website e-commerce options

[Spoiler]

Now then - my wife's company has a website, which is in the process of being overhauled by a local web design company.

She now has a requirement to add e-commerce to the site, so people can order\pay on-line (this is really driven by a couple of other local competitors having added this functionality to their sites recently).

The web design guy has initially suggested having a paypal button next to each product (taking the visitor to the company's paypal account) - on the grounds of being the "best & most cost-effective way" of doing this. There will be no extra charge for implementing this.
Comments on the paypal option was that it looks a little unprofessional - an an alternative would be to implement a full e-commerce package, costing at least £5,000.

Quote from web dev guy - "The first step is to get a website that generates leads. Then convert these into sales by either phone orders or PayPal order. Then we can discuss the business benefits of taking it to the next level."


Appreciate any opinions on this?
Is paypal a reasonable way to go initially? Does it really cost £5k and upwards to implement something that takes credit\debit cards, etc?

[TestMangler]

Now then - my wife's company has a website, which is in the process of being overhauled by a local web design company.

She now has a requirement to add e-commerce to the site, so people can order\pay on-line (this is really driven by a couple of other local competitors having added this functionality to their sites recently).

The web design guy has initially suggested having a paypal button next to each product (taking the visitor to the company's paypal account) - on the grounds of being the "best & most cost-effective way" of doing this. There will be no extra charge for implementing this.
Comments on the paypal option was that it looks a little unprofessional - an an alternative would be to implement a full e-commerce package, costing at least £5,000.

Quote from web dev guy - "The first step is to get a website that generates leads. Then convert these into sales by either phone orders or PayPal order. Then we can discuss the business benefits of taking it to the next level."


Appreciate any opinions on this?
Is paypal a reasonable way to go initially? Does it really cost £5k and upwards to implement something that takes credit\debit cards, etc?

The paypal button thing is pretty crap and cheap looking TBH.

There are plenty of free and budget solutions available. Cubecart, OS Commerce (a bit heavy), Magento etc etc. The list goes on.

A fully integrated cart system is easier and much better to work with than paypal buttons attached to each product.

Have a look at php.resourceindex.com and look in the 'Shopping Cart' section.

Oh, and PS- In answer to your final question, No, nothing like it. Your web designer is greasing you up for penetration.

[xoggoth]

£5k sounds a vast sum. I used a freeware NOPcart thing and Worldpay to take the cards, fee £180 per year although (according to aTW anyway) it has gone up for more recent customers.

Free Shopping Cart -- No CGI acccess required!

[eek]

The paypal button thing is pretty crap and cheap looking TBH.

There are plenty of free and budget solutions available. Cubecart, OS Commerce (a bit heavy), Magento etc etc. The list goes on.

A fully integrated cart system is easier and much better to work with than paypal buttons attached to each product.

Have a look at php.resourceindex.com and look in the 'Shopping Cart' section.

Oh, and PS- In answer to your final question, No, nothing like it. Your web designer is greasing you up for penetration.

Agreed you need to separate things into two parts:-

1) your website / shop
2) the purchase path.

For the first any of the packages listed above are fine although not exactly the greatest design. I'm sure wordpress has plugins that perform the same task.

For the second issue paypal provide a purchase path for non members where they can enter their details for a one off purchase. Credit cards online are a world of pain unless you plan to earn your total living on that website let Paypal do the heavy lifting.

Also remember that you will need proof of delivery via a third party if you are taking credit card payments. The scare stories you read about paypal chargebacks are usually because paypal are following credit card regulations and terms and conditions.

[TestMangler]

Agreed you need to separate things into two parts:-

1) your website / shop
2) the purchase path.

For the first any of the packages listed above are fine although not exactly the greatest design. I'm sure wordpress has plugins that perform the same task.

For the second issue paypal provide a purchase path for non members where they can enter their details for a one off purchase. Credit cards online are a world of pain unless you plan to earn your total living on that website let Paypal do the heavy lifting.

Also remember that you will need proof of delivery via a third party if you are taking credit card payments. The scare stories you read about paypal chargebacks are usually because paypal are following credit card regulations and terms and conditions.

Never been a great fan of the Wordpress route, I prefer Cubecart, which you can easily change the look and feel of as it's template based.

Most cart systems integrate with Paypal easily (just by entering your Paypal email address) and it's a lot better than using individual product buttons. They are fine if you only have a couple of products.

I used to use a merchant account direct from Lloyds (who i had a business bank account with anyway) and Paypal (customers choice) and the direct cards were by far the more popular payment method. Paypal actually apply much stricter rules and are more difficult to deal with than bank merchant providers when it comes to disputes and chargebacks. paypal will work in favour of the buyer immediately and make it difficult for you to deal with them (i.e. speak to a person that can do something).

If you want to PM me the address of the site, i'll take a look and suggest some cart software. depends on how many products, how you describe them (e.g. multiple photos per product, downloadable product data sheets etc etc) and what features your hosting has (PHP Versions, databases etc).

[xoggoth]

For the second issue paypal provide a purchase path for non members where they can enter their details for a one off purchase. Credit cards online are a world of pain unless you plan to earn your total living on that website let Paypal do the heavy lifting.

Also remember that you will need proof of delivery via a third party if you are taking credit card payments

Don't agree with those points. Integration of Worlpay with a shopping cart via the basic method they provide is very simple, populate a few variables with name, address, order description etc and do a post to their site. They do all the secure card stuff. Doing the feedback is harder but there are messy freeware scripts that work. Worlpay also have a pay by paypal option.

proof of delivery via a third party??? News to me.

[TestMangler]

Don't agree with those points. Integration of Worlpay with a shopping cart via the basic method they provide is very simple, populate a few variables with name, address, order description etc and do a post to their site. They do all the secure card stuff. Doing the feedback is harder but there are messy freeware scripts that work. Worlpay also have a pay by paypal option.

proof of delivery via a third party??? News to me.

That's pretty much a Paypal/Ebay thing.

[eek]

That's pretty much a Paypal/Ebay thing.

Not quite. Its well and truly hidden somewhere in the regulations but basically.

Deliver goods with signature.
Chargeback
Pay minimum £20 bank fee and battle customer's bank to get the money back.

Granted its probably not a big issue with local purchases and firms used to vetting orders but it can be an issue if the company does not already have fraud prevention routines on all purchases. With paypal and third party delivery you can accept, process order and forget, without it you do need to be more careful.

You then have the issues of PCI compliance and all the other issues of dealing with online transactions that offline transactions don't have.

Finally and I know its a personal gripe and as I don't have any clients using Worldpay I have no evidence but the last two times I saw a worldpay purchase form I left the site before completing the purchase. Nothing screams amateur more than Worldpay's 1999 era purchase form.

[xoggoth]

Well, they were owned by RBS.

[Cliphead]

Best free shop software I've come across Prestashop.