Thread: Adding the shopping cart...too late?

I didn't realize that I needed to add the Commerce package until now...duh! At any rate, now I'm not sure if I should add the Commerce package (I have built my home page in BlueVoda) to what I have OR if it would be better to redo everything in Soho which looks like it has a commerce package built in. I am very new to all of this, and still working on loading my site which is www.redeux.net. I will have lots of products to put in and about 4 or 5 different catagories. Thank you in advance for any and all advice!

vodayoda-

My friend made a site with BV for his wife and then used paypal shopping cart to handle the purchase part. It works well. Check it out-
http://www.kittygallery.com

That may be an alternative to re-doing everything. If you have questions about it just use the contact page on the site and I am sure he can give you some pointers.

Andy

Thanks Andy. Do you think that it is easier to use paypal than the osCommerce package listed here? Would I have to rebuild the site to use that, or does it just bolt on somehow? Thank you!

Major Andy,

Oh, I get it! I just looked at the site. It's very clean in the navigation and ease of use. Does the osCommerce do the same thing? Just wondering if I should keep it all "in house". Your opinion? Thanks! P.S. Don't know if it is appropriate to make personal remarks, but I grew up in Michigan, north of Detroit. :)

vodayoda,
Well my friend set it up with pay pal in a few days and had never had any web building experience. I cannot comment on the OS package but I suspect that you would have to start from scratch with that- but I am not certain. I have not set anything up with paypal so I am of limited knowledge on it.

Andy

it is the easy option using pay pal if you already have a web design with bv and are happy with it then i would sighn up for pay pal its so easy you just sighn up and they give you the buttons to use i.e buy now button and go to cart button then they do it all for you and your customers dont need a pay paql account they can use there credit cards but there is a small fee with them about 2 - 3 % but its probably worth it once your customer has made the transaction they are sent back to you asap with a thank you page from you or whatever you want , im no good on pc and i did it easy enough

Personally, I like having my own merchant account. But how you go - whether using BV or OSCommerce or any of the others - only YOU can decide based on what they offer. I chose one method, Andy another, Amanda still another. All work well. I just sent someone to use Amanda's version that is new to BV - but wants the design flexibility. If you pick OS or Soho or others that are catalog driven, you will have other options you don't have with BV and vice versa.

My decision to not go with Paypal is a personal one also. I love Paypal but the majority of the world still doesn't use them - and sales with a merchant account on a store are usually much greater than with Paypal alone. However, if starting out - Paypal is a wonderful alternative - and as sales grow, I still recommend getting a merchant account to grow the sales even more :)

But -look at the carts available and pick what will do what you need.

There are some huge benefits to using PayPal. I will be transfering to them as soon as my current arrangemant expires. The biggest is that it is a secure site. The carts provided by BV (they are excellent) are not secure (as far as I know) and you need to pay extra to have a secure cart (correct me if I'm wrong on this). Also there are no monthly fees with PayPal. No sales...no charges. PayPal now accepts all major credit cards from buyers without the buyer having a PayPal account.
The major disadvantage is that if you do thousands of dollars a month then the fees are slightly pricey.

Thanks for the great advice, I have been struggling with OsCommerce all day, but looked at paypal and it does seem very easy, and since I already have a business acct with them, then this should be a breeze to do.

sugarplum

Sugar,

If you have a "small" business or fewer things to sell, then you might be better off staying within BV and the PayPal format, keeping the ability do design and update your site easily with what you know how to do.

Soholaunch is also a website "design tool" but is more complicated than BV, requiring the use of templates and other hard-wired features that seem complicated to many at first. There is more ability to manage the design elements in Soho, but not as many as BV, as it is a powerful "cart" that can accept many payment platforms (merchant, PayPal, other) and has an incredible "catalog" logistics to it. Simpler and "chunkier" than osC for instance, it is still in a class by itself.....something to learn that requires a bit more attention.

osCommerce is the web's powerhouse commerce solution, and is much more a technological challenge to be comfotable using after becoming familiar with BV. Again, the use of templates and minimal knowledge of 'scripts' will be needed to unleash the features of OSC, but it is really a neat cart to utilize. It too, can be set up on the back end of a BV created site (to run just the cart, for instance), and is very capable of being configured any way you desire, and if you cannot do it yourself there is help available.

