Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I am just about to begin a website, but I need advice on getting the whole "shopping cart" and checkout system.  Do you suggest paypal, or some other system? thanks

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-Andrea G.
*foodallergytalk.com*
FD Fire design.com
garzaproductions.webs.com
jcmyway.webs.com

A shopping cart/ecommerce solution and who you use to process payments (credit card purchases) are two different things.

A shopping cart provides the ability to present and sell products online while the payment processing (merchant account or paypal) provide the way to handle the dollars.

There are many many choices for a shopping cart - and a lot of discussion on SUN about them. The appropriate choice depends upon what you plan to do and how you plan to use the site. Are you setting up the shopping cart or are you hiring a web designer? Do you have a budget? What functions and features do you need and would you like for your website?

Re: PayPal - PayPal is certainly an option to handle payments and usually a first choice because of their fees versus other merchant accounts. There is some customer resistance to use PayPal, so once you have an established sales flow, it may be a good idea to add a merchant account - as an option.

~Roland

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Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter

Here`s a esource for you ...

http://applecart.info

Allergylady,
My suggestion with you is to go with OSCOMMERCE... but before I point you in that direction, can you be more specific as to what you will be selling, the quantity of items?
See here is my thing, if you`re going to sell less than 50 products, it would be better to go with a simple cart that can handle just that.. perhaps, a small-shopping cart system.

If you`re going to sell more than 51-200 or 500 products, go with OSCommerce,  Os Commerce gives you,  a checkout  system, pay pal and Credit Card Processor Integration. UPS, USPS, and FED EX shipping Modules, that calculates everything for you. It also has a Login, for returning customers.
I think your solution would be to go wit OSCOMMERCE


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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

I`ve designed, set-up, and managed websites using osCommerce, Zen Cart, and Xcart.

At this time I would recommend Zen Cart over osCommerce. The last couple of releases for Zen Cart are superior to osCommerce as far as built-in features.

Xcart is a little more involved to use and has even more features... and costs a little bit of $$.

~Roland

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Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter

Thank you everyone for the help :)

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-Andrea G.
*foodallergytalk.com*
FD Fire design.com
garzaproductions.webs.com
jcmyway.webs.com

This question is a lot more complicated than just which cart to use.

What are you selling?
How are you putting up your site? Are you doing it yourself or hiring a developer?
How many products do you have?
How do you keep track of your inventory?
How computer-savy are you? Do you want to manage your own store or have someone else do it for you?
How often will you be changing products, adjusting prices, changing descriptions, or making items as sold out?
Do you need any advanced features like package tracking, shipping insurance purchasing, or shipping calculations?
Do you need anything custom, like design-your-own whatevers features, or is it merely an option of purchasing products? What kind of features do your products have - is there a choice of colors, quantities, or other characteristics?
And speaking of quantities, do you need the ability to give discounts based on quantity or make shipping changes based on the total order price?

There are so many options out there, depending on your budget, needs, knowledge, and whether or not you want to be hands-on or hands-off ... it`s way too much to just give you a name right now.

BTW I agree with Roland about Zen Cart and PayPal vs Merchant Accounts.

Here are the answers to your questions:

What are you selling?  JEWELRY AND CROCHET PRODUCTS
How are you putting up your site? Are you doing it yourself or hiring a developer?  I AM DOING IT MYSELF
How many products do you have?  I WILL PROBABLY HAVE NO MORE THAN 100-200
How do you keep track of your inventory?   I WRITE IT ON PAPER, AND MICROSOFT
How computer-savy are you? Do you want to manage your own store or have someone else do it for you?   I WILL MANAGE MY OWN STORE
How often will you be changing products, adjusting prices, changing descriptions, or making items as sold out?   PROBABLY ONCE OR TWICE A MONTH?
Do you need any advanced features like package tracking, shipping insurance purchasing, or shipping calculations?    JUST SHIPPING CALCULATIONS
Do you need anything custom, like design-your-own whatevers features, or is it merely an option of purchasing products?  JUST PURCHASING PRODUCTS
What kind of features do your products have - is there a choice of colors, quantities, or other characteristics?   COLOR CHOICE, QUANTITY
And speaking of quantities, do you need the ability to give discounts based on quantity or make shipping changes based on the total order price?   I DON`T THINK SO

I HOPE THIS HELPS-
based on what people have posted, I will probably go with Zen Cart
But I`m still open to opinions
Thanks

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-Andrea G.
*foodallergytalk.com*
FD Fire design.com
garzaproductions.webs.com
jcmyway.webs.com

If you feel comfortable enough installing and managing your own store, you can get an account with a company like HostGator that does 1-click installs of Zen Cart.

If that is too difficult, you could go with something like a Yahoo! Small Business store, eBay store, or MonsterCommerce store.

Vwebworld`s hosting ... 1-click Zen cart install too.

~Roland

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Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter