New to shopping carts/e-commerce

[dssquirt]

Happy New Year to everyone!

Although I have been designing websites for several years, I have not done much with shopping carts. I am now about to redesign a site that sells on-line. I have worked a little with Monster Commerce, and I think it is a bit cumbersome.

Can anyone make suggestions on a good shopping cart program or website I can get information from?

Thanks.

[Corey Bryant]

I have had about three customer switch over from Monster Commerce to myself actually. They seemed happier to be able to view their own databases & appreciated the charges that I did not charge them. Two we gave them a shopping cart & another one was designed specifically for her.

Now having said that - are you a PHP or ASP developer? What does your customer want as far as services? Do they mind being their customers being directed over to another web site?

[my74]

Mal's e-commerce is excellent for a shopping cart. You have ability to configure everything. It's free too!

http://www.mals-e.com/

[Corey Bryant]

Mals-E is good but there are limitations to it since it is an off-the-shelf solution. Plus I did not feel comfortable recommending someone in the US to go overseas for their products.

I have actually had one one time that I needed to speak with them but unfortunately they did not return my e-mail so I had to get my customer another solution - that was when I decided to create a pretty simple / standard shopping cart & give it to my clients for free.

[dssquirt]

I am a php user. I am just doing research for a proposal, so I do not know if my client will mind if her customers are directed to another site. I am open to any and all information. The site is poorly designed right now, and I want to make it easier to navigate as well as easy to purchase items.

[Corey Bryant]

For PHP check out www.oscommerce.com - you cannot go wrong with that! :)

[cyanide]

I have to agree with Corey Bryant,

Oscommerce is powerful and comes with a ton of features and a large user-base

[grease]

If you have the time and skill to customize, VPASP is a very high-value product.

[sbeco]

Have a look at http://www.quickpaypro.com. Quick Pay Pro includes shopping cart features plus a whole lot more. You can also sell it. The company has a great affiliate program. Good luck. (No affiliate link is included in this post...that's a no-no isn't it? I'm new here.)

[Damon1966]

I like this software as the customer can easily add products to their own store, there are tons of add ons available, and is highly configurable.

[flood6]

Originally Posted by Corey Bryant

For PHP check out www.oscommerce.com - you cannot go wrong with that! :)

Originally Posted by cyanide

I have to agree with Corey Bryant, Oscommerce is powerful and comes with a ton of features and a large user-base

Werd! It's free, it's php, it slices, it dices, it juliennes! Give yourself a little extra time to learn the ins and outs, then dazzle the client with the money you saved them; you'll come across looking like a superstar.

[MarkM]

Hello,

I would like to suggest that you first think about what you need for now, and what you might need in the future.

Not all merchants are alike... a shopping cart can be a very important tool, even more so then a fancy web design. It should do more than just collect sales data.

"One size does not fit all" ---There is no "One best solution for everyone"

Some questions to consider:

1) Can the cart be updated with not just what the cart system provider wants to offer, but also if you need a special custom code designed. If so, what are the additional charges if any.

2) Support.. When you have a question of any type, design, programming your pages, etc... are you able to speak to someone and not just exchange eMails? Are they available 24/7 and after hours?

3) Will the cart system help you expand your business? In other words, how flexible is the system to be able to add additional websites to the same system... of do you have to get a new system for each site?

4) Can you host your web sites on any server, or are you restricted to hosting with the shopping cart provider?

5) If you're a Webmaster, and you'll want a partner that can solve your client's issues. Not require them to jump through hoops to get something they need done, that you yourself can not provide.

It doesn't need to be complicated... but a little pre-thought can save you hours of time and lot's of money.

We recommend http://www.SecureCart.com

Very easy to use and if they can provide it, they never charge for special requirements.

[Corey Bryant]

That it I why I always suggest - get their own code / build it themselves. It can cost less than $500 to build a basic shopping cart in ASP & it is the merchants. No more having to worry about paying monthly fees to use it & it is usually very easy to add new features.

Of course - some people like PHP better, more power to them.

[MarkM]

Just a quick follow-up. Yes, you can get shopping cart programming for free, and build it yourself.

Where there is a big misunderstanding is how you secure your customers data.

When you design it and run it yourself, the purchase of an SSL certificate does NOT secure your server. It only allows the browser to transmit data to a server in an encrypted format.

Hackers hack servers, not packets of data. Please take into consideration that most hosting servers are not very secure. They're not designed to be.

If a hacker know's what scripts you're running you become far more of a target then a protected system.

That said, regardless of what you may be told, you should always protect your customers data with a server dedicated to collecting that data only. Then adding measures to secure that server... An ISP that gets hacked is not very understanding as to the reason why.. they just want you off their systems.

A small monthly fee is far better then maintaining a secured dedicated server.

[www.FunInAustralia.com]

Hi guys (first post!)

I'm new to web-design also and am looking for a Shopping cart program to use for a client.
I was looking using Interchange Cart, as it came with cPanel, was free and looked good from the test siye, but reading their forums... they seem to have issues with cPanel. I'm taking it there are easier to use options available?

I've bookmarked the sites you've recommended above and shall be checking them out tonight. Meantime any other advice is appreciated.

Cheers from Australia!

[RhondaHawkins]

www.EdwardsGourmet.com is my first E-commerce site. I downloaded and installed for free the Agora Cart. I found the people on their helpsite to be quite helpful and kind in their explanations, dealings and opinions. You are welcome to view my site and email me with questions or comments. The customer Edwards Gourmet & Specality Foods is very pleased with the look and mechanics of the cart.
Hope to hear from you soon, Rhonda

[Mac 5]

How search engine friendly is OScommerce and the others mentioned?

[Corey Bryant]

Google is getting better handlins URLs with questions marks. I have not really worked with PHP myself. When I create a shopping cart for my clients - we also create a few static pages to be spidered

[attitudenz]

Originally Posted by Mac 5

How search engine friendly is OScommerce and the others mentioned?

I can't speak for the other packages but I know osCommerce has a search engine friendly url mode. It is marked as still in development, but it is usable.

In the default system there is no capability to individually specify titles for different pages. There is a contribution available that is easy to install and handles this though. I don't really bother with meta keywords any more.

I agree with Corey - Google does handle question marks pretty well - the clients I work with who are not using the search engine friendly url mode are appearing in Google's results.

I have been putting together a bit of a review/overview of osCommerce for the uninitiated if you are interested. The feature list at the official site doesn't really do the system justice.

osCommerce Review

Good luck, Geoff