Free eCommerce Website with Google Sites and PayPal

I started with the goal of creating a website that had no ongoing costs, minimal transaction fees, and low maintenance. The option to have all the features integrated into one website? Or do I manage the website and let a third party do the financial transactions? security is the key to answering this question, a third party will be my choice. First of all, I did a lot of research on free web hosting solutions, benefits, security and 100% uptime. The list was narrowed down to a few, I tried them out and settled on the Google sites that ticked all the boxes. The main disadvantage is also an advantage, it blocks a lot of code, which makes it difficult to implement lots of features, but it greatly increases security.

I have decided on my web hosting, now look at the payment systems. The customer would have to be redirected to a secure website, the data passed between my website and the shopping cart had to be minimal as this can be hijacked or changed. I looked at a lot of cool java and php based shopping carts, but in the end, they were all still delivered via code that someone smart enough could easily change. PayPal and Google Checkout are the main players, being in Australia, Google Checkout was ruled out so I worked with PayPal.

Google Sites are very easy to use, you first give the website a name, choose a template and play around with the formatting. Add a picture of the item you want to sell, then put it in your mind for a moment, now we turn to PayPal.

Create a PayPal account and change the account type to Business at http://www.PayPal.com. PayPal gives you the option to create pre-made buttons that are attached to your account, and since no dollar amount or item quantity is transferred between sites, it’s very secure.

Creating a PayPal button:

Profile >> My Saved Buttons >> Create New Button

Select Yes; create an “Add to cart” button.

Give the item a name, if you have multiple of the same items, include an item number.

Choose a price

Additional options:

Postage weight or postage cost for that item.

Track inventory, PayPal can prevent people from buying items if it runs out of stock.

Once the button is created, select the email tab, copy the code and save it for later.

Go back to your Google site web page and add an image to use as the “add to cart” button. This can be the one previously provided by PayPal or you can choose to create your own image. Make sure you’re happy with the size, Google sites give you the option of small, medium or large, but if you want something different you can change it in the HTML code option.

select the image, then click the link button at the top. This is where you link your button to PayPal, choose the link to an external website, and paste the PayPal link you saved earlier.

My end result is:

http://www.dollclothes.com.au