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Shopping cart for an existing website?

ivoogivoog subscriber Posts: 1
I just finished redesigning one of my business` websites (I like making the sites myself) and now am stuck with the shopping cart problem.
OK, I will try to explain this as easy as possible. Here is one of my products: http://www.ivoog.com/test/scooters/xm150. When the user click "Add to Cart" I want it to go to a shopping cart on http://www.ivoog.com/cart or something like that. So it needs to be an IN SITE shopping cart.
So basically, my website is FULLY complete (all HTML pages). All I need now is to find a shopping cart software that is compatible with Authorize.net, Google Checkout and Paypal (I am a merchant). I have been trying to find a shopping cart like this for a while and cannot find anything. Everything I come upon is either a full e-commerce software (WHICH I DON`T WANT) like Zen Cart, or something like the Paypal shopping cart which is OUT OF SITE. (By out of site I mean instead of the cart being at www.ivoog.com/cart, its at www.paypal.com/me/cart/whatever.
Where can I find a good shopping cart (just the shopping cart)? What i`m thinking is I would just need to link the add to cart buttons to a cart that I install? What is a good low cost or free software? Here is an example of a website that uses all HTML pages, and when the user click on add to cart it adds the item to their cart. This is exactly what I need: http://www.shopnastygal.com/products/vi ... Dress.html
Thanks,
Henry
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Comments

