PHP 5 e-commerce Development- P6 pot

PHP e-commerce
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eBay
According to eBay's website, there are approximately 84 million active users of eBay,
with users trading more than $1,900 worth of goods each second. That means 84
million of us are using eBay to buy and sell goods, either as a business sustaining
a regular turnover, or to try and make a little extra cash by selling unwanted or
unneeded things knocking about the house.
eBay is a social e-commerce site, operating as an online auction house, whereby they
don't actually sell anything themselves, but instead allow their community of users
to not only buy but also sell through their site. This not only illustrates the popularity
of e-commerce, but also that there is money to be made in providing a stage for low
(and high) volume online purchases.
Amazon
With revenue of over $19 billion in 2008, Amazon is one of the most popular
e-commerce sites on the Internet. Research in early 2009 indicated that it was
the favorite retailer for both video and music in the UK.
Brick 'N Mortar stores
Large, established Brick 'N Mortar stores such as Wal-Mart, Tesco, and Borders
use online shops to sell the products they generally keep in store. With the likes of
Wal-Mart and Tesco, customers often book a delivery timeslot for their groceries to
be delivered. They also offer more than what is available in store, which they can
easily bolt on for the convenience of their customers. With online retail, sellers are
not conned to what they can stock on the shelves, but what they can store in their
distribution warehouses.
Smaller, niche-based Brick 'N Mortar stores use online selling as a way to
target their products to a wider audience, without the limitation of their
existing physical presence.
Service-based companies
Companies such as 37signals are setting up online applications (such as Project
Management tool, BaseCamp) with monthly subscription models. Other examples of

such sites include large le distribution websites (allowing you to "e-mail" large les
using a third-party website) and premium features on certain websites, for example
Get Satisfaction.
This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by jackie tracey on 23rd February 2010
953 Quincy Drive, , Brick, , 08724
Chapter 1
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Why use e-commerce?
The popularity of online shopping has increased dramatically over the past few
years. Not only does it provide the convenience of allowing customers to shop
in the comfort of their own home, it also allows businesses to trade on a global
marketplace, targeting even more potential customers. Because everything is done
electronically, e-commerce stores can also help generate recurring revenue, by
recommending new products to customers based on previous purchases, and
by keeping them up to date with the store's catalog.
Rolling out your own framework
Throughout the course of this book, we are going to build a framework of our
own, using PHP, as opposed to making use of an existing product. Sometimes, it is
more appropriate to use existing solutions; sometimes it is better to use your own
solutions. As you are reading this book, hopefully you know why you want to create
your own framework. However, let's look at why we are going to create ours.
Why PHP?
PHP is a very popular language, and because it isn't a framework in its own right,
we can easily structure our framework out of it, however we wish. The main choice
for a programming language is generally down to your own preference.
Most modern web hosts support PHP and MySQL, and while languages like
Ruby on Rails are gaining popularity, at the moment hosting for them is not as
common. This book assumes that you already have a reasonable understanding of
PHP, so hopefully that will also be an important factor in why you want to use PHP;
perhaps you need to develop something quickly, and don't want to use a language or

platform that is out of your comfort zone.
Why a framework?
Instead of looking to create an e-commerce system, designed to perform all types of
e-commerce tasks, we will create a framework. This will make it easy to extend the
needs of any e-commerce project with minimal effort. Because we are creating our
own framework, it is going to be something we will know and understand very
well, meaning that if we do need to extend it or use it, we can do so easily.
This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by jackie tracey on 23rd February 2010
953 Quincy Drive, , Brick, , 08724
PHP e-commerce
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While a typical e-commerce system may show products within a browse or search
interface, a framework could allow us to integrate products into other areas of a
website; for instance, pulling certain categories of product into relevant pages,
particularly useful for a website that needs to do more than just sell online. For
example, if we were selling books, we could have pages dedicated to certain authors
with information, reviews, and other media about the author, and then integrate
some of their popular products into the page.
When to use an existing package?
There are already a number of e-commerce systems available, written in various
different languages, and sometimes it is more appropriate to use such a product,
for example:
When you have a tight deadline for a project, and you don't have a
framework in place
When there are lots of developers on the project; something with more
documentation available would probably be more useful, at least initially
(unless the framework was developed by most of the developers)
When a client has indicated a preference
When the features match—if another system has all the features you need
and want, and it works in a way you are comfortable with, then it would be

