newbie: need easy shopping cart

[Gombul]

I am a web designer who specialises in xhtml and css. I have no experience at all with server side languages.

Please can someone offer advice - 2 of my clients want shopping carts on their sites. Will I need to subcontract a programmer or are there products available that make it simple for people with little to no back-end experience?

I'd like to have control over the layout - preferably html. If this is a bit vague please let me know how I can help you answer my question.

I'm at the quoting stage, with no idea of what I'm up for, so any pointers in the right direction appreciated.

[Corey Bryant]

I have a very simple ASP shopping cart that I can send over to you if you would like. Easy to use - it does have inventory & colors / sizes.

There are also some other ASP carts available. Not too certain if you like ASP or PHP?

[Peter (IMC)]

Gombul,

How are you?

One of your main concerns should be if the shopping cart pages can be found and indexed by the search engines, and of course, rank high as well.

Until recently I haven't seen any shopping cart that is capable of generating search engine friendly pages.

I did find this shopping cart at http://www.applepiecart.com which makes perfect pages from a search engine point of view. All pages look like normal static .html files, but not a single page in the site is static. They are all comming from a database, which is very easy to manage.

You may want to get a quote from them as well.

Regards,

Peter

[TheWebDoctor(tm)]

I have a search engine friendly shopping cart called Apple Pie Shopping Cart. The system is very powerful and user friendly.

The system is designed to provide easy to optimize pages without the need for programming external pages and without the problems presented by all the other shopping carts. We just launched a new site on 4/2/04 and they wanted to focus upon 'harmonicas'. The homepage is on the first page of Google.

The system also includes a lite content management system so you can add additional pages to the site without having to create extra HTML pages.

Additionally, we include an easy to use WYSIWYG site and newsletter designer. It operates much like FrontPage and Dreamweaver. There are a lot more features available.

We have a resellers program.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

[Corey Bryant]

Actually all shopping carts are capable of creating "static" HTML pages if you use the ISAPI rewrite for ASP or use htaccess for UNIX.

[Peter (IMC)]

Actually all shopping carts are capable of creating "static" HTML pages if you use the ISAPI rewrite for ASP or use htaccess for UNIX.
That is true,... but that alone doesn't make them search engine friendly,. :)

Regards,

Peter

[Gombul]

Lee,

Keeping in mind that this post is a "newbie" would you mind outlining the process in laymans terms?

ie:
1. database data entry (how is this done? can it include photos/and fields I chose such as size, weight? easy for me as the webmaster to update?)
2. where is database stored and how does it interact with the location of the rest of the site (existing static pages)?
3. where are the credit card details stored and how exactly does the sale proceed from the time the buyer clicks the GO button? (ie: notification to seller and credit validation - handle different currency?)
4. how seller is notified (send address, valid transfer of funds etc...)

These are some things off the top of my head - it is important to me to understand the process and if you are able to take the time to explain it clearly I will certainly consider using your product - because if the support makes me feel confident enough NOT to subcontract a tech guy, then I'm willing to give it a shot as this will save me $$$.

[StevenAllen]

I will let Lee reply to your specific questions, but I have looked at his shopping cart and it appears to be first rate.

[TheWebDoctor(tm)]

I've replied by PM.

[dark one]

i can recommend something more effective.
if you are looking for something simple - www.litecommerce.com might be what you need. i am satisfied so far, however worked with them only once.
basically i work with www.x-cart.com
this system is more complicated and has much more features. the best platform so far if you ask me. none of my clients was disapointed with my work.

now things i know about x-cart



1. database data entry (how is this done? can it include photos/and fields I chose such as size, weight? easy for me as the webmaster to update?)

php & mysql. any number any type of additional fields you want. i'd recommend you to store images in the file system


2. where is database stored and how does it interact with the location of the rest of the site (existing static pages)?

php & mysql. both free.