Unless you are looking for a real monster cart to handle your business, I would stick to the BV/PayPal or Soholaunch options. The whole issue is about handling transactions simply, isn't it?
A good thing about VH is the ability to support other carts not offered in your account also...you're never stuck! If you find a cart (or site) that you like, you can always bring over a system to be installed in your account to satisfy your needs!

After reading Andy's suggestion and looking at the Kitty Gallery website, I decided to use PayPal. It was very easy to set up and they take care of everything you need.

Andrea
http://forgetmenotusa.com

I have read all the comments above and still need help! I ahve signed up (and have had an account with Paypal for quuite awhile ) so that part wasn't hard at all.
My problem is that paypal got me set up with the shopping cart button html file to put on my desktop but now I don't know how to place it on my pages and paypal doesn't know BlueVoda so they can't help me. I have searched all day in the forum to find instructions with no luck!
Can anyone help me?

It's quite simple: Drag and drop a HTML box in your page. It's the first tool in the left hand vertical toolbar in BV. Make it almost the same size as your Paypal button, as this will help you with the layout of the rest of the page. After you have put it in your page, double click it to edit it, and in the window that opens, paste the code that Paypal has given you. You are done.

I have Paypal, I like the security and the help desk was pretty good.
Once you setup your first product you can copy and edit for every other.

Ok - now I feel like a REAL idiot! I got the html page thing but how do I get the 'button' turned into a 'shopping cart'??

I have a PayPal Add to Cart button and View Cart button. Check out my OrderNow page on my website. You might want to click Add to Cart just to see how it works.

When you customers click Add to Cart, it takes them directly to a PayPal shopping cart, they follow the PayPal instructions. You don't actually have the shopping cart on your website.

Do you actually need help setting up the buttons? I hope this has been some help.

Andrea

Hi there! I should celebrate! I finally got the add to cart buttons and the view cart buttons on my pages!!! Thank you so much for all of your help!!!

One more little question on this subject though --- when I 'preview in browser' there is text 'add to cart' and 'view cart' along with the buttons which are out of place. Will all of that straighten out when I publish the pages?
Thanks again for all of your help- ahead of time

No, it should be ok even in preview. You must have some problem there. If you already have an account, publish and let us know the URL so we can help.

thanks for responding - publishing brings up another problem- I can't transfer my domain name til July 23 - I have published some of my pages - but I don't know where they are
web name : www.widehollowimages.com
Thanks again!

HI there -
did I post my last queation in the wrong place? I'm still trying to figure out my button problem - as well as the 'where are my published pages' problem. Am I being too much of a pest?
Thank you for any help I get!!

I can see your pages, though i have not spotted the page with the "Add to cart" buttons.

I have two pages published with prints on them and the shopping carts -can you tell me where to look the pages ?

oops - I can't even talk right this morning! can you tell me where to 'look' for the pages?

Your site opens to a blank page and stalls.

Got any suggestions on how to fix that?? My frustration level left Jupiter and is headed for another galaxy. At this point I am asking myself how bad I need this sight

www.widehollowimages.com

is still with your previous hoster. But you don't need to transfer, just point your nameservers to Vodahost.

and I do that in the control panel?

A TIME FOR CELEBRATION!!! My son and I spent the last hour trying to figure out why I was getting text(add to cart and view shopping cart) above my paypal buttons and the buttons were out of place in the preview in browser. He did it! He went to the html page of the cart and removed the "add to cart" text and the "view cart" text from the html page and now everything is great!!! My buttons are done. And I locked everything on the page so hopefully things won't be jumping around!!!!!! Just thought this might help someone else having the same problem!

Have a great day!

Originally Posted by neva

and I do that in the control panel?

You do it in the control panel of the registrar that you had registered your domain name with.