Free Shopping Cart - Website Development

[goldieab]

Does anyone use one of the free shopping carts (eg., osCommernce) for their website.

I currently take payments through Paypal and have very simple purchase buttons, but they informed me that I should have a shopping cart as well, as they offer different options with additional buttons etc.

As a young business, I cannot afford to spend further on a cart that costs £££, therefore looking for a freebie (that is compatible with my site).

What free shopping cart do you use and what do you think of it.

[elzi]

I understand Paypal have their own shopping cart, is that what they were implying you use? Is it very expensive?

I can't help you much as I too am using paypal buttons however I have previously used romancart:

http://www.romancart.com

(on a client's website not my own)
I've always found them fairly friendly and helpful.
That said I suspect that the free version has limited functionality although they do still offer support for it.

What is it that you are wanting to do that requires a shopping cart?
(just curious as I've been wondering whether to try and fudge writing something customisable with paypal payments that works better for myself)

[Bowed Over]

I use paypal with Roman Cart integrated as like you said paypal didn't give me enough options when it came to selecting colours, scents etc. It only costs £50.00 for the year if you select the basic package and I this has plenty of options so I think it would be suitable for you.

HTH.

Lisa

[Kiamyka]

Paypal acts as a cart anyway and you don't need to pay extra. I think you just need the premium account. I have used it on this site i developed for a friend..

http://diademslight.com/services2.htm

Paypal creates all the code - you fill in a form and it creates the code you need and you just paste it into your html code
For www.kiamyka.co.uk i use Zencart but it's not for the faint hearted

[matt.chatterley]

Oo time for me to chirp up again Bearing in mind that I am a little bit biased here..

I have quite a bit of experience with the free carts, as obviously we used them as a research base before building our own!

However, of late, most of my experience has been with osCommerce, which my brother is using for one of his madcap schemes at present - and it is, frankly, awful (I think). So don't use that one.

I've heard good things about Roman, although I have not used it myself - I have also heard favourable reports about ZenCart and (more and more) Magneto.

It does depend how complicated you need or want it to be (how many products, what sort of things, etc) - because you may be able to get away with using PayPal and a basic page with buy-it-now buttons or something similar to start with? As long as it doesn't put people off from buying!

Mind you, a lot of people here have success with MrSite?

[goldieab]

Thanks everyone for your help.

Bear with me as I'm not a 'techi' - I currently use 123-Reg for the website template. This is very limited and I cannot add codes in to it (as far as I am aware). The template is basically set up and then I just add my own business stuff into.

There are only a couple of options of free carts I can use that integrate with 123Reg and Paypal, osCommerce being one, and that perhaps isn't the best one. This is the list I can choose from, but looking for the freebie ones (I think there are only two).
Actinic
ChannelAdvisor
CubeCart
e.pages
ekmPowershop
EROL
Frooition
Mal's e-commerce
Mr Site
osCommerce
ProductCart
RomanCart
Shopcreator
Venda Small Business Solution
X-Cart

As stated, I have 'add to cart' and 'buy it' buttons currently on my site, (and people can pay with credit cards), but they are not highlighted buttons and do not stand out, therefore people do not always know they can buy online and will email me instead. Most websites have brightly coloured, bold buttons.

The uses of a shopping cart for me would be - to add options of length of chains (either 16" or 18"), additionals colour options. This is just me thinking ahead and maybe I would require some other options later down the line, as yet I just don't know.

I currenly use website payments pro through paypal.

Hope all this makes sense!!

Perhaps, Matt, could offer his fabulous assistance here.

[matt.chatterley]

Perhaps, Matt, could offer his fabulous assistance here.

Ooh flattery.

Based on _none_ of my own experience, but on what I read here only - I'd probably suggest MrSite is the most suitable for you. Also if you have problems, lots of nice people here already use it!

The only real recommendation I can give apart from that is to avoid osCommerce.

[Kiamyka]

Kathyrn I'm a bit confused -I just went to your site and added 2 items and you do have a cart there - it seemed pretty obvious to me you could buy now..perhaps the emails you are getting are from newbies to the net...and no matter how obvious things are such people just won't get it lol

[goldieab]

Yes i agree. its obvious to me, but not to others.

I'll still look into something and do some research

Thanks all

[Jeff & Becky]

Had a look at your site and I must stress that I'm no expert, but here are a couple of points you might want to consider:

1) From landing on your home page, it takes quite alot to actually get the point where I could actually buy something! Perhaps, like me, you're not a big fan of the hard sell, but I had to do a bit of rooting around to find your products and then get to the sales page of an item I was interested in. Maybe have a more prominent link on your home page taking you directly to your products page - maybe you could turn those 3 great images on your homepage into a link that takes you directly to your products.

2) When you do reach your sales pages your 'add to cart' and 'buy' buttons seem along way from the items themselves.

I use Paypal who provide me with a shopping cart - all for free, and fairly simple to set up & use. I think I had to change to a premium or business account (can't remember which without checking) but this didn't cost me anything. Paypal provided all the code which I then pasted into my pages. The buttons are a bit ugly - the big yellow standard Paypal 'Buy it Now' and 'View Cart', but I figure that it may install confidence in some buyers to know that their purchases are protected by Paypal.

If you want to see how it looks, go to my site, then click on 'the Cards' and keep following the links (I know I haven't completely practised what I preached in point 1, the site is having a major overhaul in the next couple of weeks with the arrival of our new range.) By all means, try 'buying' some items to see how it all works - you can always clear the cart before it comes to purchase!

Like you, I can't justify spending alot on a cart - the paypal set up has worked well for me!

Sorry - this has turned into a bit of a ramble! Congratulations for getting this far!

Jeff

[ThE_SeeKeR]

alternatively you could buy a shopping cart to be built for you

Take a look at mine link in signiture.

[elzi]

The buttons are a bit ugly - the big yellow standard Paypal 'Buy it Now' and 'View Cart'

Just thought I would also mention that you don't actually need to use the ugly paypal buttons! You can use your own 'buy it now' and 'add to cart' buttons with paypal.
Just make your own images and change the image link in the button code.

[goldieab]

Unfortunately, I can't even add pretty customised buttons as I am unable to add the html code for the buttons into my own site. There doesn't seem to be any flexibility with my templated site.

[matt.chatterley]

Unfortunately, I can't even add pretty customised buttons as I am unable to add the html code for the buttons into my own site. There doesn't seem to be any flexibility with my templated site.

Doh

So 123 are one to avoid?

[goldieab]

You could be right there Matt!!

It's so annoying that you only find out about these things when it's too late. None of these issues were obviously pointed out in the information before buying the product.

And it was an IT guy that recommended 123Reg - shameful