e-commerce clothing site in .NET from the scratch or site copy ? suggestions please

Question

Hi all,

I am thinking to create an e-commerce site for a clothing business. I have bit of a development knowledge in c# .net, html, css and other web technologies. Could you please advise on these questions ?

1. Is it a good idea to create a site from the scratch ? I have a running example of such a site, however it is bit old. So can I start with old site and change the html and code behind ?

2. Some people argue that it is better to use MVC for ecommerce site. Any good reasons ? BTW I don't know MVC, but can learn if I have to use it.

3. It is decided to use .NET but if you have any ideas of better technologies, please let me know.

4. Any ideas and issues related to payment system also welcome.

Any answer will be appreciated. Thanks

Rgds,

Answer 1

Why not just go with a Commercially available eCommerce package like AspDotNetStorefront?

There's really no good reason to roll your own unless you have extremely custom needs or you're trying to develop another piece of eCommerce software.

Answer 2

Even as a passionate .NET developer I would suggest to go with "Magento" or "Oxid" (Both are PHP solutions, both are open sourced, both have commercial licences available, both are very mature.). E-Commerce is a domain where the question build vs. buy can be most often answered with "buy". The .NET space, as far as I know, has nothing comparable.

Answer 3

Never code what you can steal or borrow (with credit due), buy (within reason) or where you can reuse.

Unless there is a logical reason to build it yourself (you have a better idea, want to optimize something, etc. or you are looking for a toy project), you should look into one of the many freely available or low cost platforms out there.

You could also look into a hosted package, it would be faster and in the long run considering time/cost of your own time, likely cheaper.

Also keep in mind, there is a difference between making 'store front' software, e.g. a shopping cart and building an eCommerce website.

That later requires the shopping cart itself and the appropriate consumption of payment gateway APIs, etc.