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Need Shopping Cart Suggestions

by ep2002
10 replies
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Hi all,

So I'm a micro company, & I've been with 1shoppingcart.com for years & it's time for me to FINALLY leave.

I have been wanting to move to Magento for years, but it was a huge hassle & expense when it was researched back in around 2006, & I just don't have the funds for a major move, plus getting a custom script created for recurring billing that magento never had back then. That & getting a good auto responder list software were the 2 big issues.

I no longer want to go with a hosted shopping cart (SC) since that's an ongoing monthly charge I don't want to expend, but today when I searched quickly for shopping carts, they were ALL hosted & for some reason had the merchant account include? I don't need a merchant account, I have that already.

I'd maybe consider staying with hosted if I found the right company & price, but so far I haven't.

As for the auto responder (AR) list software, Aweber is a maybe depending on the price in the end. I just sent out broadcasts to clean up my lists so I know how many REAL serious subscribers I have. They were unable to recommend any SCs they work with. They call Pay Pal a shopping cart. I don't, PP is a 3rd party payment processor (strange).

There's a couple of other AR software I may look into, but some of these hosted SCs have the AR included, but the one I talked to today said they aren't a fully functioning list builder. They only work if the subscriber purchased.

My budget for both is either a flat rate of $100-200 for the server side SC software with support & updates & a monthly AR expense of around $20-30/month, or $50/month for both the hosted SC & list software.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thank you


Michelle
#cart #shopping #suggestions
  • Profile picture of the author amcg
    Originally Posted by ghrixtechnologies View Post

    Dear Michelle,

    Thanks for having time to review my reply.
    Well, hosted solution are limited at some points and they become costlier many times.
    I would suggest you should go with open source solution like magento/woocommerce/opencart etc with some cheap hosting like $10-$15/month

    There is one time expense for such solution and its yours for lifetime and you will have full access on this.

    Lets have call to discuss into more details about this

    Sincerely
    Romi
    Project Manager
    www.ghrix.com
    I would agree that you always want to get to the point where you can use your own platform like the above. That said, for the vast majority of small ecommerce operations i.e a limited number of skus, customizations etc hosted will be the much better route.
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  • Profile picture of the author AffGuides
    Woo Commerce is decent, but I'd only recommend it for small operations.
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  • Profile picture of the author ep2002
    I have no idea who this Romi person is or why you are responding to him & not me LOL

    So any hosted ones you recommend?

    Unfortunately I can't move over to WP yet from the current CMS, so I can't use Woo Commerce.

    Anyone else?

    Thanks


    Michelle
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    ***Professional Merchant Services Agent at your service. If you are a professional legit company, I'd like to help you get the best merchant account for your company. Please contact me for more details.

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    • Profile picture of the author Solid Commerce
      It's likely that you've already taken a look at Bigcommerce...but their pricing seems to be right up your alley.

      Bigcommerce Pricing - More Features with No Hidden Fees | Bigcommerce

      Hope this helps!
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      • Profile picture of the author OnlineStoreHelp
        The problem the Op has is he needs recurring billing (subscription type business). I am assuming this is physical and not digital products so let me know if this is not the case.

        Based on this one issue alone here is what you need to look at:

        Hosted
        Americommerce - Hosted and relatively inexpensive, multistore and recurring revenue products. Bit of a learning curve but it does integrate with Mailchimp (an an internal auto responder if you need it).

        Fortune 3 - I haven't had the chance to test it yet but it does have recurring revenue products. It used to be windows only but they have an online portal to set things up.

        Volusion - Offers recurring products but personally, I dislike Volusion. Their themes are way out of date and hard to work with and they will nickel and dime you for everything.

        Shopify - They do have an app that allows for recurring where they take 5% of gross which might be to much. Not as powerful as the other platforms and you would be required to use Stripe.

        Self Hosted
        Magento - I don't like Magento since it is a pain in the butt to set up and very heavy. They do allow recurring for simple products.

        Opencart - with third party modules you can do recurring products. Easier to set up than Magento so might be an option

        Alternative
        If these are digital products or you don't have a ton of them, check out Drupal and Drupal Commerce (or Uber Cart) modules. Very powerful and get an integrated CMS that is used by many large media properties.

