shopping cart for dummies

hi,

I am going to take a freelance web design job that involves setting up a
shopping cart.

I am completely new to this, and from reading all the previous threads my
conclusion was that the easiest and less stessful way to do it is through
Paypal. If this is the case, my question is does Paypal build the whole thing
for you, and secondarily does it deal with all the legal issues that I read on
the legalities thread? (I got stressed out just by reading them especially
because I don't understand half of the words in there.) For example, setting
the clients up with a secure certificate, securing site with a trustworthy SSL,
securing the database, storing the credit card data in their database. Does it
also include hosting with a trustworthy company?

Secondarily, how will I integrate their page to the resf of the website to
make sure it's all the same style, etc. (can I add custom buttons, etc? and
customize the page design?)

Any advice would be helpful. I am meeting with the cient tomorrow, to talk
about this. (it's a person with a small business so I guess I will have to set
up everything from scratch.) So let me know what questions I should ask, please
or if I am making a big mistake taking this!

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"nat77" <webforumsuser (AT) macromedia (DOT) com> wrote

hi,

I am going to take a freelance web design job that involves setting up a
shopping cart.

I am completely new to this, and from reading all the previous threads my
conclusion was that the easiest and less stessful way to do it is through
Paypal. If this is the case, my question is does Paypal build the whole
thing
for you, and secondarily does it deal with all the legal issues that I
read on
the legalities thread? (I got stressed out just by reading them especially
because I don't understand half of the words in there.) For example,
setting
the clients up with a secure certificate, securing site with a trustworthy
SSL,
securing the database, storing the credit card data in their database.
Does it
also include hosting with a trustworthy company?

Have you had a looked at the merchant documentation availabe from paypal...
gives you
all the information you need.

It is a matter of designing your pages and adding buy buttons. Once the
products have been set up with paypal, you will get some code that is
inserted into your dw code... nothing to hard really, as long as you are
comfortable in code view.
There is also a dw extension available to help you www.kaosweaver.com ( I
think - or have a look at the MM exchange and search for paypal
buttom)....Take a look at the link in my sig - I use paypal extensively on
the site... take a look at the code and how the buttoms have been
implemented.

Secondarily, how will I integrate their page to the resf of the website
to
make sure it's all the same style, etc. (can I add custom buttons, etc?
and
customize the page design?)

See above, design your site and then add the code

If you are using the shopping cart function though, you don't get much of a
choice you are now able to have your header image on their checkout page...
but all explained in the help docs.

Any advice would be helpful. I am meeting with the cient tomorrow, to
talk
about this. (it's a person with a small business so I guess I will have to
set
up everything from scratch.) So let me know what questions I should ask,
please
or if I am making a big mistake taking this!

To work out your estimate, you would need to know how many products, so that
you know how long the project will take you.

You must also realise that with using paypal, if the client is in the US and
any customers outside the US, will need to sign up for an account. Quite a
few customers may be turned off by this.. but many others won't. That
would need to be considered by the client - whether they will be losing
customers because of this.

You could also look at another freebie cart: www.mals-e.com Takes a bit
more work, but works nicely. The freebie version: the client would need to
process the payments manually, but if you go with the premium account, you
can use real time processing via their secure sever -so no worries about SSL
etc.

HTHs.


--
Nadia
Team Macromedia Volunteer for Dreamweaver
---------------
Free Templates | Free Nav Bar Sets
http://www.DreamweaverResources.com
Dropdown Menu Designs | CSS Layouts
Ecommerce - YVStore | SEO Articles
Table Tutorials | Background image Tutorials
------------------------------------------------
MM Dreamweaver Tutorials
http://macromedia.com/devnet/mx/dreamweaver/
------------------------------------------------

hi Nadia, thank you for taking all this time to write this.

It turns out he doesn't want to use paypal, (I think he said he wants
something more user friendly - no signing up etc) anyway, I looked into
www.mals-e.com, and it looks fine, should I trust it?

I also need to set up his hosting. Is there a hosting company that you trust?
Is there any way I could get all of these together? (a hosting company that
would set up the shopping cart too?)

thanks,

Natassa

Hi Natassa,

I have one customer that uses mals e cart and he is happy with it. He has a
merchant account already set up, so he processes the CCs when an order comes
in. Once it is authorised, he then ships the goods out. I know quite a few
people who use the premium account with mals and they appear happy with it.

I don't know of any hosting solutions with a shopping cart. I would be a
little weary of these though, some may sound simple to use, but can be a
bear to work out.

I use www.crystaltech.com as one host. I also use a local one in
Australia.
www.hostmysite.com is another that I'm looking at and quite a few people on
this forum use as well.

Also have a look at: http://www.dreamweaverresources.com/ecommerce.htm
This is an 'out of the box' ecom solution. You can use it as it is - or
change to suit your own design. Needs a host that supports asp though.
Very easy to use for someone that doesn't know any asp.

With this type of ecom solution, the client would need to set up a merchant
account with their bank. You would need to arrange for a SSL certificate on
the host server as well. This cart allows the use of a lot of payment
gateways - more info at their site.

You could look at a free solution: www.oscommerce.com which is php based.
This may also be of interest:
http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/...ecommerce.html

Hope this helps some... I know it is really difficult when you get your
first ecom site - Good Luck!!


--
Nadia
Team Macromedia Volunteer for Dreamweaver
---------------
Free Templates | Free Nav Bar Sets
http://www.DreamweaverResources.com
Dropdown Menu Designs | CSS Layouts
Ecommerce - YVStore | SEO Articles
Table Tutorials | Background image Tutorials
------------------------------------------------
MM Dreamweaver Tutorials
http://macromedia.com/devnet/mx/dreamweaver/
------------------------------------------------




"nat77" <webforumsuser (AT) macromedia (DOT) com> wrote

hi Nadia, thank you for taking all this time to write this.

It turns out he doesn't want to use paypal, (I think he said he wants
something more user friendly - no signing up etc) anyway, I looked into
www.mals-e.com, and it looks fine, should I trust it?

I also need to set up his hosting. Is there a hosting company that you
trust?
Is there any way I could get all of these together? (a hosting company
that
would set up the shopping cart too?)

thanks,

Natassa