Basic ecommerce facility.

MojoMaker

Hi,

Bigtime newbie question I guess but any help greatly appreciated!! Have been asked to assist in the construction of a website for a electronic component distributor and have sketched out a competent design including branding for their Internet presence. They also want to start offering an online acessory catalog and utilise a simple shoppping cart structure. My main question is what are the main consideration with this type of venture so I can better advise the distributor and are there off-the-shelf products that one can plug-in to do this job simply and effectively? Are e-commerce website templates any use?

I'm guessing a MySQL db with access via php and a shopping cart constructed around a php session object - am I going in the right direction?

How does one go about setting up a link with a payment clearing organisation - i.e. register as a merchant? Who would be the best people to approach for authentication purposes? I've heard of crowds like paypal, ccbill.com, ibill.com etc...are these guys any use? Are there any Irish-based transaction authorisation organisations?

What caveats & general advice would you give me at this point?

Really appreciate it dudes....!

MM.

mneylon

As far as the CC processing is concerned it would depend on the average sale amount and the number of sales expected.

Some of the processors deal mainly in products others in services - you would need to check

Paypal is a non-runner in the Irish market as you cannot get your money out of the account unless you have a UK bank account

Seth Brundle

you can transfer your balance onto your credit card though with paypal (IIRC). However, this may not suit.
There have been a few discussions about this (on this board) in the last month or so.

mneylon

Originally posted by kbannon
you can transfer your balance onto your credit card though with paypal (IIRC). However, this may not suit.
There have been a few discussions about this (on this board) in the last month or so.

NO YOU CAN'T

From the Paypal members' area help desk thing:

Withdrawing Funds

Why can't I withdraw funds to my credit card?

PayPal has entered into agreements with MasterCard and Visa and we are unable to offer our members the ability to withdraw money to their credit card from their PayPal account.

Seth Brundle

that must be a relatively new rule then as I was under the impression that any CC holder could use their system

nahdoic

No it's not a new rule, this is the way it has always been.

Almost any CC holder can use their system, just don't expect to be able to withdraw funds if you're living in ireland.

Seth Brundle

I see now from their help section:-
PayPal's recent agreement with Visa no longer allows us to offer our users the ability to withdraw funds from their PayPal account to their Visa card.

mneylon

Originally posted by kbannon
I see now from their help section:-
PayPal's recent agreement with Visa no longer allows us to offer our users the ability to withdraw funds from their PayPal account to their Visa card.

It's not recent. It's been like that for ages.

I already posted on this in the older thread including a screenshot.

tom-thebox

I would back Blacknight up on the paypal issue I have about 1900 dollars sitting in a paypal account I can not get due to the fact I dont have a UK bankaccount, I tryed using a UK bank i.e the ulster bank but because its based in the Republic they will not pay up. I was not happy at the time however what can one do. :rolleyes:

dynamic.ie

To process your payments you could use:

Realex Payments - Payment Service Provider
www.realexpayments.com

&

Euroconex - Internet Merchant Account
www.euroconex.com

There is info about both of these on our website, if you want to have a look.

Realex are great. Very professional and great support. Euroconex usually give a rate of 3.5% for new internet businesses but with existing merchants, it can be lower.

CC Payments accepted through these usually hit your bank account between 24-48 hours. No waiting really... unlike with WorldPay (4 weeks). Takes up to 2 weeks to get account with Euroconex and a few days with Realex.

For shopping carts, it really depends on what scripting language you want to use and what database. I know you mentioned PHP and MySQL but here's a few links of eCommerce solutions I have looked at and some I've used, for your review:

www.actinic.co.uk
www.line9.com
www.cactushop.com
www.storefront.net
www.oscommerce.com
www.miva.com

There's a few off the top of my head. Any other queries... just shout!

All the best!

Dave

tom-thebox

Couple of new merchants there dynamic.ie first time i saw one of em thanks. bit of decent info there lads.

peterd

Euroconex - Internet Merchant Account
www.euroconex.com

Had a nightmare with these guys about a year ago. While they could have improved with practice(!) since then, I wouldn't go back.

dynamic.ie

Originally posted by peterd
Had a nightmare with these guys about a year ago. While they could have improved with practice(!) since then, I wouldn't go back.

They have their own system called clikpay for processing payments. I don't use it ever anymore. I use realex for processing the payments and euroconex for the merchant account only. All eurconex do is accept payments from realex and put them into your bank account. On that basis I have had no problems but I wouldn't use there inhouse system (clikpay).

Regards,

Dave

peterd

All the probs I had with them were related to the ClickPay system. As far as I remember, it was a rebranded Shopcreator (www.shopcreator.net ?) shopping cart. A real "pain in the stupid" to customise.

jesus_thats_gre

I have had dealing with Realex payments when they used to be payandshop.com and they are the dudes!!!! They allowed me to use their test servers for free when I was developing an ECommerce store for my year long Diploma project in college (scored 78% ). I always promised to make sure I got them as much business as possible since that!

Luke

steve-hosting36

Realex is fantastic We provide built-in support for them on all our reseller plans and ecommerce solutions -0 they are simply light-years ahead of the local competition!

MojoMaker

Thanks a lot dynamic dude. Lots of stuff to read there, appetite wel and truly whetted now. Good info.