What's my best option here...

[domainbrain]

Hey all.

I am new to the shopping cart world.

I am looking to integrate a "buy now" feature for just one product on a website that is already made... so I am not looking to use an entire new template, I just want to add an individual cart on my existing site under a product image. Is this possible/fairly easy?

I may hire a programmer regardless, but I'de like to know out of the different cart options in Powwebs control panel what might be my best route.

Any suggestions/examples would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Paul

:o

[YvetteKuhns]

For a quick and easy method, simply use the PayPal shopping cart if you have a PayPal account. This is a good start until you choose another method.

What forms of payment will you be accepting? Do you need real-time payment processing through your website? Do you need to keep track of customers or inventory with a database?

One of my clients only sells one product. I used php to calculate the total cost based on the quantity and price. He also gives a cheaper price when customers buy a larger quantity. So, this really needed to be customized. We simply submitted the order information to PayPal. The client gets a copy of the order and payment confirmation is sent by PayPal. He didn't need a database or big shopping cart. He could have used the PayPal cart if he didn't need a customized cart.

[domainbrain]

Thanks for your fast response Yvette.

I am looking for real time processing... I think the inventory could be handled outside of the setup...

I was trying to stay away from PayPal because the person I am working with would rather them not take the percentage and if anything would pay a monthly fee for another service (unless there is a free/opensource way to do real time processing).

[YvetteKuhns]

PayPal doesn't charge a registration fee, monthly gateway fees or batch fees. And PayPal pays you, so any bad transactions must be handled by PayPal. You wouldn't know if someone used a bad check, because you got paid by PayPal. ;)

ECHO is one of the most reasonable payment processors for US businesses. VeriSign is expensive. Authorize.net can also be expensive. Most processors charge monthly gateway fees, but ECHO charges only in months where transactions are made. Actually, there may be new companies or promotions that are trying to compete with them. Your client should contact his bank for his business/merchant checking account for a good list of those with which they have dealt.

unless there is a free/opensource way to do real time processing

There are free scripts to transfer your shopping cart data to a payment processing company, but there is no free method of accepting real time payments unless your customers pay you cash. ;)