# Best shopping cart for my website?



## brian.mobile (4 Jan 2006)

Hi, 
I am setting up a website and need an online credit card debit facility (shopping cart) for customers - I have one product - it will be one price, initally.

What are the fees / pitfalls / to watch out for?

Can anyone advise on which is the best shopping cart / online credit card debiting facility I can use?

S


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## ClubMan (4 Jan 2006)

Have you investigated PayPal?


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## ivorystraws (4 Jan 2006)

There's also a Paypal alternative called Moneybookers.com. Not only do they allow you to withdraw funds to an Irish bank account (unsure if  Paypal accomodate this yet), but for merchants they require no rolling reserve or setup fees.

Credit Card merchants such as Paypal and 2CheckOut do not allow withdraws of funds to an Irish bank account and there is a requirement to keep a rolling reserve with 2CheckOut aswell as exchanging dollar cheques becomes a bit of a pain.

Moneybookers.com is based in London, seem to work in Euro and offer a number of innovative features for account holders such as the transferal of funds via mobile phone!


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## CGorman (4 Jan 2006)

What about [broken link removed] - used by CDwow.ie or Verisign?


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## SineWave (4 Jan 2006)

At present Paypal do allow you transfer funds to an Irish Bank A/C. 

If it's international selling, I would recommend Paypal, as it is probably the most common system and is recognised by online shoppers who have probably inevitably explored eBay.


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## Fintan (5 Jan 2006)

Ivorystraws are you sure 2checkout doesn't pay to Irish bank accounts? 

Looking at their support pages, they can bill in euro
[broken link removed]

And they claim to payout to Eurozone banks
[broken link removed]

Its a service I have never used, but am actually considering intergrating into a website I own. If you have any experience with the company I would be very interested in hearing how you got on? 

I personally would be hesitant in using paypal or moneybookers as it means the customer has to go to another website fill in a load of forms before they can pay you. Would put a lot of non-techie / busy people off using the product or service. 

Brian I would recommend you give Bob at http://www.bemoore.com/ a call and have a chat with him. He has set up numerous e-commerce websites. 

Cheers

Fintan


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## ivorystraws (5 Jan 2006)

Hi Fintan,

I currently use the OSCommerce shopping cart (http://www.oscommerce.info/docs/english/) and the info I posted on moneybookers was obtained when I was researching information on shopping carts some time ago so thanks for the update. 

Before choosing Paypal, just ensure to check Paypal's feetable first as their exchange rates aren't the best (to and from currency have different rates) and check the fees incurred to deposit money into the Irish account.

By the way, anyone got any ideas on how to significantly reduce these charges ?

Also Paypal has some associated risks but then again, I suppose most of it's competitors do too (search for paypal warning in google: [broken link removed].

But I do agree with Sinewave that Paypal is probably the most common system and is recognised by online shoppers. 
Depends on what exactly your looking for in a shopping cart and what your priorities are I suppose i.e. Shopping Cart fees, useability, security, features/functionalities etc.


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## jcollins (5 Jan 2006)

We have just implemented a PayPal solution for our Website and on the whole it has been a good experience.

We found Paypal to be the cheapest solution available. We are paying 3.7% per transaction, and there is no charge to draw down your money into an Irish bank account (if the amount you are drawing down is more than €100). There are no setup fees and/or onging maintenance fees.

We also looked at WorldPay, but they were much more expensive. This is what they quoted me;




> Your Quote
> Thank you for your interest in WorldPay.
> This quotation outlines the Internet Merchant Account and Payment Processing solution and related charges - including details of any additional services that are chosen.
> We have also sent you a confirmation email containing the details of your quotation as outlined below. This quotation is valid for 30 days from today.
> ...


 
Also, Worldpay charge you €4.50 every time you drawdown money from your merchant account.

That said, PayPal is not perfect and we found that 

1) The online process/workflow is not as neat as WorldPay's - the user has to enter a bit more information, also they dont seem to take Laser (which WorldPay does)

2) Some of the screens are a bit confsing and they may make your customers think that they have to set up a PayPal account - they do not. 

3) If the customer set up a PayPal account before with a particular Credit Card number, then they can only pay you through their PayPal account. This may cause a problem as many people create PayPal accounts, never use them and forget the password.


On the whole we are happy with the PayPal, our customers are paying us through it, and we have been able to draw down into our Irish Bank Account.


