Web Design Zen

How hard is it to build a custom shopping cart from scratch without using Zen Cart or OScommerce?

I know Web Design thoroughly, including PHP, mySQL and merchant accounts, I’ve just never built a shopping cart, and my client what’s a very specific design that cannot be made from any template.

Consider that you have to do some research first – there are legal ramifications to collecting credit card numbers and authentication codes. Either you’ll be doing that for free, or your client will be paying for your education.

Then (and if you’re experienced, you know this) you’re going to have to backtrack, look for ways to do this ands that, and your client is going to pay for that too.

It comes down to whether he’s really willing to pay for what he wants. Present him with a price for modifying the closest thing you can find to close to what he wants, and the price for writing exactly what he wants from scratch. (Give it your worst estimate – and double it. You won’t lose that much. It’ll probably take a little longer than double your worst guess.)

Or low-ball it and eat the time it takes, if you want to make a client happy.

I used to tell some clients that if they wanted me to rot fresh oats for them it would cost a lot more than getting oats that have already been through the horse, but the flowers would grow as nicely either way. A few of them actually opted to throw their money away (and I was only too glad to take it – as long as they understood that they were only paying for vanity. I believe in informed consent.)

Bending Zen – An intro to using the Zen Theme for Drupal