3. where are the credit card details stored and how exactly does the sale proceed from the time the buyer clicks the GO button? (ie: notification to seller and credit validation - handle different currency?)

if you'd decide to store cc info - it'll be in the database. several encryption mechanisms are available. i don't store cc numbers - good point gor clients. sale processed the method you choose: manual and online cc processing are most used. something about 60 payment gateways support available. handles any currency you specify.


4. how seller is notified (send address, valid transfer of funds etc...)

you'll get email and have the order stored in the database with all the details.

[TheWebDoctor(tm)]

Besides having the obvious necessities in the shopping cart, which should not need mentioning because they are what makes a shopping cart a shopping cart, our objective was to make the products in the shopping cart extremely visible and easy to index for the search engines. As a result websites that use our shopping cart get many top possitions in the search engines fairly easily and see their revenues increase.

Does lite commerce or xcart do this?

Our shopping cart has all necessary features, and at the same time it gives the products much more visibility than other shopping carts. Often people forget that in order to sell, people need to find you first.

[dark one]

Does litecommerce or x-cart do this?


simply have a look at google or yahoo and you will have the answer. it is indexed more often than apple pie.



Our shopping cart has all necessary features, and at the same time it gives the products much more visibility than other shopping carts. Often people forget that in order to sell, people need to find you first.

our, our, our - simple advertizing. it's not interesting you know. perhaps you'd convince me your cart is better i can work with. but i really doubt so for you're far not the first trying to do it. all the comparations before fail but we can give it a shot what you think?

[Shahji]

You need a shopping cart which should be easy to integrate into your sites. I know two good companies 2checkout and ikobo.com who offers good shopping carts. Both these companies also offer other e-commerce essentials. You can try them, i have good experience with both of them and never had any major problem.

[Peter (IMC)]

perhaps you'd convince me your cart is better i can work with. but i really doubt so for you're far not the first trying to do it. all the comparations before fail but we can give it a shot what you think?

I can verify that the applepie shopping cart is search engine friendly. I am an SEO consultant so I know what to look at and each and every page in sites that use applepie are optimized pages.

Of course you need to know a bit about SEO in order to use the cart to its full potential. You need to create optimized titles, meta data and copy your self. But implementing these is very easy.

Many have and are trying to create search engine friendly shopping carts, that is true, and in my opinion the Applepie cart is a cart that creates very search engine friendly pages, while at the same time having all necessary features.

Is applepie the only one? Probably not, but it is definitely one that is a great help in getting high rankings for the products it contains. It is new, not that long available yet, so you may not have seen it that often yet.

A search engine friendly shopping cart alone is not going to do it if you want to be successful on the web. You need to work on other marketing techniques as well of course. Backlinks for one are very important and that is a lot of work. Having a CMS/Shopping Cart that takes care of the on-the-page optimizion will give you more time for other important jobs, and no need to spend lots of money on hiring an SEO consultant.

Those are just things to considder too, when buying a shopping cart.

Regards,

Peter

[dark one]

yes, now i know you are a seo consultant. i was talking about exact advantages. you telling me the basis i can find in any seo tutorial. what makes the cart out of the line? "necessary features"? what they are? "creates very search engine friendly pages"? how? what makes them different?
for right now i'd say x-cart is better and i can tell you why exactly. interested in aspects? just ask what you want to know.

[Peter (IMC)]

I don't know what you know about SEO, but SEO isn't rocket science. A web page needs a title, meta keywords tag, meta description tag and copy. This is the basis you say. Yes it is, but making titles and meta tags and good copy is something that is up to yourself. Making good titles, meta tags and copy isn't as easy as it may seem. However, what you write down in the title, meta tags and copy is what gets you the high rankings as far as on-the-page optimization is concerned. There are other on-the-page factors that also have influence but these are useless without proper titles, meta tags and copy. With ApplePie you get SEO support.

I looked at sites that are build with other shopping carts. They do a reasonable job in getting the code right, but that doesn't make them optimized.

