Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I am currently starting a new business where we will provide online consulting and training.  Our business model offers both subscription and on-demand products & services.

We are building a static php website but need to find a shopping cart and then merchant program that will offer the following:

1. Subcription Serivces - where paid subscribers are provided a password and can then use their passcode to access our downloadable products at no additional cost

2. On-Demand Service (Buy Now) where non-subscribers can pay to download our products as desired.

Can anyone recommend a solution(s) that could work?

Thank you for any help or direction you can provide.

Our shopping cart needs to offer subscription sign-up

I am trying to find a shopping cart / merchant program that will allow subscribers access to training and research

have you considered Paypal?

Paypal integration should be pretty easy, and they offer subscriptions where the user is automatically billed each month. They also allow people to just buy now, and checkout easily.

There are more sophisticated shopping cart systems out there, but I bet this will get you 90% of the way there with 10% of the effort. Why not try it out?

+1 I use pay pal, they work well

There are many shopping cart programs that can do what you need. It's important to understand all your currect and future needs before selecting a shopping cart platform.

For example, if you are really trying to create a membership type site (where for a subscription price) a "member" would have access to selected web site content...then a membership script would be appropriate rather than a standard shopping cart program.

~Roland

Give PayPal a try. I've heard it works best. I'd like to try it too. Give us an update once you've tried it :)

Gotta say, PayPal is risky. Their terms and acceptable use policies aren't clearly worded, which allows them to pull the plug on you if they don't like anything you are doing. I tried making a small side-project with a paypal "Donate" button, and they locked up my account saying I need to show 501[c]3 status. Leaves my project in limbo.

If you have a good developer team, consider integrating with a web service like Chargify (http://chargify.com/).

Or did you find something already?