I'm looking at starting up a side hustle to make some extra money, selling stuff online, but for the supplier I need a good shopping cart that's safe. To get the account they need to verify all of this.

I will need to set up a whole website to host it, which I know will depend on who is the host as far as upkeep and maintenance and ease of use, which I don't know much about. I do know that some of the carts won't work with all of the hosts, so that is more important than just how the site works on the back side.

I'm not tech savvy kind of guy when it comes to this, so I just don't know.

This is not a firearm related business, and I don't have anything set to advertise here. Just asking about the site construction.

In for the replies - I may also need a "web outlet" in the next year.

I use wix to host my site and use their shopping cart.
I got my domain from godaddy then linked it to wix.

Website is not gun related, https://www.ncwoodturningtools.com/

Send me an IM with your email in it and I will send to my wife, she has been doing this very exact thing for over 20 years now and can help you out with the correct direction to go, to get it up, running and taking orders.

I looked hard at Shopify a year ago. Ended up using an open source solution that takes more configuration and setup than it sounds like you're comfortable doing. I'd check them out if you're looking and willing to pay for turn key.

PM inbound.

I know enough about code to know that I don't want to know more. I've never really read much about it, know that I would probably mess up so much that I would probably launch Soviet missiles instead.

I'll look at Shopify to see what they can offer, thanks for the suggestion!

Bumping for other ideas.

Looking at your site, and looking at Wix. I like it. It looks simple to create and use, plus a bunch of other add one. Are their add ons included or are they an Al a carte thing?

I have heard a lot about GoDaddy, is that just register the domain?

There are quite a few options that are very easy to set up, secure, and completely turn key.

Squarespace, Wix, etc.

Check them all out, pick one, and start building.

I have used Shopify for the 2A Webstore, My own Jakefab store, and NEMO is setup with a Shopify back end on a custom Drupal front end.


If it's gun related you will have to have a separate card processor, but that's no problem.


Shopify is very easy, and works great.

Depending on what type of stuff you are selling (multiple sizes, colours, etc.) will
help determine how complex of sight you need

The dead easiest is PayPal. They now offer a 'cart'

You can have individual items go right into a paypal cart.
If there are no variable in the items, it's much simpler

Big Commerce is a solid shop cart solution. You get a site built around the shop cart engine then you can customize as much or as little as you want to or are able to. We use this for several of our clients.

You could go with a wordpress as a CMS and woocommerce for your commerce functionality.

What functions do you need? Just ordering the actual physical goods and paying by credit card/money order?

What's your timeframe? I'm looking to get into that space and I might be willing to do it for free if I can use your site for my portfolio.

I'm looking for pretty soon, need to get the site and all set before I can apply for the account, but still not like tomorrow.

It's mostly a drop ship business, but thinking of about the top 50 or 100 or so products and put them in the store, the supplier has 1500+ brands, there is no feasible way I could put those on the site. Still thinking that part out as far as what the best way is.

Maybe hit the top 100 products, top 20 fitments for some of those.

That is how they started out - being a domain name registration portal.

Now they will do almost everything, but charging for every little thing. I moved one of my domains there and was shocked to find out they only provide ONE email address for the domain, each additional costs extra...

When my pre-paid term is up my domain will be moved to a new home.

Another domain I took over - (founder wanted out and I was co-admin) is hosted in Hong Kong. Price and service beats my US hosted domains. I am hoping I can find a domestic provider for the domain I have @ goDaddy.com that can match the price of the HK provider.

OP, you might take a look at 2Checkout (or "2CO") - They are a credit card processing service that includes their own shopping cart.

Basically, you just put "Buy It Now" links on your own website for each item you're selling, with each link directing the customer to the shopping cart which 2CO provides for you on their secure website - They get the customer's name & shipping address, process the credit card transaction, and email you the details about the sale. After you mark the item as being shipped on 2CO's website, they direct-deposit the proceeds from the sale into your business checking account.

Since they handle all the credit card details, you don't need a secure certificate for you own website. You can use what ever domain registration service and hosting service you want for your own website.

2CO doesn't charge any up-front fees - Instead, they keep a small percentage of the proceeds from every sale you make as payment.