E-commerce was the theme for the summer here at Pilcrow. I did two sites, harriettehartigan.com and heavenlymetal.com, which had almost identical back ends, though of course they look very different on the outside. It was really fascinating how these two clients, who were like night and day in terms of style, aesthetics, and their products, had virtually identical requirements for their websites:

1. Both are sole proprietors (or nearly so) who wanted to be able to update the website on their own.

2. Both wanted blogs.

3. Both wanted e-commerce.

4. Both wanted e-newsletters, which I will write about in a separate post.

5. I know, I know. Everyone says they are on a tight budget, but with the economy the way it is right now, especially here in Michigan, shoestring doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Setting up a website that’s cheap, easy to update and has blogging capabilites is easy enough: WordPress. I can’t say enough good things about WordPress. For a small business website it simply can’t be beat. It’s quick to learn, lightweight, more-or-less standards-compliant, and it has an impressive support community behind it. And it’s perfect for those shoestring budgets because it’s so quick and easy to set up, not to mention the scads of free themes that are already out there.

The only problem with WordPress is that there isn’t a good e-commerce solution to go with it. As far as I know, there is only one plug-in, WP e-commerce, and it doesn’t work very well. I have also looked at the Market Theme and although I think it has good potential, it is still quite new and a bit rough around the edges. (I have high hopes for it, though, and I’m keeping an eye on it for future projects.) A third possibility would be to use an entirely separate e-commerce package such as Zen Cart or osCommerce. However, the amount of time it would have taken me to integrate the shop with the rest of the site was cost-prohibitive; plus, these packages are weighed down with far more features than my clients would ever need.

Finally I decided to use the WP e-commerce plugin for both sites, but it was not easy. I’m no PHP expert, but even I can tell that the code could have been a lot cleaner. I ended up doing a lot of editing in the core files — heaven help me if I ever need to upgrade the installation — and giving a lot of embarrassing extra instructions to my clients. For example, it doesn’t work to change a product image unless you simultaneously re-upload the thumbnail. And transactions get recorded in the log as soon as a visitor clicks on the “Make Purchase” button, even if they never actually complete the transaction.

Nevertheless, my two clients are now happily in charge of their own sites, both blogging and selling. As for me, I now own a couple of Baggus and a Baggallini purse, which I adore!