  • pp1607pp1607 subscriber Posts: 0
    If you are familiar with Zen Cart, you can use it for only the shopping cart functions and still retain the existing website architecture with your static HTML pages.
    Zen Cart allows you to add products to its shopping cart via an HTML link so you can put that in your existing product catalogue.
  • ivoogivoog subscriber Posts: 1
    How would I do that? That is EXACTLY what I want! Do you have a tutorial link? Thanks.
  • ivoogivoog subscriber Posts: 1
    I`m trying to search how to do this now What should I search for? Do you have any links? Thanks.
  • ivoogivoog subscriber Posts: 1
    I really don`t see a way to integrate Zen Cart into my current site. I also do not want to redesign the whole website just in Zen Cart, it took me months making all the html pages!
    Anyone know of any shopping cart?
  • NuevolutionNuevolution subscriber Posts: 30 Bronze Level Member
    Your best bet is to go with either Zen Cart or OS commerce. Both shopping carts can give you a good looking e-commerce site.
  • ivoogivoog subscriber Posts: 1
    Hi, I understand but my website is already DONE. I have over 100 HTML pages. I want to launch it today (well it was actually Wednesday but finding a shopping cart is longer than I expected).
    For example, look at http://www.shopnastygal.com/products/vi ... Dress.html. They have all HTML pages and then a perfect shopping cart exactly how I need it. How did they do this? (I tried asking )
    What is an IN SITE shopping cart that accepts Google Checkout, Paypal and Authorize.net? ivoog3/17/2009 1:49 PM
  • VideographyVideography subscriber Posts: 401 Silver Level Member
    The fact that you can`t find an onsite cart program and that no one here can point you to one is evidence that building and maintaining one is a daunting task.  Most web developers don`t have the ability to design complex database programs, and those that do are smart enough to not reinvent the wheel - especially one that needs constant maintenance.
    Why are you so set against an offsite solution?
  • ivoogivoog subscriber Posts: 1
    An off-site solution does not look very professional and most of our competitors have on-site shopping carts.
    What would a customer think when they click add to cart and it goes to e-junkie.com or paypal.com or something like that. Alot of people who are not aware about the web may think it is a scam if going to e-junkie.com (or shoppingcart.com, etc) and when going to paypal.com it gives them the impression that this is an amateur business.
  • NuevolutionNuevolution subscriber Posts: 30 Bronze Level Member
    IVOOG,
    The difference between the web site that you showed us and yours is that, they paid to have their web site designed and developed exclusively for them. As an E-commerce developer, I can say that the shopping cart they are using is Magento Ecommerce.
    and Word Press for their Blog.
    Magento is vastly Growing in Popularity and only a handful of developers know how to modify the templates. As for the Word-Press Integration, you can install the modules that allow you to integrate the Word-Press Registration to the whole site...
    My Question to you is why do you want to use Google Checkout? Most people don`t use that because there`s been flaws in the Code and People have been hacked.
    See that it pays to have your site professionally designed? if you decide to go with a new media[shopping cart] you`re going to have to delay your launch date...
  • NuevolutionNuevolution subscriber Posts: 30 Bronze Level Member
    An off-site solution does not look very professional and most of our competitors have on-site shopping carts.
    What would a customer think when they click add to cart and it goes to e-junkie.com or paypal.com or something like that. Alot of people who are not aware about the web may think it is a scam if going to e-junkie.com (or shoppingcart.com, etc) and when going to paypal.com it gives them the impression that this is an amateur business.
    Avoid this step. This makes your site look like a Phishing site.
    Most shopping carts now have the Pay Pal IPN feature, and FYI, you can customize the Pay Pal Template to look just like your site. Thus, one should never rely just on Pay Pal as your main Payment gateway.
    The way to look at it is; Spend the money now, get your site done professionally and to your likes.... OR loose customers and time down the road.
  • ivoogivoog subscriber Posts: 1
    That really is not an option for me
    There has to be some service out there. Currently (the really old website) uses www.e-junkie.com as the shopping cart, but like I said, when the user clicks pay by credit card it goes to the e-junkie website which sounds very phishing.
    The payment options I must accept in the shopping cart are Google Checkout, Paypal and Authorize.net for Credit Cards. The reason I like Google Checkout is that its the best alternative to Paypal (and Paypal freezes my funds half the time for no reason, not to mention the time I got suspended for absolutely nothing) which is not very reliable, but I still would like to include for customers.
  • NuevolutionNuevolution subscriber Posts: 30 Bronze Level Member
    To be honest, there is no rule that says you have to use Google Checkout or Pay Pal, Have you tried Looking at other Alternatives such as 2Checkout? These are alternatives to using Pay Pal or Google Checkout.
    And! it is up to you what you want to accept. If the customer wants to purchase from you, then you set the terms (your policies). Having a secondary payment Processor is an alternative, it just tells the end user that you are flexible. Also, remember depending on how you set your pay pal settings is how your transactions are going to be processed:
    1. Authorize transaction - just puts the money in a holding tank until you ship the product.
    2. Sale transaction - Automatically deducts the money from the customer`s pay pal or Credit Card.
    Pay Pal tends to put money on hold if: Owner(seller) does not notify the customer that their items are on their way. I`ve heard of many Pay Pal horror stories... Which is why you should make up your mind if you want to use it as an alternative. I know people that use Pay Pal, and have discontinued it... just how I have people that swore on Google Checkout just to find out that they got hacked...
  • ivoogivoog subscriber Posts: 1
    We`re going a little off topic here XD
    I agree with you but still want to accept Google Checkout, Paypal and Authorize.net simply because they are the most popular and customers often think they are the safest ways to pay for a specific retail website. (minus authorize.net, it`s just for credit cards which is definitely required).
    I stumbled upon http://www.comersus.com/! I think its what I want but the website looks terrible and noone is answering customer service...and it costs $299! (To accept my payment methods). So...I guess I won`t use it
  • VideographyVideography subscriber Posts: 401 Silver Level Member
    These prices sound appropriate for the size of the task.  What surprises me is that if you are so concerned about using onsite commerce suites, you would have thought about this while you built the site.
    Most offsite ecommerce providers, PayPal included, will allow you to muck about the HTML files for your cart system so that you control the appearance of the transaction.
    The truth is, *most* users don`t care!
  • vwebworldvwebworld subscriber Posts: 40
    I really don`t see a way to integrate Zen Cart into my current site. I also do not want to redesign the whole website just in Zen Cart, it took me months making all the html pages!
    Anyone know of any shopping cart?

     
    I`ve used ZenCart, osCommerce and Xcart. all are complete ecommerce applications which is what I think you want, because that enables you to manage everything about your products and customers, send out email.newsletters, etc.
     
    As far as integrating it with your existing site, the ecommerce "pages" would be stand alone, but you can modify the look to closely match your existing site.
     
    Your current site looks a lot like an "standard" ecommerce site already. Using any of the aforementioned ecommerce applications will not change your design dramatically.
     
    ~Roland
     
     
    vwebworld3/17/2009 7:15 PM
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