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## ClubMan (5 Jan 2006)

Didn't _PayPal _reduce their charges recently? Is 3.7% per transaction the original or reduced charge?


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## jcollins (5 Jan 2006)

I am not sure, we are paying 3.7% at the moment.


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## ClubMan (5 Jan 2006)

I don't see any 3.7% rate listed here. Or do you mean the 3.4% + €0.35 rate?


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## jcollins (5 Jan 2006)

ClubMan said:
			
		

> I don't see any 3.7% rate listed here. Or do you mean the 3.4% + €0.35 rate?


 
Hi Clubman - you are correct, it's the 3.4% + €0.35 scheme.

Most of our transactions are for €121 and we are being charged €4.46 per transaction, this is where I got the 3.7% (4.46 / 121) - Sorry!

BTW, we bought a book called "PayPal Hacks" which has a lot of helpful tips & tricks - it was very useful.


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## ClubMan (5 Jan 2006)

Thanks for the clarification. I thought that _PayPal _had reduced their charges in the past few months but a quick search yielded no relevant info. Is that the full extent of the charges that affect your sales? How do these charges compare to operating as a credit card merchant does anybody know?


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## jcollins (5 Jan 2006)

ClubMan said:
			
		

> Thanks for the clarification. I thought that _PayPal _had reduced their charges in the past few months but a quick search yielded no relevant info. Is that the full extent of the charges that affect your sales? How do these charges compare to operating as a credit card merchant does anybody know?


 
Yes that seems to be the full extent of the charge. There is no annual maintenance charge, and I am not charged for withdrawing my money to an Irish Bank Account (once the amount withdrawn is more than €100). Also, there was no initial set up charge either.

I have never operated a merchant account before, but you can see for the WorlPay quotation that I posted earlier that they are more expensive with their 4.5% rate. Then you have quite hefty initial setup costs and ongoing annual maintance costs. 

The final nail in the coffin is the €4.50 charge to withdraw your money. This was not actually quoted in the origional quotation I received, but they mentioned it during the sign up process.

One final word, I am always weary of any company on the web that does not have their prices posted on their website where anybody can view them. With Worldpay you had to go through a quotation process. At least with PayPal their rates are there for everybody to see.


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## brian.mobile (5 Jan 2006)

So WP seems to be the one!

Is it any advantage that I have a merchant account with Ulster Bank?

Are UB affiliated to any of those boys?

BM


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## Fintan (5 Jan 2006)

I was talking to someone today about using paypal, they mentioned that they lost a lot of money with a paypal merchant account as appartenly paypal don't do any fraud verification. 

To say I was shocked is an understatement!


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## ClubMan (5 Jan 2006)

brian.mobile said:
			
		

> So WP seems to be the one!


Eh? I thought _PayPal _was the one based on the most recent posts!?


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## blacknight (6 Jan 2006)

2checkout will pay out to Irish banks

If you have a merchant account then using  makes sense. I'd keep well away from Worldpay


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## Keentoinvest (18 Jan 2006)

Hi Brian
I use realex, used to use euroconnex but a lot of their business was taken over by realex. The fee you pay depends on the volume of transactions you anticipate. Our arrangement is that it costs a minimum of €250 per month with each transaction costing 48cent. We process approx 500 payments per month so it works out fine. They've been fine for us


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## nistru78 (20 Jan 2006)

Hello people.


I would tell you that MONEYBOOKERS  is better alternative for PayPal.  It covers more countries.  Also it offers  security against  chargeback for merchant.  Fraudsters cannot use stolen credit cards in MoneyBookers  as this system  make random charge on the card and fraudster doesn't know what ammount is billed and to verify the ammount, the fraudster should call the cardholder's bank to ask the ammount billed. 

How About shopping cart:  I think it's   osCommerce  and Shop Script Premium.  Unfortunatelly  I don't have funds to pay for Shop-Script Premium. (


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## Keentoinvest (22 Jan 2006)

Hey
Do you know realex. Id be interested to know if moneybookers is any good and what sort of costs are involved.

Can it process irish debit cards and what prevents someone making a payment to a site using their debit card and then cancelling the transaction the next day and saying they never biugh the service/product as there is no signature??


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## blacknight (22 Jan 2006)

I've seen MoneyBookers in use on a lot of dodgy sites, so I wouldn't rush to use them

The other thing is brand recognition.

If you are new to selling online your brand name may also not be as known and trusted. If that is the case you may be better advised to use a known and trusted processor, such as PayPal or Realex.


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