Comments on: Ecommerce For Non-Programmers http://www.adam-mcfarland.net/2008/03/12/ecommerce-for-non-programmers/ Musings of a Balding 29 Year Old Business Owner Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:23:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Adam McFarland http://www.adam-mcfarland.net/2008/03/12/ecommerce-for-non-programmers/comment-page-1/#comment-614 Adam McFarland Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:32:00 +0000 http://www.adam-mcfarland.net/2008/03/12/ecommerce-for-non-programmers/#comment-614 Hi Tim, When you say 'multiple banks' are you referring to merchant accounts for credit card processing? We've done two different things. In both cases, we've done all of our business banking with Citizens Bank (local, good reputation, we all use it for our personal banking as well). With the old Detailed Image we used Authorize.net to process credit card payments. They auto-deposited the money into our bank account (not sure of the exact time frame, but it took a while to clear if I remember correctly). With our shopping cart, we integrated it with PayPal Payments Pro. A lot of people don't like to hear this, but Payments Pro is very competitive and does not require you to show PayPal's logo anywhere or leave your site when processing a transaction. I believe the fee is $29.99/month, and the percentages go down as you increase in volume. They also allow us to withdraw to our Citizens account at any time (every day if we want) and don't charge extra for chargebacks or for cards where the address/CVV number doesn't match. Plus, when people pay with PayPal it's all deposited into the same account (as opposed to having money with a merchant acct and having it in PayPal). After running with each for a while, I couldn't be happier with Payments Pro. Unlike regular PayPal payments, this has never gone down and never failed us at all. From a programming standpoint, it seamlessly integrates with osCommerce or Yahoo Stores...and I was able to use the documentation and sample code to get our custom solution working in about two days. Hope that helps. Drop me an email or comment if you have any other questions. Adam Hi Tim,

When you say ‘multiple banks’ are you referring to merchant accounts for credit card processing?

We’ve done two different things. In both cases, we’ve done all of our business banking with Citizens Bank (local, good reputation, we all use it for our personal banking as well).

With the old Detailed Image we used Authorize.net to process credit card payments. They auto-deposited the money into our bank account (not sure of the exact time frame, but it took a while to clear if I remember correctly).

With our shopping cart, we integrated it with PayPal Payments Pro. A lot of people don’t like to hear this, but Payments Pro is very competitive and does not require you to show PayPal’s logo anywhere or leave your site when processing a transaction. I believe the fee is $29.99/month, and the percentages go down as you increase in volume.

They also allow us to withdraw to our Citizens account at any time (every day if we want) and don’t charge extra for chargebacks or for cards where the address/CVV number doesn’t match. Plus, when people pay with PayPal it’s all deposited into the same account (as opposed to having money with a merchant acct and having it in PayPal).

After running with each for a while, I couldn’t be happier with Payments Pro. Unlike regular PayPal payments, this has never gone down and never failed us at all.

From a programming standpoint, it seamlessly integrates with osCommerce or Yahoo Stores…and I was able to use the documentation and sample code to get our custom solution working in about two days.

Hope that helps. Drop me an email or comment if you have any other questions.

Adam

]]> By: Tim http://www.adam-mcfarland.net/2008/03/12/ecommerce-for-non-programmers/comment-page-1/#comment-611 Tim Fri, 14 Mar 2008 02:10:58 +0000 http://www.adam-mcfarland.net/2008/03/12/ecommerce-for-non-programmers/#comment-611 Adam, Off topic, but did you look at multiple banks for your online business. I am in the process of opening a business checking account and am trying to find a bank that is friendly to multiple credit card transactions. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks, Tim Adam,

Off topic, but did you look at multiple banks for your online business. I am in the process of opening a business checking account and am trying to find a bank that is friendly to multiple credit card transactions. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Tim

]]> By: Adam McFarland http://www.adam-mcfarland.net/2008/03/12/ecommerce-for-non-programmers/comment-page-1/#comment-608 Adam McFarland Thu, 13 Mar 2008 22:34:30 +0000 http://www.adam-mcfarland.net/2008/03/12/ecommerce-for-non-programmers/#comment-608 Well Ed, I can (somewhat) see your points about Yahoo and osC. I listed pricing as a downside to Y! and I mentioned the need to learn some programming as a downside to osC so I'm not really sure what you pointed out that I already didn't. To be honest, your comment just sounds like a promo for your SEO company (link removed). As I said in the comment before yours, I'd be happy to hear suggestions for other platforms I haven't been exposed to. Since we built our cart from scratch and we believe it is essentially perfect for our needs (if it's missing something, I just program it in), I am not that experienced with a ton of different shopping cart softwares. I offered up my recommendations for what I know works and has a solid help community. Like it or not more money passes through Yahoo Stores and osC than most other shopping carts combined. If you have alternatives, please list them and why you like them Simply thanking Y! and osC for passing you business adds no value to the comments section and doesn't really help out a first-timer. Well Ed, I can (somewhat) see your points about Yahoo and osC. I listed pricing as a downside to Y! and I mentioned the need to learn some programming as a downside to osC so I’m not really sure what you pointed out that I already didn’t.

