, price, description, location of a picture (if any), and how many you have in stock. osCommerce also provides a secure way for customers to enter their personal information, but it's up to you to do something with it. There are "payment gateways" you can install that, for a fee, will process credit card transactions securely, or you can get the card information and use your own "offline" processing.

Once the store is set up, it is straightforward to add products and categories through the admin tool. Doing the setup can take a bit of work, more if you want extensive customization.

[marcc]

Thanks for the reply, Steve.

I wonder if there's an easier way for him to have a pretty website and sell things at the same time...would it be possible to list his items on the website with static code and include some simple "buy me now" links that take the visitor to some sort of third-party commercial e-commerce site that's already set up for credit transactions, reports, etc.?

I'm afraid I don't know who's out there (is Paypal any good?) so recommendations are welcome.

Thanks!