more appropriate to use the existing system
Existing products
Of the e-commerce applications that are already available, the following are amongst
the most popular:
Magento: This is a very modular and exible e-commerce platform, which is
becoming more widespread in its usage.
Drupal e-commerce: Drupal is a popular content management system, which
is easy to extend and modify. There are two packages of modules, Ubercart
and Drupal e-commerce, which add a wealth of e-commerce functionality to
the popular CMS.
CubeCart: This is a simple-to-use e-commerce solution, available with both
free and paid versions.
A look at e-commerce sites
We have already taken a brief look at who is using e-commerce; let's take a more
detailed look at some popular e-commerce sites, and see how they work and what
features they provide to their users.
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This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by jackie tracey on 23rd February 2010
953 Quincy Drive, , Brick, , 08724
Chapter 1
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iStockphoto
iStockphoto is a popular website for buying and selling stock photography.
Photographers can register on the website and submit their photographs for

approval. Approved photographs can then be purchased by customers for a
number of credits, depending on the size of the photograph and the license they
wish to purchase it under.
Features
Approval process for sellers: Photographs are approved by iStockphoto
before being available for purchase.
• Flexibility for sellers: Sellers can choose their prices, multiple image sizes,
and the licenses they wish to sell the image under.
• Credits: Because most stock photograph purchases equate to only a few
dollars, iStockphoto has a credits system whereby the customers purchase
at least $10 of credits, which are assigned to their accounts. These credits
are then deducted when they make a purchase.
• Social: Photographs can be rated and commented on, making the website
very social and interactive.
WooThemes
WooThemes is quickly becoming a popular online shop for custom themes, but
operates quite differently to most theme-selling websites. Purchases are either a
theme package (the theme and accompanying color schemes), or a one-off fee along
with a monthly subscription allowing the customer to purchase any themes they
wish in a particular month, backed up with reassurances of a minimum number
of themes each month.
WooThemes also invites established members of the web design community to
create themes for the site, helping to raise the prole of the site and continue their
ability to offer quality themes.
Features
In-depth knowledge of industry and respected designers to help increase
their product offering (not strictly a feature)
Two types of purchases, each with two tiers, providing access to
different downloads:
Recurring payments

Membership-based offers
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This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by jackie tracey on 23rd February 2010
953 Quincy Drive, , Brick, , 08724
PHP e-commerce
[ 12 ]
eBay
We discussed earlier, that eBay is an online auction house, but what features does it
have to support its business?
Features
Powerful search feature to nd products
Purchase products directly—"Buy it now"
Bid for products/express interest in purchasing
Make payments and manage orders
Amazon
While Amazon doesn't operate as an online auction house, as eBay does, it still has
a number of social aspects to it, including ratings, reviews, and recommendations.
It also allows users of the site to sell their own copies of products listed within the
store, through the Amazon Marketplace. This market place functionality is also
integrated within their main product listing, informing customers that they can also
purchase used and new copies of a product, from non-Amazon sellers, through its
market place.
Features
On a basic level, Amazon.com provides the following features to its users:
Browse and search for products
Rate and review products

Purchase products
Make payments and manage orders
Sell products through the Marketplace
Play.com
Play.com operates in a similar way to Amazon: it not only sells products, but also
allows users to sell their own items (branded as PlayTrade). One notable difference
with Play.com is the categorization of products, which also allows more dynamic
categories such as products under a certain amount, or seasonal items (for example,
Christmas present ideas).
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This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by jackie tracey on 23rd February 2010
953 Quincy Drive, , Brick, , 08724