If you’re interested in building a commerce site, osCommerce is a great open source tool to start with. I’m using a company called BlueHost.com to host my sites and they have a great solution at a very competitive price.
BlueHost uses a scripting tool to configure a variety of software packages. These include everything from WordPress Blogs to Content Management sites to full blown Commerce sites with credit card payment processing. The scripting tool makes implementing these solutions
My first voyage into commerce used these technologies. Within four hours, I had the site created and organized to publish Mom’s paintings. You can check out this site at www.keen4art.com. Although maintaining the site is easy for me, training Mom to make changes is another issue all together.
We still have some customization to do but building a new site this quick just wasn’t possible five years ago.