Simple solution needed..is zen cart the right choice.
Ok so here's the deal..I started a business and need to set up our website very soon. We are selling three products, and I need a way to offer a professional looking site/user interaction from beginning to end (checkout). Zen cart seems to be what I need because it's free and all, and I want to use paypal website payments pro as the gateway thing, but i'm wondering if maybe zen cart will be too hard for a n00b like myself to configure the way I want, especially with ZERO programming experience, and little website experience. I would use paypal express checkout because it's so simple but i need a way for people to input credit cards without a paypal account. Any ideas on what I should be doing.
So on the site, in my head I have it layed out like..there will options to buy three products, you click on one of the products and ti takes you to the product page, where you can BUY (or add toa cart, not sure if I need the buyer to be able to check their cart since we only have 3 products and most likely if they get one they wont' be getting one of the others) then checkout by choosing payment method (all ideally staying within my websites design layout, not taken toa third party site). This is all I need, what is my best bet, and is zen cart ideal?:no:
Re: Simple solution needed..is zen cart the right choice.
Yes and No !
Yes ::: Zen would be the ideal solution , and could handle all you want to do , and make it easy for you to update your products etc. Also allow you to keep in touch with your clients as your client list increases. and easy accounting of what youve sold too.
No::: You have little html / php / css knowledge , all of which doesnt really matter as you can pick it up from learning yourself and getting pointers from the forum , but it all depends on how much time your talking about , if you have 6 months before going live , then unpack zen and get going , if you want this thing up and looking professional by the end of the week , then no.
I hope you understand my waffle , what im saying is Zen would be the ideal solution if you had the time to do it and learn it , otherwise you get a half cooked site that doesn't portray the professionalism your after. If your starting a new business will you have the time needed to dedicate to it ?
I dont want to put you off Zen , as we are all 100% behind zen on here , but dont want you to become disheartened if you can t do what you do.
The other option would be to look for someone to provide you with a zen site then you can learn it in slow time .
........ having said all that , if you have no or little HTML experience , what other choice do you have ... do it install zen and get started today !
Re: Simple solution needed..is zen cart the right choice.
Dang, not exactly what I wanted to hear but thanks! How hard would it be to just have the option of buying three different products with support for different payment? I don't need the client list stuff or any of the fancy stuff, just the ability to purchase off my site and use credit cards without taking htem to another page, like paypals page. I wont be upgrading my products either, my stuff is VERY niche market and i'm gonna keep the three products for a while. I would use paypal express but I don't like how it takes you to a paypal page and I don't like how you have to be a paypal member. How much do you think people charge to set up a basic zen cart thing like I need, which is VERY BASIC so I can basically just drop in my graphics and text?
Re: Simple solution needed..is zen cart the right choice.
The actual zen part if very easy to set up , out of the box most things are configured ready to use. getting a grip on the templates takes a little while , but not difficult if your logical person. 'just dropping your graphics in' is possible if all your graphics are the same size and shape as the ones in the original template your basing your site on .
Payment page thing , I've only really touched on paypal recently , put yes it does take you to another page , but no you do not need to be a paypal member.
The built in option in zen is for you to take the Credit card details and storing them yourself and typing them in your own point of sale machine as a card holder not present transaction - most online merchants will take you to their own page to do the payment processing . its the safest way as they are then in charge of the security for the card details , you just get passed the payment.
Online merchant accounts is a whole new barrel of fish !
Re: Simple solution needed..is zen cart the right choice.
Note: Zen Cart does not yet support Website Payments Pro, only Paypal Express and IPN. WPP support is reportedly coming in the next release (v1.3.8), due out "soon" (date unknown).
There is apparently a third-party WPP module for ZC, but it is not supported by the ZC dev team. It is available somewhere offsite - mentioned recently here; search for it if you want.
Re: Simple solution needed..is zen cart the right choice.
Depending on where the buyer is located, the buyer doesn't necessarily need a PayPal account to use a credit card through PayPal. Of course, you do as the seller to accept payments.
I don't know of any gateway that doesn't require the buyer to pay through THEIR site (which means leaving your site).