Ecommerce?! what?!

MikaKitty · Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 6:10 am Post subject: Ecommerce?! what?!

Ok so I have been wanting to do my own little Net shop.................. But when I checked how to get a shopping cart thingy to sell things I find that I dont know what I am doing ..............................................and I dont know what I need I mean I have seen things for hundreds of dollars but I dont think that is what I need................... Anyone got any advice?
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~"I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.

Frundock · Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 11:13 am Post subject:

Depends of what you want to do. But i can become quite expensive to do commerce on your own. On the Internet.

You need SSL certificates for security. Then you need some company to do payment processing. You could use paypal or something of the sort, it's not the best you can have, but it works.

Then you also need some software to put your stuff online. Do you have many items you want to sell, in that case, something dynamix may be needed. There's OS Commerce, I once read it's pretty good and it's free

http://www.oscommerce.com/

Anyways, it's no small task, and I wish you good luck.

MikaKitty · Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 12:27 pm Post subject:

Seriously I am starting to get really discourages there are alot of things out there but they are all really expensive.

And then I was thinking of havingyahoo host my website and they have a bundle offer that is still a little over my budget. AND I am not sure if it has everything I need. I dont know if it has te ssl certificates but I do agree I will need those otherwise people will be afraid to by stuff.

Thanks for you help .
_________________
~"I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.

frozen_chicken · Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2006 9:59 am Post subject:

Just sell your items on E-bay if you just wanna sell things alot easier and a pretty reliable base on creating customer trust and your own basic safety.

silvermirage · Yari Ashigaru Joined: Nov 20, 2004 Posts: 232

Rhysticgon · A-Source Staff Joined: Jun 25, 2005 Posts: 208

Yahoo hosting would mostlikely be for you, the merchant hosting that is. It is on the flip side of being a little over expensive (30 a month) but youll get a website with a domain and yahoo will set everything up for you (ssl certificates are guaranteed, and it has many features like what you want to set the shipping methods to what you want to add to include shipping rates, taxes etc.) So basically all you have to do is design a page (which it has one of those website builder things to help you out; if you want to see what its like im sure yahoo has a freehosting thing for personal website you can check out).

As far as it goes though, theres quite a few things youll have to do yourself, for instance even though yahoo lets you set the shipping method and costs and junk, you still have to make negotiations with the shipping company. or of course you can keep going to the ups store and shipping out packages as orders come in (this way would be opt for a beginning merchant since you prob wont have many orders).

So yeah if you dont have extensive knowledge of how to set these things up, (which if you did, you could go as low as 10 dollars a month with a domain name and website etc.) yahoo is your best choice.

On the flip side, does anyone know how taxes work through online? For instance say I owned a cigar shop, I know I have to pay the tax just to buy it from a supplier, and for me that would be NJ state tax, now would I have to pay tax again to ship it from nj and then another tax to the state? basically what im asking is, how the hell do taxes work through online? Im talking about In USA only, not worrying about international till I get domestic sorted Razz

. I want to know how taxes would work online starting from when I buy from my supplier to when I ship to another state) Ive always wondered about this, because if its three fold, for a single shop to go onilne with orders would be losing profit then making... woudlnt it?

MikaKitty · Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2006 8:55 am Post subject:

well thank you for your advice. and I agree......it is way to confusig and I dont have the intelligence or knowlegde to do it on my own. ^_^ though I might upgrade later. much later.

I did the yahoo doman and host thingy for 11 a month. the merchant small business thingy was way to expensive for my little pocket. and right now i am working on my webstie so far so good. I still havent gotten to the product page though....kind of prolonging it out of fear. Because I know it will be really hard when i get there. ^_^

I will probably link it.

anyways I dont know anything about taxes. I honestly I am not sure where you can find out. O_O I am sorry . >_> there must be taxes right I mean ..........things online have charge you tax right?
_________________
~"I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.

Rhysticgon · A-Source Staff Joined: Jun 25, 2005 Posts: 208

theres no doubt in my mind that there are taxes, but the question is more like this:

If I am a local merchant. I buy a product in wholesale from a supplier. I have to pay the tax there just to buy it. Now I post the product for sale online, when the consumer buys it, the consumer has to pay his state tax. Do I have to pay state tax again just to send it out? or how does the profit margin work on this?

sorry for pressing on this... its been confusing me forever Sad

Frundock · Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2006 11:43 pm Post subject:

Here's how it works in the province of Quebec/Canada. I keep a different account with taxes in it. The province tax and the federal one. For each sale I do, I keep record of how much taxes were paid (note that you need to be registred at the gov. to charge taxes, if you make sales of aboce 30'000 $ a year, it is obligatory).

Then every 3 months, I make two checks to the respective gov to give them their taxes. Good thing, I get credit for the taxes I pay when my company buys stuff.

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Now, it's probably not the same for your state, but it should be similar.

Rhysticgon · A-Source Staff Joined: Jun 25, 2005 Posts: 208

Do you charge the consumer for both sets of taxes from both governments / provinces /states ? Or do you pay your provinces tax and the consumer must pay his/her provinces/state's tax? Or do you pay both taxes on your own and the consumer gets a by on the taxes? Reason im asking is because, unless you are well established, taxes could break an online local merchant it seems, because possibly the incoming revenue would be less then the amount lost on all the fees to maintain an online venue... is that right? (mainly about the tax though ^_^) and thanks for clarifying frundock

Frundock · Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 7:43 pm Post subject:

Say I charge 100 $ for a cow.

TPS (federal tax is 7%) 7 $
TVQ (provincial tax is 7.5% over the Price + TPS) 8,03 $

Total of 115,03 $

So I charge the client 115.03 then I keep in my balance the TPS and TVQ to send it to the gov.

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When I buy stuff, I pay tax. It's the only rule. You don't pay tax for selling stuff. The consumer pays the tax and you, give it back to the owner, your gov.

When you buy stuff, you pay tax. Not your future consumer. So say you buy cows for 75 $ + 15% to a grand total of 86.25 $... Now it's up to you to make a profit out of it. You can sell it 87 % and make 75 cents of profit.

I know here, I can get credits for the taxes I pay, as a registred commerce. However, don't take this for granted as it might not be the same in your state.