e-commerce integration

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malcolmboston
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e-commerce integration

Post by malcolmboston »

well,

as some of you may know im currently in the midst of launching my own web company and require an easy way of receiving payments for my services.

i have no idea what to use as this is my first time into the world of e-commerce, so im looking for ways of doing it, (programs scripts etc, like paypal for eg)

heres my requirements:
*must be free (if i pay for something and my site doesnt take off as expected then ive wasted money, when i know a rough idea of revenue i can think about paying for programs, like jasons for eg)
*easy to set-up
*easy integration with site

if anyone has any ideas then that would be great, also i could get a SSL server, but would prefer not too, if anyone has any ideas, please fire away
ilovetoast
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Post by ilovetoast »

Free and e-commerce don't go well together.

I am not aware of any service that is free and comes provides its own secure cert. They all have fees/charges of some kind.

As an aside, remember PayPal is the devil. Use them only as a last resort and then only if someone has a gun to your head. There are many reasons why, http://www.paypalsucks.com has some of the more egregious.

peace
malcolmboston
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Post by malcolmboston »

yeah ive just seen that link

its confusing though, because so amny companies do use paypal :?
ilovetoast
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Post by ilovetoast »

There are alternatives galore to Paypal. Many just as easy to use, many less expensive.

Check out the various lists out there. I strongly recommend noone use Paypal. If the account freezes, scams, and poor customer service aren't enough to scare you, know these things:

1) If you access your Paypal account from a country other than the one you signed up in, the account can be frozen. If you sign up in England and then while in Italy you access your account, be warned you could lose your account and all funds in it.

2) Paypal is only liable for $200 in case of scam. Good luck getting that.

3) If there is a chargeback against your account because someone else scammed you, Paypal can and has sent collection agents after the victim if the victim took the money out of the account before the chargeback. They have done so in England.

4) All Paypal transactions, all Paypal account details, and all personal information tied to such are turned over for permanent storage to the FBI. Regardless of whether you live in the US or not. The FBI can turn this info over to the IRS to facilitate an audit.

My personal rec. is Moneybookers. It's harder for vanilla e-Commerce, but it is infinitely better than PayPal otherwise. If you need an instant, no account setup type cc processor then you'll probably have to suck it up and go for your own merchant account. That unfortunately cost a little money, but you will be happy to have merchant rights.

Other options are many and varied, from eGold/WU/iKobo types to Paypal alternates like BrightPay, etc. Any of these is a better choice.
malcolmboston
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Post by malcolmboston »

thank you very much, i will look into these
Gremlin
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Post by Gremlin »

http://www.oscommerce.com/ has a decent interface.
I have used and modified this source many different times and in many different ways.

My complaints:
poor separation between logic and layout.
administrative handling of product attributes is a little difficult.

My likes:
Easy to install, fast and fairly configurable.
'Templated' system for handling both language support and theming.
Many many mods available.
Free.

Running an ecommerce site is going to always cost you money. You need to set up merchant accounts and process and ship orders.. but oscommerce has paypal and generic cc processing support without requiring a merchant account.. although having one will make your life 100x easier in the long run as paypal is evil and generic cc authorizing requires you to run cards twice (once when the authenticity check clears the number, and once by hand when you actually want to charge the card)

Anyways, some food for thought.
Gremlin
mgm_03
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Post by mgm_03 »

I would give a hard look at http://www.2checkout.com. They are a payment processor. I think there's a free-trial for 30 days. No commitments, very easy to use. Pricing is reasonable
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JayBird
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Post by JayBird »

Have a look at http://www.worldpay.co.uk/

I know a lot of companies that use this service. I have just signed up for some webspace, and the company i did it through used this. Not free though.

Mark
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Dr Evil
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Post by Dr Evil »

I am currently looking at : http://www.yowcow.com They look quite good.
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