Your choice for another shopping cart is not a bad choice. Everyone has his/her own preferences and there is nothing wrong with that. MY choice, as an SEO consultant, is the ApplePie Shopping Cart. It is very easy to add new items, move items, and add all necessary data like Title, Page header, description, keywords, and pretty much everything that you want. With just some basic knowledge of SEO you can already create pages that work pretty good with the search engines.

If you want to know more about shopping cart specific feature you have to ask Lee. I am SEO consultant and not a shopping cart expert, but from what I hear from others, the shopping cart appears to be first rate.

I believe there is a demo version in the applepiecart website, so you could check it out there as well.

Regards,

Peter

[bythevineyard]

Just putting in my 2 cents for a great shopping cart at a great price (free - but they gladly accept monetary support for their efforts.)

www.cPcommerce.org has a great php shoppping cart that is open source and they are adding new features daily.

I use it on my website at www.bythevineyard.com, and have seen it on several others as well, with some pretty good customization.

They have a good support system and the cart is being built for those who support it and use it so if you are looking for something special, and enough other users want the same thing, they will consider making it work for you.

Dave

[Peter (IMC)]

Dave,

Your website looks nice, but the shopping cart you use is an example of a search engine UNfriendly shopping cart.

consider this:

All product pages are on a secure server. Non of them can be indexed.

All Page have the same title. (meta tags as well?)

Those are just basics, but really important if you want to draw in traffic from the search engines.

Best Regards,

Peter

[dark one]

Peter,

I know about seo pretty much. i know what keyphrases are, how to choose and shape them, where and how to put them and do this all with pretty results. what i don't know is what makes the cart you like so seo friendly. and you don't seem to tell me. i've seen the demo and have seen a cart with poorer functionality and layout than i am used to. i've asked you twice to name the exact functionality you like - you say just common phrases. what in your opinion should i think of you and the cart?

[TheWebDoctor(tm)]

Dark One,

If I were to teach you every ethical tactic I know, why would you purchase my software? Besides, part of my software is patent pending.

If you have problems with my demo, why don't you simply direct the questions to me?

I don't think you have taken the time to review all the information on my site. Peter isn't the only SEO that has high praise for my software. Ross Dunn, Dan Thies and Kim Krause all have high praise. Dan said I was selling the cart short by focusing only upon the SEO features of the cart. So, with four top notch SEO and Usability experts stating my software is top notch, what makes it not meet your goals?

You should also take this into account, this software is on version 3 and is less than a year old. So, what you might be missing now may be coming in the very near future. If you have suggestions, I'd like to hear them. Don't simply slant the software because you haven't contacted me to ask questions.

[Pilfo]

Hi Gombul,

Try Romancart, it's so simple with lots of online support.

The basic package is actually free, but if you wish to integrate with a PSP it's only about $64 per year.

Regards,
Pilfo

[dark one]

If you have problems with my demo, why don't you simply direct the questions to me?

i guess you slightly misunderstood me. I did not have problems with the demo - it acts as declared.


I don't think you have taken the time to review all the information on my site. ... So, with four top notch SEO and Usability experts stating my software is top notch, what makes it not meet your goals?

of cource i haven't read everything. internet is too big to read it all you know, that's why i talk to someones read something already. i don't say the cart is bad. but there are lots of good carts out there. my goal is to use a platform suitable for the projects of my clients. So i need a cart stable, pretty, customizable, functionality as wide as possible. i need the best cart. i use x-cart so far and every day i look through forums and press releases to keep eyes open for a better solution. nothing so far - others are not that good really, in functionality first of all.

i've addressed my original request to you - just look higher in this forum, but you didn't seem to answer. that's ok for me and again i will keep my eyes open for something better to come, if any.

[Peter (IMC)]

Dark One,

Can you show me some examples of website that use x-cart?

I looked at some of the featured clients they show in their website and noticed that all sites redirect to /customer/home.php. The whole site sits in that subdirectory /customer/. I don't see any search engine friendly URLs either. Some sites use static pages in order to get arround these problems.

