I was on the look out for a way to set up an online store without getting into the
programming of the shopping cart and order processing software. There are many web sites,
which allow you to set up an online store for free, but some of the good ones I located
allowed only payments in dollars. One of the sites was really very good and had very
attractive design options. The developers of this site being NRIs, I contacted them with a
query if they were likely to come out with a version for Indian users, which will accept
payment in rupees. "Yes, within next three to four months!" -they promised. It's
more than nine months since then, but I haven't yet heard of the Indian version from them.
E-Bazaar
Recently I came across a review of a stand-alone software package, which does the same
job, but not for free - it costs around Rs 40,000. I tried out the evaluation copy to find
out how useful it can be for the readers of CI.
The software package is called ‘e-bazaar’ distributed by Intelligent
Ideas Lab based in Delhi (email: snjain@vsnl.com). As the name suggests, it allows you to
build an e-bazaar on the Web. The developers claim that it is suitable for online stores
with 10 to 10,000 products. There is no way to check for 10,000 products, but I feel it
will be difficult to use for such a large number of products because it creates static
HTML pages from your database of products before uploading. Uploading a large number of
files through our ISP is slower than snail Internets connections which keep on getting
disconnected frequently is a nightmare.
However, if you have a reasonable number of products to sell online, this package can
take care of your requirements well. The e-bazaar package comes with a set of readymade
themes to use for your online store. You can select one of these themes (styles of web
pages) to start with.
Start with the dummies
There is also a prefabricated skeletal store with a few dummy products, which can be
your starting point. You can right click on these existing products and edit them to put
up your own products. A web site gets created on your local hard disk itself, while you
are editing or entering products. Once you get the feel of how it works, you can go on
adding sections, subsections and products to your online store. A preview facility allows
you to keep checking out your progress.
The user interface is like a standard Windows-based product, so most of the work
becomes intuitive. All you need to do is go on filling up details of your products as
prompted by the software. If you have a large number of products, there is a provision for
directly editing the database to add new products. Product photographs and links to
individual web pages about the particular products can also be entered, if you have the
data sheets for any of the products available in HTML format.
Catalogue preview
Every time you preview the catalog, all the HTML pages are generated and updated using
standard templates from the theme you selected in the beginning. If during a preview
session, you suddenly realize that you don't like that theme anymore, you can select
another theme and generate all the files again! Once your product information is complete,
you can run through all the themes available and select the best one suitable for your
store. Individual images for the company logo and other button icons can be changed to
your own logo and other button icons of your choice.
Redoing the shopping cart
The shopping cart is based on PERL programming, so you may not be able to check the
functioning of the actual shopping cart on your PC unless you have PERL installed and
working on your PC. You can check out the completed online store only after you upload it
to the web server.
At this point, you may realize the need for an outsider to come into the picture for
your do-it-yourself project. You need to have a web hosting company to host your domain
name and provide you with at least 5-MB web space with PERL support and a cgi-bin. You
need the FTP password for your web server account to be able to upload the e-bazaar site
from your PC to the Web.
The shopping cart may still refuse to work if the directory permissions are not
properly set on the web server for your cgi-bin and the PERL files uploaded by e-bazaar.
Don't panic! This can easily be sorted out with your web hosting company.
Payment protocol
Once the online store is up and running, you can check out the functioning by placing
some dummy orders. The e-bazaar package also includes back-end support for order
processing and report generation on your local PC. You get an e-mail every time a customer
places an order on your site. The actual order data is on the web server itself and needs
to be downloaded from time to time using the built-in interface provided with e-bazaar.
Your customers can pay in Indian rupees (or US dollars - if you have set the preference
for US dollars), using various methods. The payment methods allowed include credit card,
cheque/DD, invoice with delivery, cash on delivery, invoice and payment before delivery.
The transactions are secure.
When people start visiting your online store - there is a possibility that you may not
like to have the template-based appearance for your store. The e-bazaar package has an
answer for this. You can customize the HTML templates used to create the pages and change
the appearance of your site. This requires understanding of HTML and of the way the pages
get created from the templates. You may need outside help again at this point to carry on
with your do-it-yourself venture.
Budgeting your shop
Considering the possible need for outside help, the cost of setting up your online
store may go up to around Rs 60,000. Add the cost of promoting your online store to this
and you will get the budgetary estimate of your project cost. Allocate enough funds for
the project before you jump onto the e-commerce bandwagon.
A very good product, but I find the price of the e-bazaar package on the higher side
for a one-time user who is not comfortable with HTML and web page design.
Ashok Dongre is an advertising and marketing professional, specializing in web site
design. He can be contacted via e-mail at dongre@usa.net