Hi everyone - (newbie alert!)

A UK user here. I want to be able to sell items from my website - selling crafts. I currently only have an ebay shop to tide me over till my website is made. I intend to make it myself (have a bit of website knowledge but not extremely techy but can learn more) but I am completely baffled by the number of shopping cart software, packages, 3rd party merchant's available. Plus the ones I look at always seem to be in the US - does this matter or do I need to find a UK providor?

All I'm looking for is to open a well presented online shop, stock initially about 100 items (this will grow) and accept credit/debit card payments. Presumably as this is going to be a one woman business (me) and my turnover won't be huge in the outset I wont be able to be an internet mechant myself and will need to use a 3rd party? Could anyone recommend a good package, software, merchant to use? I've looked at miva merchant which looks quite nice, also have looked at open source such as oscommerce and agoracart (or something like that!)...but don't know how difficult that is to use.

Please help someone I'm spending all my time researching and at this rate I'll never get anything done! :D

Thanks guys!
Saffy

For UK 3rd party card procesisng, have a look at www.nochex.com, www.fastpay.com or www.paypal.co.uk These are these are easy to get going with. I've not tried to integrate with a shopping cart though, paypal will probably be an option in most, nochex or fastpay may take a bit of tweaking, but should be OK to do.

I'm sure others will be able to assist with integration into a shopping cart.

I've integrated nochex into my web site billing without any problems.

For a shopping cart solution, try OsCommerce, (www.oscommerce.com), it's free and you can integrate just about any payment solution quite easily.

As for payment processors, Worldpay may be a good option for you, this will allow you to accept most Credit and Debit cards. If you go with a US processor, you may not be able to accept some UK debit cards.

worldpay is really a premium service so check that you can afford it within your business model. nochex may be a better fit, particularly to begin with (in conjunction with paypal perhaps).

Unless you want a dated and stuffy looking website i'd also avoid oscommerce. again, some people still like it but check that it's appropriate for the kind of message you want to convey. I'm currently trying mals-e shopping cart and really like it. it works with html links so your design can be as wild as you like.

PayPal- www.paypal.com

It's the best, I have used it and loved it!

The best maybe for the directors but certainly not the best in any way for the vendors unless you like playing Russian Roulette?
.
Take this as read from someone who has been living off the Internet for 5 long years selling tangible goods.Just stick with a good UK bank and leave the overseas accounts well alone.Barclays would be a good start to look, far cheaper and friendlier than Worldpay.

Just noticed I have yet again been promoted -- this time around I am a Junior Guru!!All these promotions are giving me giddy turns..LOL!! :~))

Hi,

For a newbie, try worldpay, metacharge or NetBanx for a merchant account.

As for UK based shopping carts, I would recommend find a cart that is based in the UK of has a UK variant. Hopefully your business will grow and at some point you will have to charge VAT. So if your cart does not cope with VAT you would need to change your website.

Whatever you do avoid Astrosell like the plague, it's the worst piece of cr*p I have ever had the misfortune of using. It's expensive and looses orders, plus support sucks!

Thanks guys, does anyone know if Barclays have their own shopping cart software, if not, any suggestions?

Hi

Barclays do not have their own shopping cart software, do a search for epdq shopping cart software on Google.

Do you have to have shopping cart?They spoil a good website.We have never used one.Take a look at ours www.glamorganantiques.co.uk

But how do your customers purchase goods if you do not have a shopping cart?

Thats what I wondered! Hmm I'm looking at oscommerce now, has anyone used it? What's its ease of use?....or miva merchant...that's another possibility...OK its 3 days later now and i am still looking at the miriad of options out there! - HELP! :D

I guess it depends on what you're selling. If it's just single items, then a "Pay Now" would work, if you want to sell multiple items to the same person on a single visit, then you're most probably going to need some form of cart.

From memory, oscommerce allows you to specify tax rates, so should be easy to setup with VAT for us UK people.

We do not need shopping carts as most of our stuff- Antiques- is a one off anyway ,but we put notices all over the site that people must contact us first by phone or e mail.Firstly to verify if the items are still for sale,availability etc., also with antiques the customers needs a report on condition etc. Most Antiques sites do not have shopping trolleys as they spoil the "olde World" ambience sitting alongside items of 100years old +.

The only people who need trolleys on tangible goods websites,are those who have massive stocks of each item,such as modern books etc,or clothes,CD's .that sort of thing.Antiques selling is more personal,as they do not sell themselves we do that..
However if a website owner sells crafts on a small scale why cannot they manage with just e mails or phone calls?.They will not have massive stock lists to worry about.In the UK people like to initially contact by phone,well in saying that we get calls from all over the World.We have managed for 5 years online,with a website supporting 2 families,and NO shopping trolleys.

I'm also interested in this issue.

I just need to be able to take online orders via credit card. A lot of the options mentioned seem to want the customer to register, wait a few days and then pay.

I imagine a lot of people will simply go elsewhere. That's where Worldpay is attractive. But it's very expensive. It's almost as if they are doing you a favour. And the amount they charge for cancelled payments is a huge.

What do most web ressellers use?

2checout now allows you to take £ instead of $ - customers can also convert their payment to other currencies when paying.

How about Oscommerce cart with 2checkout.com as payment processor and you can even chuck in paypal and nochex and cheque / money order for good effect.

Should work well wherever the purchaser is worldwide.

Thats what we use, works pretty good. 2 Checkout as primary and Paypal as secondary payment options.

OsCommerce could be set up to use with one off items too I guess, as you can put in stock quantity, so it will tell customers once it has sold.