To be honest, your comment just sounds like a promo for your SEO company (link removed). As I said in the comment before yours, I’d be happy to hear suggestions for other platforms I haven’t been exposed to.

Since we built our cart from scratch and we believe it is essentially perfect for our needs (if it’s missing something, I just program it in), I am not that experienced with a ton of different shopping cart softwares.

I offered up my recommendations for what I know works and has a solid help community. Like it or not more money passes through Yahoo Stores and osC than most other shopping carts combined. If you have alternatives, please list them and why you like them

Simply thanking Y! and osC for passing you business adds no value to the comments section and doesn’t really help out a first-timer.

]]> By: Ed Kundahl http://www.adam-mcfarland.net/2008/03/12/ecommerce-for-non-programmers/comment-page-1/#comment-607 Ed Kundahl Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:43:45 +0000 http://www.adam-mcfarland.net/2008/03/12/ecommerce-for-non-programmers/#comment-607 You are misinforming newbies. Yahoo takes a percentage of sales, is not as seo friendly as they pitch it, and you are limited to the number of outside vendors who will design for it. There are hundreds of shopping carts that are far superior, come with better support than Yahoo offers and are far more customizable. No merchant's needs are not the same. Every business is unique. As such, their shopping cart should reflect that and be customizable to represent the client in the best manner. Oscommerce is not even worth talking about for a newbie or experienced merchant unless they have someone on staff that can manage it. It is horrible for seo even with their add on modules. We convert os commerce and yahoo store owners to far better solutions...seems to be the major part of our upgrade business. thank you yahoo and oscommerce. You are misinforming newbies. Yahoo takes a percentage of sales, is not as seo friendly as they pitch it, and you are limited to the number of outside vendors who will design for it. There are hundreds of shopping carts that are far superior, come with better support than Yahoo offers and are far more customizable. No merchant’s needs are not the same. Every business is unique. As such, their shopping cart should reflect that and be customizable to represent the client in the best manner. Oscommerce is not even worth talking about for a newbie or experienced merchant unless they have someone on staff that can manage it. It is horrible for seo even with their add on modules. We convert os commerce and yahoo store owners to far better solutions…seems to be the major part of our upgrade business. thank you yahoo and oscommerce.

]]> By: Adam McFarland http://www.adam-mcfarland.net/2008/03/12/ecommerce-for-non-programmers/comment-page-1/#comment-606 Adam McFarland Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:04:17 +0000 http://www.adam-mcfarland.net/2008/03/12/ecommerce-for-non-programmers/#comment-606 Ne - there definitely is a massive market out there with hundreds/thousands of solutions. Yahoo Stores and osCommerce are the ones that my partners and I have had positive experiences with, and therefore are comfortable recommending to others. I'd certainly welcome comments, suggestions, reviews, etc of other platforms that people have had success with. Ne – there definitely is a massive market out there with hundreds/thousands of solutions.

Yahoo Stores and osCommerce are the ones that my partners and I have had positive experiences with, and therefore are comfortable recommending to others.

I’d certainly welcome comments, suggestions, reviews, etc of other platforms that people have had success with.

]]> By: jennsquared http://www.adam-mcfarland.net/2008/03/12/ecommerce-for-non-programmers/comment-page-1/#comment-605 jennsquared Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:58:29 +0000 http://www.adam-mcfarland.net/2008/03/12/ecommerce-for-non-programmers/#comment-605 This is great, Adam! Although I won't be doing e-commerce immediately, but I do want to set up a site that would be easy to convert. I'll be playing with my sites to get it going soon so this is a great help! This is great, Adam! Although I won’t be doing e-commerce immediately, but I do want to set up a site that would be easy to convert. I’ll be playing with my sites to get it going soon so this is a great help!

]]> By: ne http://www.adam-mcfarland.net/2008/03/12/ecommerce-for-non-programmers/comment-page-1/#comment-601 ne Thu, 13 Mar 2008 01:17:48 +0000 http://www.adam-mcfarland.net/2008/03/12/ecommerce-for-non-programmers/#comment-601 If you don't mind my asking, why haven't you covered/reviewed some representative of the wide range of paid shopping cart/ecommerce software solutions (hosted or otherwise) other then oscommerce. I mean, there is a robust market for such products out there with many options. As I understand it, osCommerce more appealing to the technically minded. Toi buy & skin an ecommerce product could run anywhere from $500 to $10,000+ but the software/liscense component of this cost is not huge. Is the fact that oscommerce is open source/free such a big +? The advantage of going with this sort of thing IMO is the range of solutions out there targeting various types of users from programmers to mom & pops (though I agree they may be disadvantaged for other reasons). If you don’t mind my asking, why haven’t you covered/reviewed some representative of the wide range of paid shopping cart/ecommerce software solutions (hosted or otherwise) other then oscommerce. I mean, there is a robust market for such products out there with many options.

As I understand it, osCommerce more appealing to the technically minded. Toi buy & skin an ecommerce product could run anywhere from $500 to $10,000+ but the software/liscense component of this cost is not huge.

Is the fact that oscommerce is open source/free such a big +?

The advantage of going with this sort of thing IMO is the range of solutions out there targeting various types of users from programmers to mom & pops (though I agree they may be disadvantaged for other reasons).

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