Just wonder if there are any themes designed with selling items in mind. Maybe even including some type of cart setup.
pretty much any theme could be used for selling items.
I saw Will had a theme that had a layout for ecommerce:
https://themeflood.com/preview/boutique/rapidcartpro/index.php?catalog/all/-/name/1
or look at this stack:
Take a look at Sprouting theme by Yuzzool Themes
1 Like
@dadama, Thanks. That one is interesting. I’ll review it further.
If you go to the RapidCart Pro site you’ll find several themes that have been optimised to work with it. Including Will’s Boutique theme at www.themeflood.com.
Rob
Thanks @robbeattie. I think what the RapidCart Pro site shows me is it will work easily with any theme.
@bruce I think the themes that have been optimised for Rapidcart Pro allow access to your basket from any page, not just the one with the plugin on.
1 Like
@bruce I have not tried any of these themes so I won’t offer any opinion on their individual merits but on a broader point I would suggest that selling online is a real science and requires considerable work to maximise conversion rates if you want to do well. Barely a day goes by when I am not looking at ways to improve the effectiveness of my site so for that reason I think it makes a lot of sense to start with a blank canvass like Foundation so you can basically do as you like.
On the subject of cart plugins I have never really seen any advantage in using these since you still have to go through a billing company, so I would be more inclined to check out what you can do through services such as Paddle, FastSpring or Gumroad. You don’t mention what you are selling but all of these would take care of EU VAT if you are dealing with digital downloads. In my case with FastSpring I just add a url to a billing page that they created and leave them to do the rest.
@ashleykaryl, Thanks for the info. My sales would be too small to justify a 3rd party billing company. I need to use PayPal. My hope is to find a RW cart solution that uses PayPal since setting up a PayPal cart through PayPal seems like a lot of work, although I’m looking at that.
@bruce I have used PayPal in the past and it would be a mistake to assume they are automatically cheaper than other alternatives, especially if you ever change currency. I seem to recall that PayPal charges a different amount depending on the location of the buyer and I’ve learned from experience that it’s really very limited.
I previously used e-junkie as a cart option and that cost me just $5 a month but there are also other similar cart options you can look at. It all really depends on what you are selling and I would argue that sometimes it makes good sense to pay 1% more if the billing company makes life much easier and improves conversions. Really it’s something you should consider with an open mind and look at various options.
@ashleykaryl, My needs are smaller than you can imagine. Even RapidCart Pro may be overkill. I doubt I’ll have more than 30 items for sale at any given time on a website, and all the sales will be to the US. On my Lash-It site I sell one product and I use a PayPal button. It works great for that. I have 2 other sites I’m working on where I will make online sales. I could probably set up a PayPal button for each item and sell them that way. I appreciate your suggestions and I will keep them in mind as I proceed.
Good luck with whatever solution you choose. Having never sold more than one item on a site the prospect of selling thirty already sounds like a lot to me. Regardless of whether your sales are large or small I would look for a solution that makes everything as simple as possible to manage. This becomes particularly important if your volumes grow.
We have recently sent a newsletter featuring some of the best RapidCart Pro ready themes available.
You can take a look here.
Themes from ThemeFlood offer an option to show cart in menu to get a “more integrated” effect.
Bruce I’ve got a site here that uses only paypal, it works absolutely fine for my client’s needs: http://www.wesmcghee.com/shop/
The paypal stack is here: https://www.yuzoolthemes.com/themes/cart/
@Gabrielle, Thanks for the suggestion. I have looked at that stack, and I think it is the one I will use. Seems perfect for my needs.
1 Like
Lovely jubbly 
Good luck!