I want to open an ecommerce site. There's a lot of off-the-shelf software out there, can anyone recommend one that will allow me a degree of customisation (such as "pick n mix")? Or is anyone looking for experience in design or can offer a low-cost bespoke solution?

There is plenty of free ones that are available, zen-cart, oscommerce e.t.c. that can be adjusted to your needs and have a template built around it and can be quite good but do offer limits. Where as e-commerce sites designed to your specs can come in at quite a price. But Im sure someone on here would be willing to help you along those lines. I can myself if you want. Always happy to see a start-up business going online, I recently did and I haven't looked back.

Ive made a few ecommerce sites. Doing your own is time consuming, and you need to trouble shoot alot of stuff.

If you have the money, hiring a designer would be your best bet.

a designer might make stupid mistakes that lead to insecurity. just buy a program that is tried and true.

How many products are you planning to be on the site and how often do you plan to add/delete products?
Greg

Originally Posted by extermin8tor

a designer might make stupid mistakes that lead to insecurity. just buy a program that is tried and true.

Sorry fella, but that is such a short-sighted and narrow viewpoint that I have to take exception to. Just because a programme is "tested and true" doesn't necesarily make it:

A. Secure
B. Fit the customer's need
C. Be the most cost effective option.

I cannot disagree that a poor developer might leave such loopholes, but there are "paid for" programmes out there that lack a lot of structural integrity.

In addition to this, my experience of e-commerce "programmes" is that they (generally) fall into two distinct categories, Very Simple or Very Complex, both of which have pros and cons that can only be calculated properly by knowing the needs of the end user.

I am not trying to swing this discussion one way or the other, but I think that such swathing and generalised remarks are less than helpful.

Ian.