        If I am off on any of this, please let me know.
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  • Profile picture of the author ep2002
    Hi there,

    Big Commerce was the first one suggested to me & the first one I looked at. It was even more than I'm paying now for their Gold, & that level doesn't even give you support, so forget that one.

    I may be micro, but I have several products & lists.

    Thanks


    Michelle
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    ***Professional Merchant Services Agent at your service. If you are a professional legit company, I'd like to help you get the best merchant account for your company. Please contact me for more details.

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  • Profile picture of the author ep2002
    Thanks Online Store.

    I'm a woman btw

    I used to have some products set up as digital, but after a few fraudulent transactions I had to even remove those & send them out manually.

    The recurring is only on 2 products, but it has to be able to stop.

    One is a payment plan for one of my business kits for 3 months, but I have to be able to push the other 2 months through if the client wants me to.

    The other is a 10 month article subscription & the client has to be able to stop it whenever they want which was the issue with Magento.

    I'm STILL baffled why shopping carts are soooo behind the times when it comes to recurring billing. If not much has changed since I last researched back in 2006, that's just shocking.

    I won't use Mail Chimp. They wasted a month of our time back in 2006 & I heard they have issues with their backend being user friendly, so I won't ever be using them again.

    I know Magento is hard to set up hence what I originally said, but it oh sooo looks like it's worth it if you have the staff & money to get it done & you can get onto a dedicated server.

    I don't want to deal with Drupal. I almost did many many moons ago & I don't remember why we never went with them, but my plan is to move to WP when I have the funds.

    Shopify is too expensive for their 2nd level. The pricing has to come in under what I'm paying now which is $69 b/c that $69 already includes the AR & the SC. I do want to move from them, but not at the cost of increasing my expenses.

    I will research the others.

    Thanks


    Michelle
    Signature

    ***Professional Merchant Services Agent at your service. If you are a professional legit company, I'd like to help you get the best merchant account for your company. Please contact me for more details.

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    • Profile picture of the author OnlineStoreHelp
      Originally Posted by ep2002 View Post

      Thanks Online Store.

      I'm a woman btw

      I used to have some products set up as digital, but after a few fraudulent transactions I had to even remove those & send them out manually.

      The recurring is only on 2 products, but it has to be able to stop.

      One is a payment plan for one of my business kits for 3 months, but I have to be able to push the other 2 months through if the client wants me to.

      The other is a 10 month article subscription & the client has to be able to stop it whenever they want which was the issue with Magento.

      I'm STILL baffled why shopping carts are soooo behind the times when it comes to recurring billing. If not much has changed since I last researched back in 2006, that's just shocking.

      I won't use Mail Chimp. They wasted a month of our time back in 2006 & I heard they have issues with their backend being user friendly, so I won't ever be using them again.

      I know Magento is hard to set up hence what I originally said, but it oh sooo looks like it's worth it if you have the staff & money to get it done & you can get onto a dedicated server.

      I don't want to deal with Drupal. I almost did many many moons ago & I don't remember why we never went with them, but my plan is to move to WP when I have the funds.

      Shopify is too expensive for their 2nd level. The pricing has to come in under what I'm paying now which is $69 b/c that $69 already includes the AR & the SC. I do want to move from them, but not at the cost of increasing my expenses.

      I will research the others.

      Thanks


      Michelle
      Sorry Michelle, I Meant the generic "he".

      Based on this, check out Americommerce. You should be able to do this on their basic plan which is $25/month.

      Most companies avoid the subscription model because they don't want to store the credit card numbers. It can become a PCI compliance nightmare.

      But, based on what you said, can I make a different suggestion all together? If you want to use Wordpress, take a look a warders and Digital Access Pass. While it is normally for membership type software they do have their own shopping cart that you might be able to do what you want. This might give you the best of both worlds. Also, check out Zaxaa as a cart, it might do what you want.

      It is probably out of your price range but take a look at Ontraport. Extremely powerful auto responder and CRM that allows you to sell products as well.

      Let us know which route you go.
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      Learn how to set up a powerful, functional yet easy to use e-commerce website at cartprep.com.

      Not sure what ecommerce solution to use? Watch my video walk through of popular shopping carts.
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  • Profile picture of the author javarog
    Americomerce has a great subscription suite, they are also fully mobile from front to back.. it takes a bit to wrap your head around it but it is really rock solid.
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