Shopping Cart question

[David Marshall]

Hi

Name david Marshall. id 5282 website consciouscreation.co.uk

I hope this is the right place to ask:

I have a growing number sites and wondered if I could have one shopping cart/facility where all sites could go to for payment, rather than having a cart on each site? I presume that is possible, if so can I use the carts on BV for this?

cheers

dave

[Bluenose]

Re: Shopping Cart question

can you not just install the one cart, then when shopping on ALL your other sites, make sure the link points to the one cart you have installed? Even though your cart is installed in sub directory of one site, shouldnt matter, then end product will be the same from all sites that are linked to it, money for you !!!!!

This would work, but not sure if that is what you want!

[Collectors-info]

Re: Shopping Cart question

I cant see a problem as its only a link from any site to the index page of the cart. The only small thing i cant work out! is when someone leaves your cart i am not sure how you would send them back to the site they came from. The only thing i can think of, is when you place a link in any one of your sites to the cart, make sure the link opens in a new window so when they leave the cart, your site is still in the background. Some one may say there is a better way?

Chris

[David Marshall]

Re: Shopping Cart question

Hi,

thanks for the reply. Yes that is what I was thinking, but am fairly new to BV. Do you know which of the BV products would be best suited? I think that the shopping carts BV offers are not secure and that I would have to create an account with a payment gateway too. I was thinking of paypal but it does require the client to create an account and that is just another barrier to payment. I am seeking the simplest solution, that is not paypal, as I am not a techie,

cheers

dave

[Collectors-info]

Re: Shopping Cart question

Hi Dave.
I haven’t got a cart as yet, but have been looking at cube cart. . (Not sure if this one is free) But if not, its only $70.00. The thing I like about this one, is you stay on the same page & your items & your totals just show up in the corner on the same page until you check out.
Can drive you mad if the cart keeps changing pages for every item.
Taking payments is another story. Don’t try taking payments via credit cards using email & don’t store this type of info on site. Pay pal or Nochex is as I can see it, the cheapest way & most secure. Nochex is slightly cheaper. If you start taking payments on line in other ways you will have to install SSL security on the site (or was it SLL) As for the client having to create an account with pay pal! They don’t have to. When you go to pay pal they ask for this 1st, but when you get to the next page in pay pal it will give you a choice of pay by pay pal or just by credit card. I believe this only happens if you have business account. Would be worth saying on your site, NO account needed for paypal & explain how it works.
I set up a onother bis AC: 2 days ago & had no problem. Took about 5mins

Good luck.

Chris

[Bluenose]

Re: Shopping Cart question

Hi,

thanks for the reply. Yes that is what I was thinking, but am fairly new to BV. Do you know which of the BV products would be best suited? I think that the shopping carts BV offers are not secure and that I would have to create an account with a payment gateway too. I was thinking of paypal but it does require the client to create an account and that is just another barrier to payment. I am seeking the simplest solution, that is not paypal, as I am not a techie,

cheers

dave

If you set up a merchant account with Paypal it allows you to accept credit card payments as well as the usual payments, and the buyer DOES NOT need to have a paypal account as well. All they will see is a way to pay !!!

[David Marshall]

Re: Shopping Cart question

thanks for all your posts.

I will check out what you said bluenose, if there is no need for a buyer to have a paypal account that solves my issue,

many thanks

Dave

[allstarfaces]

Re: Shopping Cart question

may i suggest you do a search at the top of forum and look up a few posts by bethers on her advice about carts it is of interest

[CarbonTerry]

Re: Shopping Cart question

Paypal does not require a buyer to be a member. PayPal will accept credit cards also. See:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_wp-standard-overview-outside

[David Marshall]

Re: Shopping Cart question

thanks carbon,

yes i am going to use paypal at the moment. I did not realise that there was shopping carts and all sorts that I could use and of course that a client can use paypal without an account. I did look at Bethers (wise woman) posts but at the minute I think it is simpler to use paypal as a gateway and I may use one of their shopping carts. Not sophisticated but I am selling only a few services at the moment,

cheers and thanks for the replies, great support as usual!!!!!!!

dave

[Bethers]

Re: Shopping Cart question

Yes you could do what you asked. But, there are a couple things to consider - people get nervous when they leave to pay elsewhere - so it would be very important that they know where they are going and why. I've considered doing similar with my family of stores.

Also, and I am a believer in Paypal - if you can afford to get a merchant account - you can increase sales by doing so - however, I suggest you wait until you are seeing sales first. Just remember, while paypal is big - most of the world still doesn't shop on eBay or use paypal and don't like leaving the site to do so. Just a fact of life. That said - it is growing constantly and with the new relationship with Yahoo - I think it will continue to grow in popularity outside of regular merchant accounts. That said - with a small amount of sales, paypal is cheaper than a merchant account - but as sales grow - a merchant account (good ones, anyway) become cheaper than using paypal (who has higher per sale fees.)

[CarbonTerry]

Re: Shopping Cart question

Good info Bethers. Paypal becomes slightly more expensive around the $2000-$3000 per month in sales. My business is highly seasonal. I hate paying those fees when sales are very low.

[David Marshall]

Re: Shopping Cart question

to be honest bethers I would rather not use paypal for those reasons. My main issue is my ability to create the cart etc. Blue Voda is faaaaaaab and I have created a couple of nice sites but shopping carts etc are simply new territory that leaves me rather nervous.

I do agree with what you say though so mabye I will have another look!

cheers

Dave

[VodaHost]

Re: Shopping Cart question

There is nothing wrong with PayPal and they are very competative when
it comes to pricing.

[David Marshall]

Re: Shopping Cart question

do you not think that the public perception is different between paypal and other known gateways, or is it that MY perception is off! which it quite possibly true of course!!

cheers

Dave