

Recommendation for Online Store Software - segfault

My friend's parents own a (physical, actual building) adult clothing store[lingerie/costumes]. It's extremely profitable.<p>They asked me (10+ years programming on Linux, mastery of C; familiar enough to hack x86 assembly / GPU / ruby / python / haskell code; can read php / javascript / actionscript) for assistance with building an online store.<p>They already have an artistically talented graphic designer. The question is, what software to use for:<p>1) running the backend of the online store
2) processing credit card / payments
3) automatically sending orders for shipment
4) logging everything [for data mining &#38; finding consumer patterns]<p>Given background knowledge of:
1) I have worked through parts of the Ruby on Rails 3rd edition book for fun and
2) They aren't 'innovating' in building a better online store / better web2.0 website; the goal is just to sell online what they're already selling in the physical store<p>I believe the right solution is to:<p>1) find some existing open source / commercial ( &#60; $100 / month) software that handles all  this
2) throw the store online, see how profitable selling this online is
3) rewrite everything [server, credit card processing, shipment] if the commercial solution's over head (inefficiency, or transaction costs) is a big deal (i.e. when volume is high)<p>The questions are:<p>1) does the analysis for using pre-existing online software instead of rolling our own sound right?<p>2) if so, what existing solutions [open source or commercial] do you suggest<p>3) if not, why? and what should I read up on / learn?<p>Thanks!
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wheels
Sometimes a related articles widget comes in handy -- came across this when
looking at the page for osCommerce (probably the most widely used OSS shopping
cart):

[http://pedia.directededge.com/article/Comparison_of_shopping...](http://pedia.directededge.com/article/Comparison_of_shopping_cart_software)

Actually, some of the other related articles are more useful. Magento looks
cool.

<http://pedia.directededge.com/article/Magento>

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normchow
Use Drupal - it has several ecommerce modules, and you can plug in paypal,
Google Checkout or Authorize.net shopping carts and be up-and-running in no
time.

