Only 4 products, need PP pro integrated on site, is ZC what I need?

[craigb]

Hi everyone, I hope this hasn't been asked elsewhere. I searched and didn't find anything related.

I need to integrate my pending PayPal Pro account onto my existing website. (I want payments to be made ON my site; that is why I went with the Pro version of PayPal.)

My selling requirements are EXTREMELY simple and limited. I have only five products. These products don't have any choices within them, there are no shipping addresses or anything to complicate the purchases.

You can see here what my current setup is like. This was made with regular PayPal (not Pro): http://marata.org/?page_id=265

My simple goal is to have something similar but (once PayPal Pro account is activated) have the payments processed ON the site. I'm trying to keep this is simple as possible, without adding any superfluous software. ZenCart appears to be way too feature-rich for what I need. But will I need ZenCart or something similar to integrate PayPal Pro onto my site?

Thanks in advance for any advice or guidance.

[kobra]

ZenCart appears to be way too feature-rich for what I need. But will I need ZenCart or something similar to integrate PayPal Pro onto my site?

ZenCart makes it a simple matter IF you also have the required SSL Certificate and curl in your hosting account.

One could use the PP API and write their own integration for their own pages

[stevesh]

If it were me, I'd go ahead and use Zencart. That stuff in the menu on the left can easily be done with EZ pages, and Payments Pro support is built in, but you won't have buttons with each product - they'll go to the cart, then through checkout.

You never know when you might need Zencart's features in the future.

[craigb]

Thanks Kobra. :)

I was planning to purchase the SSL certificate from my hosting provider. After I have that, will ZenCart be easy to integrate into my website while keeping the look and ppearnce my site originally had?

I guess my concern is that ZenCart appears to be thousands of times more feature-rich than my modest site will require. After poking around through some ZC templates and such, it seems ZC is made to create an entirely new shopping website, and isn't made to simply integrate into an existing website. Am I wrong in this?

Thanks again for your reply... this is all very new to me.

[kobra]

will ZenCart be easy to integrate into my website while keeping the look and ppearnce my site originally had?

it seems ZC is made to create an entirely new shopping website, and isn't made to simply integrate into an existing website.

This is correct

ZenCart is designed to become your website and not used as a "buy Now" backend to a html page

[craigb]

Thanks Stevsh and Kobra...

My problem is that none of the ZC templates look at all like my website. So is it possible to use ZC without: A) redesigning my whole site to match an existing ZC template or B) modifying lots of code on an existing ZC template to make it look like my existing website?

I get the feeling I'm overlooking something obvious here... or else ZC is simply not what I need.

[kobra]

So is it possible to use ZC without: A) redesigning my whole site to match an existing ZC template or B) modifying lots of code on an existing ZC template to make it look like my existing website?

One would do the latter and make ZenCart look like your current page at a high percentage of match

Yours is a simple design

Check your private messages

[stevesh]

Like most web programs, Zencart is basically header, three columns, footer, just like your site.

Look at these - http://(sorry, site offline) for a lot of free examples you can experiment with. 'Simple Zen' looks a lot like the site you have now.

[craigb]

Ok, Thank you both. Thanks for your advice and patience...

Just to confirm that I'm on the right track. In order to accept payments on my site via PayPal Pro I need to:

1. Start with installing ZenCart and a ZenCart template
2. Delete 99.9% of ZC's extraneous (to me) functionality*
3. Modify the template's header, columns, footer to look like my site.

*When I say delete extraneous to me functionality I mean functions such as: Logging in (I don't need this), Shipping options (don't need), Specials, Coupons... basically all of the stuff that makes up ZC, including all of the stuff on both sidebars you can see here: http://marata.org/payments/ I don't want/need any of that.

It seems like I'll basically be using a ZenCart template, deleting it entirely, and rebuilding my own from nearly the ground up. So back to my original question, do I need ZC or is there a simpler way/program to accomplish this?

Thanks again!

[thedjphat]

Best be careful what you start removing from zencart. There are ways to use PayPal without login (avoiding the need for ssl) - You might want to consider approaching the issue with wordpress and a few plugs if you are only trying to sell a few products.

Zen Cart is a very full featured platform, and if you're planning on hacking bits off of it to use it for a simple task you may want to reconsider.