Quote:
Originally Posted by gerardkelley
Hi everyone. I've got a small website selling little jewelry boxes. I'm using the PayPal cart. It's been working well for me.
I would like to go a step further. I want to add gift certificates or discounts for some customers or items. I also have been worrying about selling the same unique item twice, so I want some sort of inventory control.
I installed and played around with Zen Cart, Cube Cart, OS Commerce and a couple of others. They are way to much, as far as I can see. I don't need a whole shopping cart, I guess. I want to keep my website as is. I think they can be integrated, but I don't know how much trouble that would be.
So, while looking around, I found paypalshoppingcart.org. With it I can generate buttons using my own images or PayPal images which will not change the look of my website at all. It seems to have all the features I need for now and the immediate future. With the PayPal IPN it's $59.00.
So, my questions are: Is there an easier way to get what I want?, Has any one used this software?, Is it worth the money?, Is there something else I could use for less money?
Any information will be very helpful.
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I have the same problem. My nitche laundry bag site uses a modified version of the Paypal shopping cart to allow for qty. discounts. Although I'm not expert, a few months ago I spent a good month or two reviewing shopping carts, including all those you mentioned. Unfortunately I had to postpone the project. However, from what I remember (and anyone with cart experience can correct anything I post incorrectly) is most carts require using their templates (either php or asp) so integrating them with existing htm pages is difficult. I believe I read on the Zencart forum that Zencart can not be integrated with static htm pages.
ZenCart is php/MYSQL driven cart so a complete redesign is required. All your product pages would change so any existing htm pages already in the SE's would result in a 404 (file not found) error when a visitor clicked on the link. I would image redirecting the visitor to the equivalent php product page is required but seems a daunting task if there are many products.
If I remember correctly, paypalshoppingcart is CGI driven and uses a flat file database for customer and inventory control which means it won't work up the road if you decide to switch to some other cart like Zencart for example, that uses a MYSQL database.