Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Ecommerce Hosting & Discussion : Your kind Recommendation

[PCboy]

Hi,

I'm going to run an online retail store business in the next 1-2 months. I'm looking for reliable shopping cart and merchant account. My website is going to be a static website for the beginning and looking forward to create a database driven website in the future. For the mean time, is there any shopping cart which can store my customers information and allow me to do credit memo, and take notes etc... for future reference or for future order without asking for customers' info such as shipping and credit card number again.

I really appreciate your comments. Please let me know what are the best option available for me. What are the other options should I start?


Thanks in advance,

P.S. I'm in Los Angeles, USA.

[Corey Bryant]

Hello neighbor. I would not recommend storing CC numbers on your server. If your server is hacked & the CC numbers are compromised, it could lead to a very bad legal situation.

Having said that, are you selling some type of a service or products? Does your business plan anticipate over $1,000 a month in sales? If so - get a real merchant account. The discount rate should be about 2.25% for internet rates.

There are solutions though out there to allow the customer to sign into your cart. How often do you think your customers will be returning? Usually a cart like this can cost less than $500 to build (ASP/MS Access) and you own it. Sometimes it is cheaper in the long run.

[PCboy]

Thank you very much coreybryant for your comments.

What do you mean by "get a real merchant account"? What is real and what is unreal?

The discount rate should be about 2.25% for internet rates.

What do you mean by that?

The products I sale, I expect more than $1000 a month. I think somewhere up to 5% of my customers are return customers.

I can afford if the charge of building this customers database less than $500. Can you recommend anyone who can build (ASP/MS Access or SQL server)?

[Corey Bryant]

Well there are third party (like 2Checkout, Paysystems, Paypal). If you are going to be over $1000 a month, this is usually where a real merchant account benefits you. Usually on a third party processor - their name appears on the CC statement, not yours. When you have your own merchant account, your name appears on the CC statement. And usually a third party merchant account is usually more than the 2.25%

-Corey

[Corey Bryant]

Also, I would recommend starting with Access (unless you have quite a few products) with the ability to upsize to MSSQL. hosting usually for MSSQL can cost about $50.00 usually a month.

[brevig]

YES!

Finally I see someone else who would recognize the value of CDGvault!

CDGvault is a system that stores the whole information off of your server, but you retain part of it. That way, you can appear as though you have the information, but when they go to purchase something, you just submit that part that you have, and the merchant processes it via the API, which is *fully* integrated into your website.

CDGvault is free! Only downside is that you'd have to program your front end to utilize it.

Richard

[Corey Bryant]

There are also other companies out there as well that do this for free.

[cartika-andrew]

Hi, try starting your business with osCommerce.

Its a complete, database driven shopping cart solution. The only information in will not reatin is the credit card info.

Your repeat customers can just log in and all their information (including multiple shipping addresses and order history) is readily available.

Hope this helps...

[PCboy]

Thanks all,

My products are somewhere around 1000 items and will be over in the future. Can MS Access handle it properly?

corey, can you recommend anyone who can build that for me? Where can I have real merchant account? Any company would like to recommend?

brevig, is CDGvault really secure? Has anyone experience with it? What is the URL address of CDGvault?

Gargoyle, thanks for your info. about osCommerce. I will check it out.

[FredTT]

Originally posted by PCboy
My products are somewhere around 1000 items and will be over in the future. Can MS Access handle it properly?

With that many items, it would be really slow. I would go ahead and program it with MSSQL or MYSQL.

Originally posted by PCboy
corey, can you recommend anyone who can build that for me? Where can I have real merchant account? Any company would like to recommend?

Look around. I'm sure there is an already built on. As for a merchant account, I highly suggest cdgcommerce.com. Great Company. Real Professional and great rates.

Originally posted by PCboy
brevig, is CDGvault really secure? Has anyone experience with it? What is the URL address of CDGvault?

Yes, It is secure. cdgcommerce.com

Hope That Helps.

[PCboy]

Thanks for your info. again.

Corey, please PM me your info. I would like to talk to you more detail about your website design section.

Hiya Corp, I have checked the cdgcommerce's website. But they didn't mention CDGVault on their home pages.

I know someone from CDGcommerce here. Do you have any demo of CDGVault on your website? Where can I find detail info. about your CDGVault system?

Again, I'm thinking and looking for a complete real merchant account, shopping cart, and web hosting. And also would like to have your advice what are the best options for me to start.

Thanks

[Odd Fact]

Thread cleaned, please remember self promotion is not allowed in the main forums.

[brevig]

Originally posted by PCboy
Hiya Corp, I have checked the cdgcommerce's website. But they didn't mention CDGVault on their home pages.

This is interesting, as I would have signed up with basically *anyone* who had first marketed such a similar service to me. No one talks about in on their sites, so I assumed it didn't exist.

Chris had mentioned it in his email, and that's how I discovered they had it. I would say I'm quite disappointed in companies if this is a standard feature but they never mention it.

Richard

[PCboy]

Yes, like I mentions earlier, where can I find more info. about CDGVault? How does it work actually?

[brevig]

From the documentation for CDGvault:

The CDGcommerce SecureVault™ system is a new solution designed to address the needs of merchants who wish to run varying recurring billing amounts with their customers but not store complete credit card payment details on their own server(s).

The way the system works is that the merchant stores most of the details pertaining to a customer on his/her own server. Only a token ID and a prefix of the first 4-digits of the customer’s credit card (completely unusable in itself) are stored remotely.

Then, when a transaction is needed to be processed, the merchant submits the token ID, first 4-digits along with the regular transaction data such as customer address & contact information and the amount of the transaction… the result is processed and an approval or decline message is presented back.

Contact CDGcommerce for further information...

Richard