Adding the shopping cart...too late?

[vodayoda]

I didn't realize that I needed to add the Commerce package until now...duh! At any rate, now I'm not sure if I should add the Commerce package (I have built my home page in BlueVoda) to what I have OR if it would be better to redo everything in Soho which looks like it has a commerce package built in. I am very new to all of this, and still working on loading my site which is www.redeux.net. I will have lots of products to put in and about 4 or 5 different catagories. Thank you in advance for any and all advice!

[Andy128]

Re: Adding the shopping cart...too late?

vodayoda-

My friend made a site with BV for his wife and then used paypal shopping cart to handle the purchase part. It works well. Check it out-

http://www.kittygallery.com

That may be an alternative to re-doing everything. If you have questions about it just use the contact page on the site and I am sure he can give you some pointers.

Andy

[vodayoda]

Re: Adding the shopping cart...too late?

Thanks Andy. Do you think that it is easier to use paypal than the osCommerce package listed here? Would I have to rebuild the site to use that, or does it just bolt on somehow? Thank you!

[vodayoda]

Re: Adding the shopping cart...too late?

Major Andy,

Oh, I get it! I just looked at the site. It's very clean in the navigation and ease of use. Does the osCommerce do the same thing? Just wondering if I should keep it all "in house". Your opinion? Thanks! P.S. Don't know if it is appropriate to make personal remarks, but I grew up in Michigan, north of Detroit. :)

[Andy128]

Re: Adding the shopping cart...too late?

vodayoda,
Well my friend set it up with pay pal in a few days and had never had any web building experience. I cannot comment on the OS package but I suspect that you would have to start from scratch with that- but I am not certain. I have not set anything up with paypal so I am of limited knowledge on it.

Andy

[allstarfaces]

Re: Adding the shopping cart...too late?

it is the easy option using pay pal if you already have a web design with bv and are happy with it then i would sighn up for pay pal its so easy you just sighn up and they give you the buttons to use i.e buy now button and go to cart button then they do it all for you and your customers dont need a pay paql account they can use there credit cards but there is a small fee with them about 2 - 3 % but its probably worth it once your customer has made the transaction they are sent back to you asap with a thank you page from you or whatever you want , im no good on pc and i did it easy enough

[Bethers]

Re: Adding the shopping cart...too late?

Personally, I like having my own merchant account. But how you go - whether using BV or OSCommerce or any of the others - only YOU can decide based on what they offer. I chose one method, Andy another, Amanda still another. All work well. I just sent someone to use Amanda's version that is new to BV - but wants the design flexibility. If you pick OS or Soho or others that are catalog driven, you will have other options you don't have with BV and vice versa.

My decision to not go with Paypal is a personal one also. I love Paypal but the majority of the world still doesn't use them - and sales with a merchant account on a store are usually much greater than with Paypal alone. However, if starting out - Paypal is a wonderful alternative - and as sales grow, I still recommend getting a merchant account to grow the sales even more :)

But -look at the carts available and pick what will do what you need.

[CarbonTerry]

Re: Adding the shopping cart...too late?

There are some huge benefits to using PayPal. I will be transfering to them as soon as my current arrangemant expires. The biggest is that it is a secure site. The carts provided by BV (they are excellent) are not secure (as far as I know) and you need to pay extra to have a secure cart (correct me if I'm wrong on this). Also there are no monthly fees with PayPal. No sales...no charges. PayPal now accepts all major credit cards from buyers without the buyer having a PayPal account.
The major disadvantage is that if you do thousands of dollars a month then the fees are slightly pricey.

[sugarplum]

Re: Adding the shopping cart...too late?

Thanks for the great advice, I have been struggling with OsCommerce all day, but looked at paypal and it does seem very easy, and since I already have a business acct with them, then this should be a breeze to do.

sugarplum

[Vasili]

Re: Adding the shopping cart...too late?

Sugar,

If you have a "small" business or fewer things to sell, then you might be better off staying within BV and the PayPal format, keeping the ability do design and update your site easily with what you know how to do.

Soholaunch is also a website "design tool" but is more complicated than BV, requiring the use of templates and other hard-wired features that seem complicated to many at first. There is more ability to manage the design elements in Soho, but not as many as BV, as it is a powerful "cart" that can accept many payment platforms (merchant, PayPal, other) and has an incredible "catalog" logistics to it. Simpler and "chunkier" than osC for instance, it is still in a class by itself.....something to learn that requires a bit more attention.

osCommerce is the web's powerhouse commerce solution, and is much more a technological challenge to be comfotable using after becoming familiar with BV. Again, the use of templates and minimal knowledge of 'scripts' will be needed to unleash the features of OSC, but it is really a neat cart to utilize. It too, can be set up on the back end of a BV created site (to run just the cart, for instance), and is very capable of being configured any way you desire, and if you cannot do it yourself there is help available.

Unless you are looking for a real monster cart to handle your business, I would stick to the BV/PayPal or Soholaunch options. The whole issue is about handling transactions simply, isn't it?
A good thing about VH is the ability to support other carts not offered in your account also...you're never stuck! If you find a cart (or site) that you like, you can always bring over a system to be installed in your account to satisfy your needs!

[jamnltd]

Re: Adding the shopping cart...too late?

After reading Andy's suggestion and looking at the Kitty Gallery website, I decided to use PayPal. It was very easy to set up and they take care of everything you need.

Andrea

http://forgetmenotusa.com

[neva]

Re: Adding the shopping cart...too late?

I have read all the comments above and still need help! I ahve signed up (and have had an account with Paypal for quuite awhile ) so that part wasn't hard at all.
My problem is that paypal got me set up with the shopping cart button html file to put on my desktop but now I don't know how to place it on my pages and paypal doesn't know BlueVoda so they can't help me. I have searched all day in the forum to find instructions with no luck!
Can anyone help me?

[navaldesign]

Re: Adding the shopping cart...too late?

It's quite simple: Drag and drop a HTML box in your page. It's the first tool in the left hand vertical toolbar in BV. Make it almost the same size as your Paypal button, as this will help you with the layout of the rest of the page. After you have put it in your page, double click it to edit it, and in the window that opens, paste the code that Paypal has given you. You are done.

[bill2006]

Re: Adding the shopping cart...too late?

I have Paypal, I like the security and the help desk was pretty good.
Once you setup your first product you can copy and edit for every other.

[neva]

Re: Adding the shopping cart...too late?

Ok - now I feel like a REAL idiot! I got the html page thing but how do I get the 'button' turned into a 'shopping cart'??