What to use ? cart and payment

[mamemeawebsite]

I am a developer with my first client. I have looked at various shopping crts and cannot decide which one to go with. Its a rather basic ecommerce site with paypal and google checkout, but the client wants to have the ability to have credit cards in the future.
My concern is that the owner will have to maintain the cart, so I'd rather have one with not much problems...

I also want a cart where the customer does not have to register...

As for paypal, how does paypal work for accepting credit cards ? Do customers have to have an account with paypal ? I know I wont use paypal account to pay, I'd rather pay by credit card...so I think they will lose a lot of money by not accepting credit cards. So if I can get them a creditcard acceptance without having to pay for a merchant account, they will really be happy.
thanks

[bobitza]

As for paypal, how does paypal work for accepting credit cards ? Do customers have to have an account with paypal ?

Paypal DOES accept all major credit cards. You can choose or not to create a paypal account when you're paying with your credit card.

[UCSI]

There are tons of carts out there, free and paid versions. Our cart of choice is Miva Merchant.

Regarding Miva versus Zen, OScommerce and other free solutions:
You generally get what you pay for.

We have been using Miva since version 1.0 and not to say that there aren’t other good solutions out there, Miva is extremely user friendly, extremely customizable and there is a module already available for almost anything you can think off.

I have very few customers that actually buy the software, 90% lease it with their hosting account, which brings additional benefits, like free upgrades.

When you make your project specification list, keep in mind where you want to be now and where you may want to be a year or 2 from now. It is important to have an open architecture and that whatever system you choose is expandable down the line. Otherwise you may have to start from scratch a year from now, because the system you chose won’t support certain features. Hope that made sense….

[UCSI]

Forgot - Miva supports PayPal as well as Google checkout

[seofan]

I also want a cart where the customer does not have to register...

Most systems offer the option of becoming "registered" as a convenience. I certainly do take advantage of that to lessen the arduous task of putting in my information again - and you want to make it as easy as possible for returning customers to purchase and check out. Registration accomplishes that.

Sounds like Paypal would be your best bet and yes - the customer would need to have their own Paypal account to use it as a payment system.

[deerefun99]

We use 3DCart and love it. It is inexpensive and easy to use. Login is also optional.
Steve

[deepsand]

[QUOTEPaypal DOES accept all major credit cards. You can choose or not to create a paypal account when you're paying with your credit card.[/QUOTE]
However, there are certain particulars that must be addressed.

Firstly, the Seller will need either a Premier or Business account; otherwise, he will be limited to a monthly draw from his account of $500 USD.

Secondly, if the Buyer has a PayPal account, the Transaction Limit is $10,000; if not, it's $4,000. These limits apply regardless of how the Buyer funds the transaction.

Also, if the Seller has a Business account, he can, if qualified, get a Merchant Account with PayPal, whereby he can accept credit cards directly on the site, without having to use PayPal to send funding requests to the Buyer.

[holmpage]

Read this article - it explains the gamut of options. It's a couple of years old but still relevant. There are new options all the time, but this gives you the information you need to make the first level of choice: between a PayPal type of system or a full merchant account.

Solve the Payment Processing Problem [eCommerce]

[puamana]

For over ten years I've used a combination of Authorize.net and AgoraCart - with flawless results. Agora does handle offline, PayPal and other gateways (here's the current listing:

2Checkout
AgoraPay
Authorize.net
Echo
eWay
iTransact
LinkPoint Connect
NiftyPay
NiftyPay to Play
Offline / Manual
PayFlow Link
PayPal
PayPal IPN
Plug 'n Pay
ProPay
PsiGate
USA ePay
Verisign PayFlow Link
YourPay )

Agora is an open source (free to use) perl shopping cart that is blendable with just about any design you have.

I have tried other carts in the past, free and retail ones, but I always end up back with agora.cgi because it's easiest for my clients to manage (has a very robust backend - but doesn't allow the client to screw things up too badly).



Good luck...
puamana

[fulleffect]

I've been using and developing oscommerce for over 5 years, and unless your a very experienced php developer, i would stay away from it.

Out of the box there are too many security holes to fix.


From what i've heard other people say on other websites, magento seems to be one of the best rated, and it's free, but some quote it as being over bloated, but better to have too many features than too little, right?



Daz