Member Avatar for brian31

Hi. I have a small retail business and plan to start a website. I'm looking for some automated solutions that makes it easier to run my business online. I have 2 questions:

Q1. Is there any popular ecommerce software I can use that helps with web content management, inventory management, processing orders, etc?

Q2. Are there any companies that will manage my website for me? Doing things like updating my inventory, managing web content, processing orders, handling customer service issues, etc? It's mainly a desk job, but I don't want to sit behind a screen all day. Any good virtual assistants maybe?

Thanks!

  • 6 Contributors
  • 5 Replies
  • 347 Views
  • 4 Years Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by MagentoC

Dani AI

Generated

A concise, practical roadmap for the two questions raised by , building on points from , , and .

First: how to choose a platform. Evaluate candidates against a checklist of capabilities (content management, SKU-level inventory with history, configurable order workflows, multiple payment gateways, carrier API support, tax rules, export/import and APIs/webhooks, role-based access, backups and PCI considerations, extensibility and community/plugins). Decide SaaS vs self-hosted based on budget, maintenance appetite and performance needs; include realistic TCO (hosting, extensions, developer time). Prioritize systems that offer clean APIs or webhooks—the easier the integration, the simpler the automation and accounting sync will be.

Integration and automation patterns (echoing ): prefer real‑time or near‑real‑time API syncing for orders and stock; where APIs aren’t available use scheduled CSV with robust error-handling and an “exceptions” queue. Required steps: standardize SKU naming, map fields to accounting ledger codes, build a test harness with sample orders, implement reconciliation reports (daily sales vs. payments vs. stock), and add idempotent updates so retries don’t double-process.

Managed help and virtual assistants (building on and ): outsource incrementally. Start by documenting SOPs for inventory updates, product uploads and order exceptions. Use limited, role-specific accounts with MFA, a staging environment for content changes, and credential rotation. Run a paid trial, require references, use NDAs, and keep an owner-level approval for payments/refunds. Retain logs and weekly audit reports.

Operational automations to implement first: automatic order acknowledgement, rule-based carrier selection and bulk label printing, reorder triggers and safety stock, an RMA workflow, and templated customer responses for common issues. Track KPIs (fulfillment time, accuracy, stockouts, refund rate) and expand outsourcing only after steady results.

Recommended Answers

All 5 Replies

Member Avatar for fionix

If you want to have sucess with your e-com venture then you will need to put some time into it.
For your shopping system you should look into OSCommerce or ViArt, finally to make it full automatically then you will need someone to make some software that will build the link from your shopping system to your accounting system.

Member Avatar for coolsaint

1. Hagio Web Hosting has oscommerce script like other webhosting Companies in built that means you can install oscommerce in a click.
2. You will find many guys in different forums to mange the system but I will not suggest you to take full managed service. Because it is ecommerce and your virtual assistant can be a scammer. You should take control in one point.

Member Avatar for JoGonRu

There are many good solutions out there, the main question is what you need for your company. For fully mananged solutions that you own the license to the software, I would suggest shopsite, , or xSellit.

With xSellit, not only do you own your license, but they do the work for you, they can even put your products in for you.

However, that said, day to day management is something you should be involved in. After all, it is your business. I might suggest finding a college student or technical college student that you could hire part time to manange your store after launching it. It is probably cheaper and with solutions today, most of the management can be done online from any location.

Hope that helps!

Member Avatar for vaishnav2010

I want some Indian Free Article / Classifieds / Boobkmarking Dir List
Plz Suggest......

Member Avatar for MagentoC

I would suggest that you need to invest some time to study various ecommerce solutions around such as Magento, OSCommerce, X-cart, CS Cart.. I would suggest you can go with Magento as it's free and open source.. you can get it installed in few mins and you can start with any free theme available but certainly you need to invest some time to get acquainted with it.. you get lots of free and paid extension as per your needs.. checkout their website at http://www.magentocommerce.com

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.