The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
My better half has a wholesale business that's been going quite well for years and we have a website that just directs people to retail outlets. After posting pictures on Facebook lately, friends are asking to buy things directly including those who are out of town. This means it's time to step up and turn the website into one where people can actually place orders and pay with a credit card.
Since we're just dipping our toes into online selling, I'm thinking a third party processor would be the way to go and there's always the option of getting a merchant account down the road. From a quick glance, PayPal seemed to be the cheapest and easiest to set up. Does anyone have experience with setting up e-commerce sites? How did you accept cards? Have a different company to recommend? Any tips in general would be appreciated.
I do know my way around coding and databases so getting the technical bits to work shouldn't be a problem. Also, we're in Canada if that makes a difference.
I think that the internet has been for years on the path to creating what is essentially an electronic Necronomicon: A collection of blasphemous unrealities so perverse that to even glimpse at its contents, if but for a moment, is to irrevocably forfeit a portion of your sanity.
Xbox - PearlBlueS0ul, Steam
If you ever need to talk to someone, feel free to message me. Yes, that includes you.
I do web programming for a living (and have done quite a few ecommerce deals). Paypal is free to start with, and easy to get going. Paypal is more expensive once you start seeing volume, however. If you feel that you are going to have volume enough to offset the initial setup fees, authorize.net is a super way to go. Your fees are lower, the customers stay on your site all the way through, etc.
I'd be happy to help you more... drop me a PM if you like.
Do you know much about pre-packaged shopping carts, integration to shippers, order tracking, etc? I would imagine enough people have done it already that it would be much easier to buy something existing than to roll your own from scratch.
I think that the internet has been for years on the path to creating what is essentially an electronic Necronomicon: A collection of blasphemous unrealities so perverse that to even glimpse at its contents, if but for a moment, is to irrevocably forfeit a portion of your sanity.
Xbox - PearlBlueS0ul, Steam
If you ever need to talk to someone, feel free to message me. Yes, that includes you.
With paypal payments pro customers can stay on your website throughout the checkout process, but it costs $30 a month, plus the transaction fees.
You don't need to buy a shopping cart, you can use any of the free ones, like magento, os commerce, etc etc. If you are at all capable of reading and following instructions it will be no problem to set one up by yourself. I recommend you start looking at the shopping cart solutions out there and demo the admin interface to see which one fits you best.
There are plenty of prebuilts out there you can download and install - PPS is right. A lot of them are pretty bloated, too... just depends on what you really want out of it.
I work for a payment processing company, but I won't say which one because then this comment would reek of spam.
In my experience, you should consider that whole "web site that takes a card and processes it automatically" as a labor-saving device -- a luxury -- that you don't need until your business grows into it. When you start seeing so many sales that the sheer effort of processing all of those sales is so difficult that you'd pay $50-$100/month to not have to do it any more -- a nice problem to have, to be sure -- then you should start looking at a shopping cart.
Until then, have people call you on the phone and give you their payment information that way.
mspencer on
MEMBER OF THE PARANOIA GM GUILD
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )
PPS, that's a good call on the free shopping carts. I'll take a good look at those this weekend.
mspencer, I think my better half would consider $50/month a low price to not have the phone ringing any more than it does. As it turns out, if you pay extra to get an unlisted business number, they'll publish it anyway...
zeeny, we're keeping it Canada only for now and probably wouldn't expand beyond the US at any point.
I think that the internet has been for years on the path to creating what is essentially an electronic Necronomicon: A collection of blasphemous unrealities so perverse that to even glimpse at its contents, if but for a moment, is to irrevocably forfeit a portion of your sanity.
Xbox - PearlBlueS0ul, Steam
If you ever need to talk to someone, feel free to message me. Yes, that includes you.
Understandable. Some people go to the extra trouble because they seem to feel like they have to, or their business is somehow less legit if they don't do that. You're under no such delusions -- your reason is a good one.
mspencer on
MEMBER OF THE PARANOIA GM GUILD
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )
A shopping cart and built in payment processing also makes it a lot easier for customers to buy your products compared to making an order and/or payment by phone, increasing the likelihood of sales. If you're doing any sort of business online involving preset product configurations and predictable pricing (ie not bespoke quoted services) having an online payment system is rarely a bad idea. Even people who do work in fields involving bespoke estimate work - such as freelance designers - are turning to online payment sytems where they can bill via online services and recieve payment by cc, paypal etc.
Posts
Not sure though.
I do web programming for a living (and have done quite a few ecommerce deals). Paypal is free to start with, and easy to get going. Paypal is more expensive once you start seeing volume, however. If you feel that you are going to have volume enough to offset the initial setup fees, authorize.net is a super way to go. Your fees are lower, the customers stay on your site all the way through, etc.
I'd be happy to help you more... drop me a PM if you like.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Do you know much about pre-packaged shopping carts, integration to shippers, order tracking, etc? I would imagine enough people have done it already that it would be much easier to buy something existing than to roll your own from scratch.
If you ever need to talk to someone, feel free to message me. Yes, that includes you.
You don't need to buy a shopping cart, you can use any of the free ones, like magento, os commerce, etc etc. If you are at all capable of reading and following instructions it will be no problem to set one up by yourself. I recommend you start looking at the shopping cart solutions out there and demo the admin interface to see which one fits you best.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
In my experience, you should consider that whole "web site that takes a card and processes it automatically" as a labor-saving device -- a luxury -- that you don't need until your business grows into it. When you start seeing so many sales that the sheer effort of processing all of those sales is so difficult that you'd pay $50-$100/month to not have to do it any more -- a nice problem to have, to be sure -- then you should start looking at a shopping cart.
Until then, have people call you on the phone and give you their payment information that way.
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK
QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )
mspencer, I think my better half would consider $50/month a low price to not have the phone ringing any more than it does. As it turns out, if you pay extra to get an unlisted business number, they'll publish it anyway...
zeeny, we're keeping it Canada only for now and probably wouldn't expand beyond the US at any point.
Thanks for the advice everyone!
If you ever need to talk to someone, feel free to message me. Yes, that includes you.
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK
QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )