Generating Quotes from a "Shopping Cart"

[Xel]

New guy here.

I plan to create an E-commerce site.
I have no prior experience and I'm looking on some advice where to start.
My site will not require instant check out.

What I would like to do is generate emails to me from which I can create quotes.
I would like the user to "add to cart" the items and quantity they choose, then continue shopping.
When done I would like for them to be able to request a quote of all their carted items.

Is this functionality built into existing shopping cart software?
A friend of mine suggested he could build a wordpress site for me and code these features in.
I'm not averse to doing so.. but I do not want to recreate the wheel if I don't have to.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

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[Nosferatu]

Sounds like your talking about a submit form to me.... or a wishlist function like amazon.. lol or am i over thinking this?

 

[Xel]

Well the industry I am entering is high priced.
One Item is a couple thousand dollars and the customer would usually buy multiple items at a time.
Traditionally the prices are quoted due to the high price and variable shipping cost.
The shipping will be substantial and vary greatly based on distance.

So the customer would select an item, then select any customization they would like for the item.
When they are done selecting items they would submit for quote.
That's where I would figure out the pricing and add in the shipping before finaly getting back to the customer by phone or email.

 

[Nosferatu]

Ok... well that can be done with some PHP/Programming ability - you could outsource this function to somebody on odesk..

So provided you have this "e-commerce store"

With items

And options

etc...


How would something like this scale?

If every request is interpreted by you, that means your building a website in which you're the integral part of making the system work.

I mean, i guess if you have guidelines you could outsource that part of it too.. but still.. seems too hands on -- but that might just be because i don't know what niche you're going after (not that i want to know either)

just my 2 cents.
Good luck sir!

 

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[Xel]

Thanks for the input.

Should I start developing in wordpress or would it be easier/better to start with something different?

It can be totally outsourced to a sales person at any time.
It would just decrease my margins and open me up to INSIDERS threat type of competition.
Starting small I could easily do this portion of the business myself until necessary.
There are many people in the industry now that move 10mil of product by themselves.
If it gets too time consuming I will outsource.

 

[Xel]

OK, So I have spent my nights this week researching how to get my site launched.
I'm even more intimidated than when I started...
I did find an engineer that I work with who is willing to help me, but at a price yet to be agreed apon.
We should start meeting next week. I would like to be prepared for that meeting.

I'm still wondering if wordpress is the right platform to build off of.
The site will basicly be an "E-commerce" store.
Except instead of actualy checking out it would generate a quote information.
Also, each item will need to be user customized via a menu.

It seems like most e-commerce software comes with most of what I need.
Can platforms like Shopify be customized to my needs?
Or do I realy need to start from scratch with wordpress?
I don't have a 10K busdget for my site, I was hoping to keep it under 1K.

 

[Nosferatu]

What your asking for can be done for less than 200 bucks. Seriously.

 

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[Xel]

$200, that would be great!
Except that if I don't know what CMA to use and if any of the plugins are mod able and or which ones to mod, then how can I spec out what I need to the programmer? I'm a total nub with web design. Which is why I am asking for advice.

I have been researching every day and I'm slowly getting more competent.
It seems like since I want to start cheap and I want some standard e-commerce functionality I should start with woocommerce.
Maybe I can just mod the shopping cart function in woo to do what I want.

I was also looking into Bigcommerce functionality. It looks like it does everything I would want minus the quotes.
Can you mod paid licensed software like Bigcommerce?

 

[Xel]

Picked a host and registered a domain today.
Will work on getting Wordpress up and going this week.
I know a computer engineer who can help me with my customizations.
He seems confident that we can make it work.
I will update with the cost once its complete.

 

[PeeVee]

You can use WooCommerce but BigCommerce and Shopify will be more expensive in the long run. That said I have used both and I preferred Shopify. The BigCommerce themes were causing lost sales on mobile which was most of my visits. This is because it was hard as hell to even tell that something had been added to the cart.

Test the theme template on your mobile before committing. My personal vote is for Shopify if you are going to be paying monthly fees.

 

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[jgodfrey82]

New guy here.

I plan to create an E-commerce site.
I have no prior experience and I'm looking on some advice where to start.
My site will not require instant check out.

What I would like to do is generate emails to me from which I can create quotes.
I would like the user to "add to cart" the items and quantity they choose, then continue shopping.
When done I would like for them to be able to request a quote of all their carted items.

Is this functionality built into existing shopping cart software?
A friend of mine suggested he could build a wordpress site for me and code these features in.
I'm not averse to doing so.. but I do not want to recreate the wheel if I don't have to.

Any advice would be appreciated.

If you havent done this yet pm me, I created the exact thing for my hosting site at cci-fl.com in wordpress using wpcommerce store. The user creates the cart and "saves it for later" in which point it emails them a copy and allows them to come back later to checkout or allows me to create a cart and email it to the customer for checkout.

 

[Xel]

Quick update, I have decided to steer away from the shopping cart and complicated menu system. After soaking in more information from the forum, mainly Andy Black, I realize that I would be making the quote process to much of a hassle without enough added value to justify it. The new format will encourage the user to quickly fill out the minimal quote request form. The custimization options will be clearly layed out in tables for the user to quickly research.
I hope to have a working site next week.