New ECommerce Web Site

We need to build a web site that describes consulting services offered by our company, as well as selling six off the shelf items initially (more later). In addition, there will also be a form to order custom items, but no billing online for custom items. In addition, there is a requirement to upload pictures, and download PDF files. There will be some minor graphics art required, so photoshop skills or equivalent would be helpful. Artful layout is a must, but templates can be purchased if that helps. We’ll need a shopping cart. We want to accept credit card payments, maybe other payment systems (paypal?) We’ll need a user login and cookie system. We will also need for non logged in users to be able to browse, but certain options will be available only to logged in users that meet specific criteria. You may use a CMS system, but if so please describe which system you will use, and any platform requirements. I think we would prefer to stick with Linux as the server platform. Other bids will be accepted, but you’ll have to justify the system you want to use. I think we will want to use MySQL as the back end for this project. Again, if you have a different opinion, justify it. This is a pretty standard ecommerce site, so if you have built ecommerce sites before, please provide links to them so that I can evaluate how closely they match our requirements. It is assumed that you have done ecommerce sites before and can leverage off of work that has previously been done. Please provide an estimate of how long it will take you to set up a shopping cart system in your bid. Let’s talk about templates that you might use for look and feel. There is a definite look and feel that we’re going after. A somber, serious, business-like feel is what we’re after. We have a couple of sites and templates that we think might work with this site, but we need to discuss how these might integrate with the ecommerce system that you have now. We will need a simple administrative page to change flags in the database. For example, only credit approved users can order custom items. So the administrator user will have to log in and select a user and set a flag in the database telling us that he has approved credit. It seems that the best way to do this would be to have a link appear on the home page when a special administrative user logs in. More details later. This project is being directed by a vWorker Sherpa. ## Deliverables We will need a simple administrative page to change flags in the database. For example, only credit approved users can order custom items. So the administrator user will have to log in and select a user and set a flag in the database telling us that he has approved credit. It seems that the best way to do this would be to have a link appear on the home page when a special administrative user logs in. All pages will be generated according to settings in the database based on the user logged in, and whether anyone is logged in. So the pages so far are: -Home Page -Consulting Information Page -Item Catalog (custom and off the shelf items listed according to database settings) -Whatever Shopping Cart and checkout Pages are required by your shopping cart system -Credit approval administration page (marking user flag) -Credit approval request page (for users) -Contact Us functionality We want to avoid popups. The order fulfillment processing system should be discussed. We envision something producing emails at this point, but if you have some other system prebuilt, we can talk about how that might work. This might product additional administrative pages. Is it best to have the administrative site functions separate from the main site, or integrated into it and run by flags? Let’s discuss that. It will probably be tool driven. While I expect you to test your site, I will also be hiring a group to create automated testing of the site, so that is not part of this project, however supporting the testing group and responding to their requests for information will be part of this project. You do not need native level English skills for this project, as I will provide the text for various parts of the site.