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View Full Version : Shopping for Shopping Carts



dizzle
11-16-2010, 04:13 PM
Forgive me if this is in the wrong section, this one seemed to fit the best.

I'm looking for a new shopping cart to use with my company's website. We currently have shopify.com hosting our shopping cart but I feel that that's very amateur-ish because of the fact that it doesn't integrate directly into my website.

I'm looking for something that is a stand alone php/mysql software that I can load onto my godaddy server. I don't want to have to pay a monthly hosting fee to them and i'm looking for a good back end admin page that'll allow me to do all the basic features of running an online store.

I'm also looking for something that'll integrate seamlessly with my already built and designed website. I've seen that a lot of shopping carts have the ability to do web design for the end user, which is fantastic, but if it entitles me having to rebuild my whole website, i'll base whether or not I like the software by how easy it would be to design my template and go from there haha.

Even though our products are sold on tons of other websites, I still want something that I can use on our website to allow a customer to buy from us directly.

I've looked at:
Avactis (I like)
3DCart (I like a lot if it wasn't for it being a subscription)
Fortune3 (eh...)

Any suggestions? I also use inFlow inventory software for my CMS, inventory tracking, order processing, etc as we do a lot of sales outside of the online realm.

Thanks for the info folks!

Harold Mansfield
11-16-2010, 05:58 PM
If you are going to be processing the payments yourself, you may want to look at what ever processor you are using and see what they have first, and then see what is compatible.
Doesn't Go Daddy have a shopping cart system? Or does it suck?

Also if you are using Pay Pal, they have merchant services that will allow you to build a shopping page yourself and just insert your own checkout buttons, and you have the option of the shoppers staying on your website ($30 a month) or going to Pay Pal for check out.
https://merchant.paypal.com/cgi-bin/marketingweb?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=merchant/wp_pro

greenoak
12-16-2010, 10:55 AM
thaks for this link eborg.....
i have a question...
.we are redoing our website.... and have made a big decision to offer about 10 of our big unique items for sale online.... these would be 4 or 500$$ items and things we are kind of known for and unique....
anyway a couple of years ago we bought a working website with a shopping cart in it.... a good one , kind of approved and vetted on here back then ....
that site doesnt have green oak in the name....there wasnt a greenoak name a vailable then and we were working on a different idea ....but we have this working but unused site.. cost about 400$$
now i need a shopping cart for online selling......
so my choice is ... A NEW SHOPPPING CART ON THE GREEN OAK SITE,
OR to use the other site for sales......and have a big obvious button on our site , which would be A LINK FROM OUR GREENOAK SITE TO THIS OTHER SITE WHICH WOULD BE OUR SELLING SITE....
yes on new shopping cart because it would be cleaner and within the greenoak site
no because we would have a nice big button on the greeenoak site and . the buyers w ould know they were still at greenoak.... and we already have a good shopping cart bought and ready to go and registered ...and we already have a good competent shopping cart in place...

do you think linking to this other address would be confusing or do you think it would work out?
any input appreciated...thanks

Harold Mansfield
12-16-2010, 11:22 AM
Why can't you use the existing cart, since it's already bought and paid for, on the Green Oak site? I do that all of the time...take something from one website, design, or plug in to use on another one (with permission or licensing of course).

greenoak
12-16-2010, 12:27 PM
its built around a different hosting company is my dils answer.. pappas i think not sure tho.....
.. how about the best choice between the 2 choices i gave?

Harold Mansfield
12-16-2010, 01:07 PM
Well if you can't move it and don't want to waste the $400, then I guess building on the separate site and redirecting people to the store front is the answer.
There are a lot of variables though:

1. Is the paid for program up to date? ("a couple of years ago" is a long time online)
2. Does it have all of the features and functions that you need today?
3. Is there any additional cost to using it monthly? Yearly? If so, is it worth it?
4. What is the domain that it's on? Does it compliment your existing business?
5. Do you know how to use it, or do you need to pay someone to configure it the way you want?

I have to ask all of the questions to be able to give an informed opinion of the best direction to take.

greenoak
12-16-2010, 06:45 PM
thanks eborg.... those are some good questions to give to my geek squad....i cant really answer them myself...for now i think we are going to follow your first thoughts and link at the start of this thread and see what it looks like...
..i dont really care about the money.....that 400$ site was kind of a mistake because of my not getting fully informed all the etsy rules...the site was a go along with our etsy plot...probably a bad one from the get go........then we realized we couldnt put our identical etsy pictures, on another website without breaking their rules.... which all kinds of people break....but we usually follow the rules... but anyway that quashed our goals for the new site...and its just been sitting since then......
i assume the site is still useable since i know a lot of places that use the designer....thats just a guess tho...
but the different style and taking someone away from our site are probably more important issues to us..especially if we could just buy another shopping cart..or work thru paypal...we are only talking dealing with about 10 items ....
thanks

AaronConway
12-22-2010, 09:05 PM
Ann, I would strongly suggest you not send somebody to a different web site for purchases. In my opinion, you lose a bit of the trust factor if customers are used to going to one site then all of a sudden they're pushed to another site to make a purchase. My vote is for keeping it all on the Green Oak site.

greenoak
12-23-2010, 09:25 AM
thanks aaron....thats where we have landed....this feedback has been real helpful....
we are looking at the shopping cart options now...hoipefully just with paypal... .........