Web Developer/Designer with e-commerce experience

Description

I am going to start a new business and will need a website to sell my products.

I am going to be selling E-cigarettes. I want a clean looking site created in WordPress. I already have another business and a site was created for me.

www.chromehorserentals.com. As you can see I like it simple (although this is a little old school looking). I don’t know if I should have a custom theme created or use a WordPress theme. I fear that WordPress themes when they need to be upgraded will mess up any plug-ins, shopping cart features, etc. I also ran into hacking problems with just having WordPress themes available within my dashboard! If I’m wrong please advise. I don’t know if it is possible but is picking out a WordPress theme but getting rid of all code not relevant to my site an option; but keep the design aspects of it? I will need guidance on if it would be better for me to have a custom theme built, use a WordPress theme, or a theme you have created based on what I am looking to do below.

My current site has a custom theme and I have never had a problem with it. And after it was set up with just a little guidance I was able to add all my own pics, text, widgets, forms, etc. It was under $300 for someone to create that site. I’m not looking for cheap but just wanted to give you an idea of what I have paid in the past.

I will have probably less than 20 products but each will have colors, sizes, flavors, etc. I want a simple shopping cart/checkout system either custom built or plug-in. And I will need to be able to easily add my own pics, description of products, colors, prices, etc.

I am unfamiliar with the shopping cart aspect of a site (other than using one), so please let me know if I am wrong on some things and if you would be able to set up for me a WordPress shopping cart plug-in or I would need a custom one built or some other kind of platform.

I want the shopping cart and checkout system to be able to:

Customers have the option of logging in and their personal information (I will not store credit card info) will fill in from previous use, e.g. name, address, email OR customers have the option to complete orders as a guest

They can either fill out a form similar to the one on my current site with their credit card info and submit it to me and I will run their credit card manually with my POS machine or they can be directed to Paypal

They can revise their orders at checkout, e.g., deleting, adding quantity, etc.

Email order info to them/me when an order is placed and give an order #

I will offer free shipping for now, but if I decide to charge shipping fees in the future I need to be able to do that and customize options for rates

Need advice on if it is possible to calculate different tax rates. For ppl ordering in FL there are different tax rates depending on what county the product is going to be sent to is that possible?

Don’t know if I want 2 or 3 columns yet. But nice big clean graphic pertaining to e-cigarettes, vapor, etc. with name included in the header (I will need a logo also after I pick a domain name) and somewhere a customer log in box, maybe putting links to articles relating to e-cig news, rolling testimonials.

The home page will have a small description of our business in the body along with pictures of the main product categories we sell; and when they click on a product category picture it will take them to a page with those specific products/prices and they will be able to select specific colors, strengths, flavors, and add the item(s) to the shopping cart.

I want to be able to add all my own text, picts, customize product info etc. with your guidance after site is approved. So I will need to know if that is included in the flat rate price to get me started. And then an hourly rate for in the future if I need further site work that is out of my realm.

I will be using my current hosting provider BlueHost that I will need you to upload final site/files. I will add plug-ins for SSL certificate, Sucuri for hacking prevention, wordfence for hacking monitoring, and others.

Anyway I hope that gives you a clear idea of what I’m looking for and can give me a quote. And please tell me what it will include. I do not have a time frame for this project for now; next couple of months. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.