What shopping cart should I choose for a small business?

[jamesx521]

I am building a website for coffee/sub shop where people will be able to make their CC orders online for pick-up or delivery. I've never done shopping carts. My HTML and CSS is at about mid-level, PHP and JS -- at basic level.

The web provider uses C-Panel 10... and I don't see anything in C-Panel 10 that says Shopping Carts. So, I went to http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=easy+shopping+cart and don't know where to start. I prefer if the orders are made through the website... in other words they check-mark the item on the website, click on Total, provide CC info and Submit Order. But if that is too difficult to make, then I can settle with redirecting to the page of the Shopping Cart provider and input the menu items and prices.

Two other issues that concern me: Once the customer makes the order with a CC, how does the CC/Bank pay the coffee shop... do you have to have a bank account that is settled/closed daily... or the CC/Bank sends you a check to your business name? The other thing is, when the customer submits an order, can the business get a fax with the order info instead of email notification?

[Compguy Pete]

The best way to do this is to talk about the transaction/cart process from the reverse of how it happens.

The way your client gets paid from the transaction after it's been approved and charged to the customer, is based on the agreement setup by they're CC processor. If they do not have a CC processor stop here untill they do.

On a typical transaction from a shopping cart you'll have an email that will be sent to the cart admin or some other address. yes it's possible to get a fax but not from the cart software. I suggest having a PC there and just be done with it... However if it's the client asking about the fax thing... just tell them no...

The cart software... Lucky for the majority of us there is software that's available for Free that is better than we could have asked for. You should have no issue hosting them with the current plan so long as you have an available MySQL database... somehting you should be able to find out easily in the C-Panel. Cubecart is a favorite of mine but any open-source shopping cart will work.

Things to consider...
Paypal... this might work great for your operation for both the ordering and processing of payment.
No... I would rather tell someone no than go though the long reasons why it's a bad idea or why it's not worth doing. (I did this on the fax option) I'll usually redirect the client into an idea that's going to work better. If they want an option that'll get them notices have an order copy cc'ed to a cellphone, then check the PC for the complete order detail.

[jamesx521]

Does "open-source" mean something that can be modified by the administrator of the shopping cart?

[colier]

I think by "open source" he means that it is not payed. As about shopping cart, take a look for Quick.Cart http://opensolution.org/?p=Quick.Cart
I use it, and I like it. The basic version is free, but if you need for example paypal plugin, you have to pay for that.

[jamesx521]

I might try the free version colier. I haven't read through the whole installation pages yet, but still I guess what I can't understand is how it functions structurally.

1) I install this software on my computer?
2) I set up the pages on my computer, then I FTP the pages at the webhost where my sites is?
3) Is it safe for people providing their CC numbers?

[Theremin]

I use miva merchant and am relatively happy with it, but it is not the cheapest solution.

I just saw an add for paypal integrated stores owned by ebay and paypal. I have not done a ton of research into them, but the pricing seems decent.

http://www.prostores.com/product-information.shtml

S!
Jason

[Compguy Pete]

GURRRR! "open Source" come on this has only been the biggest term that has come out of the tech boom of the last 10 years! It has more to do with if it's a paid program or not.

I looked at the Quick Cart and I don't recommend this product based on my first impressions of this product.

Take a look at your Cpanel again and see if there is a link for Fantastico if so there is a shopping cart there you could use...

DO NOT Think that you can set up one of these peices of software on your local(home)PC then upload them via FTP or another method. The installers and settings don't work like that.

Here are links to 2 very popular cart apps.
http://oscommerce.com/
http://www.zen-cart.com/

I would suggest zencart over OScomm only because I think your skill level may be to low to do many of the modifications you will need to do. And Zencart is much easier to use as it was created to be used by people who wanted something user-friendly. Plus it comes with an Owners Manual!