Online shops software

I have used MIVA in the past but found it very time consuming to enter products (although you can use a spread sheet) and update them plus you are limited to design/layout.

Now we use a custom script from our hosting company which means that we have the flexibility of being able to use a database for large sites or just use a form method of transferring data to the secure cart. We find this much better for sites we are doing SEO work with as well.

How many products do you have and how were you thinking of designing the site?

i have about 100 - 150 products , plz note that i have limited knowledge of html , so therefore im looking for a software that will enable me to open an online store without going into programming too much, i have played around with both the software mentioned above on trial as i found shop factory very easy to use but limited on customisations , where as actinic looks pretty powerful yet a tat more difficult to utilised , i have thought about trying to do this within Ultradev itself , but was told not to bother as the process of transaction is far more complicated and not worth the time for develope this (how true is this ?).
Anyway , what i really wanted asking from all u nice folks out there is that if theres a better option out there .

btw thx mistress , i ll go check out MIVA

With MIVA you need a hosting company with the licence and I have used 1steasy.com who are both reasonably priced and very helpful

Sorry if i sound a pickle , with these online shopping packages , do they need special hosting ? or just any ole hosting company will do .

just that my friend have got a resellers account, and so far i ve been putting my basic html websites there .

I have kinda finally decided to go with the shop factory software developer as it seems to me as the easiest to use and cost a lot less than the others , even thought it is very limited in customisation .

My next question is how does the whole process works ? my other friend have a merchant account with worldpay that i can use .

Let say i have created the site , is the merchant accounts details is all i need or do i have to look out for anything else ..

You need to have the actual shopping cart on secure space, so you'll have to talk to the hosting company about charges, etc. If you are running the site with your products I would say that you'll need to have your own world pay account, if that's the route you are taking, as you'll have to deal with any refunds etc and it'll really need to be in your, or your businesses, name.

When u say secure space , what does that actually mean ? my friends resellers account is hosted by ghoulnet , (i think they are the average hosting company ) , would that be a secure space?

And if not , do they charge u a lot more for it?

thx

Never used it, got this from another forum site I do believe.

It is free and looks half-decent. I am going to use it sometime down the road to find out. Just thought I would offer the link up.

http://www.oscommerce.com/about

Secure space is just that secure! It's where you get the padlock come up on the browser to show that it is secure and the hosting company will have a SSL certificate. Generally it is a bit more expensive.

I had a look at ghoulnet's website and quite worringly the link to their ecommerce section brought up a 'page not found'!! You'll need to contact them regarding this - it may be that to use their secure space you have to use their ecommerce package.

Thx Mistress for all ur help , at least i have a better understanding of whats ahead .

I ll contact ghoulnet a bit more about thier secure space or ecommerce package , even thought i ve just read thier ecommerce on world pay is a about £125 to setup . i have to ask them if theres anymore charges on top of that , think i ll open a store in the market instead once i ve seen how much the banks wanted fr transactions ^o^ .

And thanx ShaneS too for his brilliant link to OScommerce, i think i ll ake a closer look at that 1 as its free , being a cheapskate lol , but i like the layouts of the end results , seems to be very customisable , but is there a lot of serious bug issues that 1 should be aware off ? (took a quick look at the forum).

Just out of curiosity, what are you going to be selling?

Computer bits and bobs like CD-Media and the usual suspects , but if i can get it running smoothly and without too much pain , i know a few peeps who would be interested in doing sumthing in the same line .

I could use them as guinee pigs , but i bet the RSPCA will be knocking on my door in a flash .

LOL, just bear in mind SEO when putting the store together as it's no good having a store if no one can find it!

I hear ya mistress , in reality im really trying to use it for practice , i gave up the idea of selling online like ebuyer and likes many moons ago, the way i see it , unless u have a niche market or buy them in thousands, its hard to compete.

But, having a shopfront is better than having no shopfront , i ve tried doing my bit on meta tags and Search engine submissions .

Anyway i just got a reply from ghoulnet and was told they dont do any ecommerce packages and said that i ll need to have it on a secure site , didnt say yea or nea , so i prusume they dont have 1 or they dont want to know , bummer ..

So now im looking for somewhere to put this white elephant , i ll go check out 1steasy and others , thx

Not really sure about OSCommerce. I was just linked to it myself 2 days ago. Seems to have great potential. I know how to code in PHP and light duty Perl using MySQL so it doesn't bother me that it might have bugs. I could fix them for my needs under the terms of the software.

I just was impressed from what I saw and it being free , I didnt look inot much beyond visiting a couple sites using it.

On one site I could hardly tell it was OSCommerce. Except for the image compression. Either they are using the GD library (maybe the ImageMagic part of PEAR) or the people making the thumbnails such at making clear images .

Yeah , i was well impressed with the featured sites from OScommerce , it seems like its the way to go, but as im not that great with the programming side im a sitting duck , lol.

okie dokie , heres another few not so clever question ..

How does the whole process goes ?

I mean , say some1 places an order , that order goes thru (say) worldpay to collect the money from the buyer, is worldpay a bank? or just some internet middle men ? once that has been verified and the money goes thru to my bank account where a chunk of it goes , and then every month i go collect whatever is there from the bank right? .. or wrong?

I understand that i ll need a secure site where i can Encryted the infomation send over by the client, is that what PGP and Miva merchants do?

Cost-------

In order to set up an online shop , i ll need to get an internet merchant account thru the bank and they will charge me to set 1 up (about ~ £150) and then X-amount per trans-action, and that worldpay will take a chunk out too , i ll need to set 1 up with some host who does Secure Sites (about ~ £200 p/year?)

sorry to be a pain , but i rather find out now than end up paying thru the nose once i ve committed in buying the software, and i really dont want any nasty surprises that im not aware off .

thx a mill

Starter:

First off the whole process is different depending on the routes you take.

Lets so you go with a provide like PaySystems. They offer the use of one of their merchant account saving you initial costs, however you will be charges a higher fee & % per transaction.

Now also depending on these 'Credit Card Processors" you may or maynot be provided with a secure user information and accepants interface. In the case you are, see your Processor.

In the event you are not. You will need an SSL certificate(it is not recommened for true commerce to use a networked shared SSL cert[alot of hosts set themselves up like that, I was going to myself but decided it is too risky]). Once you pay for an SSL certificate you will need to set it up on your server if you have access or have an admin set it up. Then you will use httpS:// to access the secured area(normally a folder that the SSL is tied to that is encrypted). If you pull any images from OUTSIDE that folder users will be given a security message.

Once you have an SSL you will collect the encrypted data and send it off to a URL of your card processor.

If you get a merchants account you can use a Processor, or contact someone about becoming a direct processor yourself. Both need research and have pros and cons. Being your own has monthly fees but far lower charges per transaction and % taken then using a processor(at least 95% of the time).

Hope that answers most of your questions.

Quote: On one site I could hardly tell it was OSCommerceOn one site I could hardly tell it was OSCommerce

Do you have a link to this site?

...I like OSCommerce so far also

If I am not mistaken it listed on their site as a site utilizing it.