Of course there are other important things that a shopping cart should have, but we´re focusing on the search engine friendly side of things in this thread.

How do you overcome these SEO related problems with sites that you use x-cart?

Regards,

Peter

[TheWebDoctor(tm)]

Dark One,

Your questions above were more negative challenges than questions.

Each page in the cart is designed to present finely tuned optimized pages. Instead of letting you make some decisions yourself, I force the responses based upon some required inputs.

You may have problems with the codes, so do I, in fact, but because of our WYSIWYG designer some of those things simply can't be avoided at the moment. It's based upon Microsoft technologies so you know already there are going to be problems. We're working on an upgrade to that which will produce valid XHTML pages.

What I call search engine friendly URLs far exceeds the ignorant garbage produced by other carts. You can have a page end with .html all day and that doesn't make the URL search engine friendly. Not to mention there are other problems you can't see on the surface by just looking at the URLs.

I spent three years in research and development before I launched my first site with this cart. Version one had issues and many of those issues were resolved in version two. Version three has resolved some issues that were in version two. However, my research and development phases not only included search engine performance, but it also included patent research. How I do things works because I spent over 6000 hours becoming an expert in shopping carts. I don't like companies that simply build a tool and then get lots of press stating they have the best thing on the market. I submitted a press release in February and not one single journalist called on it. So, I now have a marketing person on staff and an outsourced PR firm. Perhaps we'll get the word out; perhaps you'll help me get the word out.

[wahmpee]

i use mals'e-commerce shopping cart. It's free, unless you want to connect it directly to your credit card place, then it's like $7 a month to do that.
Why is it so important that the shopping cart itself is meta tag search engine friendly?
The pages where you buy stuff on my website, where the cart is located is just on my site, not secure.
Search engine friendly. It only becomes a secure page "AFTER" you put something in the cart. At that point who cares if it is search engine friendly?

[TheWebDoctor(tm)]

wahmpee,

You ask a great question. Now, let me explain.

First, the term shopping cart is a loosely attributed term. The view you have is based upon the ability to add items to an imaginary cart where items can be purchased. That in itself is limiting the ability of the system to only the purchasing capabilities.

Over the years, the term shopping cart has been carried forward to include the dynamics of a database driven system which includes the automatic generation of category and item listings. Personally, I hate the term shopping cart, but I can't change everyone's view of things.

The objective of a solid piece of software is to make life much easier for the person using it. The concept your bring to the table with Mal's is the same as with Dansie or any other system that requires the creation external pages that connect to the cart script.

What I have done is allow you to use a complete database driven system and thereby you're not required to upload pages you create offline. There are simply too many problems that can go wrong with the old ways of doing things.

The thing you have to realize is not every search engine can index into a cgi-bin directory. Some simply ignore the cgi-bin because they know there are many dynamic pages with many poor URLs inside the cgi-bin directory. By using a program that uses a cgi script, you are then required to build external pages with the same information a dynamic system would create.

I've had clients leave Dansie, Miva and others simply because they got tired of managing pages that connected to a script. One client had several items that were placed in more than one category and thereby required managing that item in more than one location. They now have to manage the item only once which saves them, as I'm told, a minimum of 2 - 3 hours of work per item.

Then you obviously know HTML and if you're a designer, you are limited in your ability to gain more clients due to time constraints. If you can turn the site over to your clients and let them manage everything and then bring you in for assistance you'll be able to build your portfolio and potentially receive a higher return in residual income through hosting your own clients.

I hope this helps you understand some of the issues. If you wish to discuss it with me further, you're welcome to do that.

[Saima]

Gombul:
I suggest that you should acquire a ready made shopping cart. It will be convenient for you to merge ready made shopping cart into your website and you will be saved of writing something in formatting language of HTML. For this purpose, have a tour of websites of oscommerce and ikobo. Both these companies offer host of other attractive and economical services for clients like you.