First payments website - advice?

dahayeser · 13-10-2014 5:34pm #1

Hi,

Despite working on web applications and websites for years I have some how never done an eCommerce site. I recently designed a brochure site for recently has decided they want to start selling products online. It is a completely custom site built with php, javascript (jQuery) and css with a little help from bootstrap! There is no need for a customer login or anything.

I know there are packages like Magento etc but they seem to be for developing a shop from the ground up. I don't want to do that, I have all the products listed in my database with prices and have them all displaying nicely in a responsive site. I am just wondering how best to proceed..

I was thinking the next step is to write a function to handle adding products to the bag, storing product id's and associated quantities session variables. Then writing something to parse this into XML or JSON to pass to a 3rd party payments gateway like sagepay, worldpay or something like that.

Does that sound reasonable? I am looking for as straight forward and risk free solution. Any advice much appreciated ..

Thanks in advance
Sean

Colonel Panic · 13-10-2014 9:03pm

Take a look at the developer docs for SagePay and Worldpay. Maybe give them a call and see what's involved.

You don't need your own shopping cart solution if you want to implement it yourself (or have already). You can pass the data to a 3rd party eCommerce site and let them take care of it for you.

Synode · 15-10-2014 3:18pm

I've never used it, but Stripe (https://stripe.com/ie) has come up in college a bit for accepting payments

sconhome · 15-10-2014 4:20pm

A very simple way if you are using a relatively small number of products is to use Paypal.

You can set up a button per product. Very easy to implement, you do not have to bear the costs of merchant services, SSL certificates or the like until the site reached a critical mass and is generating enough sales to pay for 3rd party costs.

You should be able to import your XML database into something like Shopify embedded in the website or create a redirect 'Shopping' button to a ecommerce product on a hidden page eg redirect to examplesite.ie/Shopping. You could install any of the ecommerce solutions in this manner and use Paypal to express checkout.

I've used Abante cart to do something similar and have blog & forum on separate pages on the same domain.

smcelhinney · 15-10-2014 10:12pm

+1 for Stripe. Most developer-friendly payment provider solution out there.

Source: me, I've used it, Paypal, Realex and others over the years.

Johnny Jukebox · 16-10-2014 9:04am

+1 for Stripe too.

Have used Realex, Datacash, ReD in the past and Stripe is much better.

shewer · 20-10-2014 10:07am

I'd recommend Stripe every time. It is very simple to set up and is much easier for the purchaser when buying online. They only require the card details and not the card owner details, plus it's fast and reliable and set up by a couple of Irish guys. They're now working with Apple for Apple Pay too!

Synode · 20-10-2014 10:12am

Is that not open to abuse then - card details without the card owner details?

sconhome · 20-10-2014 10:17am

smcelhinney wrote: »

+1 for Stripe. Most developer-friendly payment provider solution out there.

Source: me, I've used it, Paypal, Realex and others over the years.

How easy is it to integrate into the website build?

Looks like a great alternative to Paypal from a business perspective, lower charges for one.

MaggotBrain · 21-10-2014 1:56am

AKW wrote: »

How easy is it to integrate into the website build?

Looks like a great alternative to Paypal from a business perspective, lower charges for one.

Stripe is designed with ease of integration as it's key selling point. It would be a low to medium effort to transfer your payment gateway from PayPal to stripe.

BoardsMember · 21-10-2014 8:43am

Another vote for Stripe from me, way more developer friendly and flexible than anything else I have used

red_bairn · 21-10-2014 9:01am

BoardsMember wrote:

Another vote for Stripe from me, way more developer friendly and flexible than anything else I have used

Can you set up 3D Secure with Stripe? I'm not that clued into their services just interested to know what they have to deal with fraud management.

Aztech · 21-10-2014 9:41am

red_bairn wrote: »

Can you set up 3D Secure with Stripe? I'm not that clued into their services just interested to know what they have to deal with fraud management.

"stripe 3d secure" on Google produces the information you need....I can't post links. Their documentation is very good, as is their SEO, so it's very easy to find out what you are looking for.

dahayeser · 21-10-2014 12:28pm

I see with stripe you need ssl certs. From what I see the credit card details are entered on your website (Which looks much nice) they are then posted to the stripe server without ever touching your server (if implemented correctly). The ssl certs are required for posting from your webpage to the stripe server.

With the likes of worldpay and sagepay you are actually directed to their server before you need to enter any card details, all details are then entered on their website hence no need for the ssl certs. Am I correct in saying this?

sconhome · 21-10-2014 12:52pm

dahayeser wrote: »

I see with stripe you need ssl certs. From what I see the credit card details are entered on your website (Which looks much nice) they are then posted to the stripe server without ever touching your server (if implemented correctly). The ssl certs are required for posting from your webpage to the stripe server.

With the likes of worldpay and sagepay you are actually directed to their server before you need to enter any card details, all details are then entered on their website hence no need for the ssl certs. Am I correct in saying this?

This leaves Paypal the low cost option for me so. Charges are slightly lower at 2.9% + 35c with Stripe but until I reach a critical mass on sales paying for SSL cert as well does not make sense.

If I end up at the SSL cert stage I'd probably go the whole hog and integrate with existing offline merchant account.

Interesting situation for OP. Keen to hear how you get on with a decision.

Aztech · 21-10-2014 1:09pm

GoDaddy do certs at affordable prices, considerably cheaper than a lot of the competition, < €70 per SSL per year.

Graham · 21-10-2014 3:22pm

AKW wrote: »

This leaves Paypal the low cost option for me so. Charges are slightly lower at 2.9% + 35c with Stripe but until I reach a critical mass on sales paying for SSL cert as well does not make sense.

If I end up at the SSL cert stage I'd probably go the whole hog and integrate with existing offline merchant account.

Interesting situation for OP. Keen to hear how you get on with a decision.

You can pick up an ssl cert for less than $10 if you're on a tight budget http://SSLs.com

sconhome · 21-10-2014 6:14pm

Graham wrote: »

You can pick up an ssl cert for less than $10 if you're on a tight budget http://SSLs.com

Good to know.

mstester · 23-10-2014 11:00am

For what its worth I'd stay well clear of Worldpay. I've been dealing with them for years now in my company...we have millions of transactions per week. They are so brutal and have terrible customer support. One of my biggest gripes with them is that when the have an outage (and it happens a fair bit) they give you no info on what happened or how long it will take them to fix it.

smcelhinney · 28-10-2014 5:40pm

Most (if not all) integrated payment options will require SSL, so you're better off biting the bullet now, and familiarising yourself with the process (as it can be arduous the first time).

Also from a customer experience point of view, integrated payment providers are the best option: they stay on your site the entire time (through branded solutions, modal popups (Stripe use this) or iframe solutions (not ideal)) so you can manage things like abandonment, customer management, baskets, accounts, a lot more easily.

In a Paypal/non-integrated payment provider solution, you're redirected to their site, and redirected back, which can be in and of itself a little bit confusing (particularly for customers who never/rarely buy things online).

Paypal is fine for simple transactions where you're not overly concerned about brand affinity, but sooner or later (as your business grows) you'll want to migrate to a branded/integrated solution. Might as well start off on the right foot

dahayeser · 03-11-2014 1:23pm

No doubt the integrated solution is much better but if you do go that route and install SSL certs, is it then your responsibility to deal with any SSL issues that may arise? For example the recent SSL version 3 security vulnerability, called the POODLE attack?

First payments website - advice?

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