Hi, Chad.
Based on the presence of some stop words (product, sales, “have a field”, “they”, simple) I think maybe you would be best served by hiring some contractor to build what you want.
If you are less interested in the specific product and more interested in learning some new computer skills, I recommend a less ambitious first project.
Stage one: get a web server to say “Hello, World!” when you visit it with a browser.
Stage two: get a web server to respond with “Hello, <your name>!” when you visit a page, type in your name, and click submit.
As you can see, those tasks are truly simple compared to the web application you described... Yet, it may take a novice weeks to complete those first two stages. Or minutes... It depends on what the novice can already do, and what resources are available.
Cheers,
--Dave
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OMG!Code http://code.omahamakergroup.org
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IMO - pick something that has a low up front cost.
You're just starting so there's a lot of little things you may not know you want in a website/purchasing system. If/when you find those, that low up front cost makes it easier to throw the thing away and pick something else. Second time around you'll have a refined sense of what you actually want.
I've never used them, but sites like squarespace are popular. Dream host might be worth checking out too -- they probably integrate some third party site builder and ordering system.
At any rate -- DO NOT get in the business of collecting, storing, or transmitting credit card numbers through your website. PCI-DSS is a time suck and a huge distraction. Lots of web cart systems have the ability to integrate with a 3rd party to handle the credit/debit transactions. They usually bounce the user over to the card processor's website, then back to yours when the transaction is complete. You've probably done that many times as a customer and not even noticed.
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