Create your own Online Store with the PayPal Storefront

A new service from PayPal Labs, which is called storefront that allows just about everyone to become an online vendor. Pretty much like eBay, but only through a widget that you place on your blog or Webpage.

So how does this thing work?

First, you need to personalize your widget by choosing themes and colors, a title and a logo. Then upload products pictures, set prices and start selling item(s) on your website or blog.

The storefront widget does not currently calculate shipping costs, but this is a feature that's coming in a later revision of the widget. In the meantime, just list items at a price that includes shipping costs. You can make buyers aware of this ahead of time by placing the information on your Store Policies page under Shipping Information. I couldn't find anything on payment issues, but I'm assuming that it is like if you're buying anything else on the Web with PayPal, so it should be simple payment processing.

Example:


Will it be successful? Well, it's hard to know at this point, but the fact that you can create a merchandise widget that is powered by PayPal can definitely make you feel more relaxed when dealing with money transaction online.

Currently, the storefront widget is not supported on MySpace or Facebook but I'd love to see how this could work on my Facebook account.