What should I use?

[storm33229]

I will only be selling one product. I'm curious as to what you guys think I should use for my shopping cart. I know that Yahoo provides a shopping cart and I'm looking into using that. Are there any other suggestions as to what I should use?

edit: keep in mind it needs to be a monthly billing thing as well. I need to bill my clients once a month for X amount of dollars until they cancel their subscription.

[froldt]

I am in need of this same information, so I will be watching this thread as well!

[JFrenzel]

Go yahoo, I heard they offer a great product. Idea: Call asksunday and explain to them exactly what you need and have them retrieve it for you.

I usually ask them to give me the names and numbers of 5 different resources.


Hope this helps

Jose

[storm33229]

Go yahoo, I heard they offer a great product.
Right but I'm not sure that they offer an automated subscription billing service.

[Dan]

Hi Storm,

You might not need a cart - just a form that they fill their details in on, click next and get redirected to the payment provider.

Two payment providers that I have used are WorldPay and Protx.

WorldPays main advantage is well recognised and farily easy to get approved. It is fairly pricey, though here in the UK at least (not sure about everyone else) they do a fairly good new business deal. Settlement is also slow, so cash flow isn't the best in the first few months.

With ProtX you have to have a standard merchant account, whereas WorldPay provide you with one in the package cost, so the monthly costs are higher but your transaction costs lower. The settlement is quicker as well, and generally things are a bit more streamlined.

It could also be worth starting up with just PayPal and Google Checkout - these both have no monthly charge, so are quick to get going, and though they will dent your conversion rate slightly (though this is becoming less of an issue, especially with PayPal as it is more widely used) are still worth considering.

I've also used 2Checkout, who I believe have repeat billing. This was years ago I last used them, but they were pretty good to use, and low cost.

These are based on the UK scene though...I think you may have a bit more competition in the US, so could get better pricing.

There's a few names to get you started though!

Dan

[storm33229]

Right but I'm not sure that they offer an automated subscription billing service.
In fact I called Yahoo and I they say that it's impossible for them to do a subscription service. So meh. Might look at Google check out

[JFrenzel]

Or just do suggestion I stated: Have someone at asksunday research it, or post a job on elance.

Cheers

Jose

[lovinglife]

We used 1shoppingcart.com for a couple of years and they do recurring billing.

[jonparker83]

Paypal have a recurring payments feature - no merchant account etc necessary so perfect for starting a muse IMO

As soon as you start making loads of cash, then you can look into the whole merchant account thing to keep transaction charges lower

I still don't like Paypal but they definitely keep things simple

[storm33229]

Paypal have a recurring payments feature - no merchant account etc necessary so perfect for starting a muse IMO

As soon as you start making loads of cash, then you can look into the whole merchant account thing to keep transaction charges lower

I still don't like Paypal but they definitely keep things simple
What do they charge per transaction? Because of what I'm selling I can just incorporate that into the cost. :)

[jonparker83]

Their charges are based on your volume of sales but start at 3.4% + 20p per transaction in the UK I think

http://www.paypal.com <= more information than I can give you!!

Cheers

Jon :)

[storm33229]

Their charges are based on your volume of sales but start at 3.4% + 20p per transaction in the UK I think

http://www.paypal.com <= more information than I can give you!!

Cheers

Jon :)
changed to

http://www.paypal.com >= more information than I can give you!!
Okay I'll check them out. Thanks. :)

[storm33229]

PayPal
Monthly: $30
Transaction: 2.9% + $0.30

That's sort of ridiculous if you ask me...anyone have anything better? more cost effective?

[Dan]

If you go for the free account it's 1.9-2.9% + 30c. With no monthly fee, for getting started, that sounds like a good bet to me.

[froldt]

When you use Google Checkout to process your sales, you'll only be charged a low 2% + $0.20 per transaction. With Google Checkout, there are no monthly, setup, or gateway service fees.

If you advertise with Google AdWords, you will also be eligible for free transaction processing for some or all of your Google Checkout sales each month. For every $1 you spend on AdWords each month, you can process $10 in sales the following month for free through Google Checkout. Learn more

Sales Through Google Checkout Transaction Fees
Sales of up to 10 times your monthly AdWords spend FREE
in excess of 10 times your monthly AdWords spend 2% + $0.20 per transaction
This looks to be better price-wise, but I didn't see anything about monthly billing. I haven't taken the time to look, but I would imagine there's a script somewhere that can perform the automated billing, and run it through the Google Checkout. Or have someone program one for a one-time fee?

[storm33229]

This looks to be better price-wise, but I didn't see anything about monthly billing. I haven't taken the time to look, but I would imagine there's a script somewhere that can perform the automated billing, and run it through the Google Checkout. Or have someone program one for a one-time fee?
I'm going to possibly look into this today or tomorrow thanks for the info!
If you go for the free account it's 1.9-2.9% + 30c. With no monthly fee, for getting started, that sounds like a good bet to me.
Yeah but I need the plan I specified to get the automated billing option. ;)

[Dan]

Ah sorry - it wasn't like that last time I used a PayPal account.

$30 a month is quite steep considering the % they charge, but then it's less than a merchant account, which has a higher fee but lower percentages.

Bottom line is probably whether you want to get a merchant account direct from your bank combined with a payment gateway on the assumption that your business will work, or test it out with PayPal and later change to the other option once you have a steady income going.

[storm33229]

Well I'm not too worried about how well it will test and such but I'm trying to lower the monthly costs as much as possible.

[storm33229]

Google Check Out does not provide recurring billing. PayPal is the only one I've seen thus far other than ClickBank, but I'm not too sure on how reliable ClickBank is. I've never heard of them nor used them. So if anyone can offer any insight on which you think would be the best move, feel free to chime in. :)

[Dan]

I haven't used clickbank as a merchant, but I have bought from stores that use clickbank, and it has always been a smooth transaction.

Edited to add: BUT after thinking hey, why haven't I used these guys before, I took a look at the info and it looks to me like they are making 7.5% plus $1 per sale off you...which to me sounds rather a lot. It's even higher for re-bills under $40 (9.9%). Wouldn't take many sales before PayPal was cheaper even with the $30 fee.

Without a monthly fee, www.2checkout.com may be your best - they include recurring, but the rates are still quite high at 5.5% + 45c.

[jonparker83]

http://www.paypal.com >= more information than I can give you!!

It was more of an anti-laziness arrow than a mathematical operator ;)

[storm33229]

It was more of an anti-laziness arrow than a mathematical operator ;)
rofl that's awesome.