Multiple stores with one checkout ?

I would like to set up multiple small stores instead of one large mixed-product junkfest. However, to my dismay if I understand correctly, every store (domain, URL) would need it's own SSL and merchant account & gateway. This would be prohibitive. Can I somehow redirect the checkout so that this processing happens on one central domain where the SSL and gateways are hooked to? All stores are on the same server with the same IP.

Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Ad<thanks>vance

ooo good question as I also have another store! I was hoping to do same thing.

Sorry its taken a while to reply - but I may have good news. I'm currently putting the final touches on a test store which does exactly what your after, and it should be completed by tomorrow.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Absolute

Wow !!!

That's fantastic. Can't wait to hear back from you. If there is anything I can do to help, don't hesitate to ask.

I second the WOW! I am so excited. I really didn't want to pay for a second merchant account. We are a single income fam. and well, if I had alot of money I wouldn't be trying to work from home/stay at home w/kiddies. LOL!

I am very excited. I don't know much but I too would help in any way I could.

Hoping that I am understanding your problem correctly:

What you want is configureable actually quite easily depending on the restrictions that your host has. And individual SSL's & dedicated IP's costing what they do, if your hosting Co. will not support this, time to look for a new host.

This assumes that your host supports and allows 'add-on domains', you have a dedicated IP associated with the primary account url, a SSL registered to the Primary account, reasonable MySQL DB cost or included, and other domain names FQDN's to add. cPanelX makes this easy to manage but is not required.

add your additional domains
set your SSL to function like a shared SSL that many hosts can/will provide.
Link/Set your Zencart to point to the correct URL for the SSL sessions in configure.php

Example:

Primary account = ABC.com
1st add account = ABCpots.com
2nd add account = ABCpans.com
3rd add account = ABCspoons.com

and so forth, The url names are inconsequential but the browser will indicate the HTPPS://www.name.com and one might like to keep it associated with your mini-store url's or the other way around; keep your mini stores url's associated with your primary url as this just appears more professional.
But it will work no matter the url name, just as the shared SSL also works but does not portray any linkage to the stores url at all.

Your primary url will process all the purchases and be setup with a single merchant/gateway account. This might not provide which store the purchase was made from, but this is available in each Zencart install.

Each added domain is addressable via its' own url and you have an instance of ZenCart installed for each in its' own space.

That is one way to do it, and great if you want to have a separate install for each store. Currently, I have 1 install, with 2 domains pointing to it. When you arrive at the store, hte store recognises the domain, and shows you the appropriate template, and categories. On checkout, all the stores use a common https://secure.domain, and when your finished they return you to your previous store. The secure.domain pages are also displayed with your selected store template, so to the cutomers, what they see depends greatly on which store they are visiting. I have it set so that I can currently jump between stores, keeping the same cart as well.

The great thing about this is that there is only 1 admin, and all your orders go to the same page.

At the moment it is only on a localhost, but I should have it editted and uploaded by later this afternoon for you to see.

Absolute

PS If anyone is interested in helping test this mod, I need someone with a secure server, as I don't have an SSL cert on my test site. Contact me via PM.

Wow. Absolute that totally sounds like what I need to do. I have two separate stores(domains) and want one zen cart and one merchant account. HOW in the heck did you get zen cart to show "different carts" (so to speak) to each store/domain???? I am going to PM you!

ladysaat:

Wow. Absolute that totally sounds like what I need to do. I have two separate stores(domains) and want one zen cart and one merchant account. HOW in the heck did you get zen cart to show "different carts" (so to speak) to each store/domain???? I am going to PM you!Ladysaat

I get that you're excited and want to get this working for yourself ASAP, but please don't take this off to PMs as then other people who are interested in achieving this may not get the benefit of Absolute's great work.

Don't worry, the PM message was only to give me some personal information as to where Laysaat was, and when they would be around for testing.

The module is still a work in progress, but you can see how its going by visiting my test store.

Store A - https://www.absolute-solutions.co.uk/test/zen/dual/
Fetching brown - main store, and as such handles all of the "secure" pages. My site is set up to redirect to secure pages, but without the security at the moment.

Store B - https://www.absoluteproductions.co.uk/test/zen/dual/
Calming Blue

The two sites are the same site, in the same directory. However, they each use a different template set to give the different layouts, colours and category listing in the side boxes. All of this is edittable in the admin section, including which categories are available.

Any questions, please feel free to ask. I realise that this mod is not for everyone, but I hope that some of you find it useful.

I need another couple of days to test, and finish up the admin pages, and then I'll be able to distribute it to those who are interested.

Absolute

I'm sure most of you realize this, but I wanted to mention for those who do not, that you can use the same merchant account/gateway for as many zen carts on as many domains (and at other venues, too) as you'd like.

kuroi:

Ladysaat

I get that you're excited and want to get this working for yourself ASAP, but please don't take this off to PMs as then other people who are interested in achieving this may not get the benefit of Absolute's great work.

Um Kuroi he asked people to PM him in his post.

Absolute:

PS If anyone is interested in helping test this mod, I need someone with a secure server, as I don't have an SSL cert on my test site. Contact me via PM.

I was just going along with it, NOT trying to hog something for myself :wink2: .... I am pretty sure from what I've seen in the brief time on this forum that everything is shared pretty openly.

I stumpled into a really great community here at the Zen forums. I have multiple replies below, I hope that this is appropriate etiquette.

iron_chick,
Thanks for your post. No, I was not aware. Can you elaborate a bit on how you go about doing this. I was under the impression it was not possible.

Kobra,
Great detailed post and real interesting way to approach the problem. My host does allow "add-on domains" (I had to research this just to find out what these were), along with unlimited MYSQL db's. and CPanel. I have multiple FQDN's currently registered pointing to their own sites currently (ie. -www.abcspoons.com). I can get the dedicated IP and SSL as soon as I know what Im doing :unsure: . If I understand correctly, one site would be the "mother ship - checkout cart" that has the dedicatd IP, SSL, and merchant account / gateway on it. The other sites would point to that one by altering configure.php for their SSL (BTW - which configure.php, I found a couple of them - /includes/ or /admin/includes/). To clarify - each add-on domain would have it's own separate Zencart install and would go to the central one for checkout ? If I changed configure.php to set SSL to go there at what point in the checkout process would it actually switch to go there ? I would also have a copy of Zencart in this central domain correct, but only used for checkout ? Would the add-on sites still know that a purchase was made? Sorry, I'm not familar with configuring and working with SSL so it is still a bit fuzzy for me at that point. But would love to figure this out. Thanks.

Absolute,
I have been up to your test site(s) and they look great. Like ladysaat, I am very curious about how you configured the other sites to point to the primary one, and how in Zencart admin are you configuring the templates and categories to show up just for that particular site. You don't need to reply now, finish your testing and tweaking first. Glad to see ladysaat could help with the SSL testing, I do not have one yet (still trying to figure out they work). Nice work.

I've been testing heavily over the last day or two, but unfortunately, I'm being sent away tomorrow for a few days. I'll be back at the weekend, hopefully with a completed add on.

Keep you all informed.

Absolute

Muddler - You can set up/enable any number of places to send paymets to your payment gateway to process. The gateway doesn't care if the info is coming from an xyz.com domain, an abc.com domain or through their virtual terminal. The payment gateway info you would use to set up your second or tenth card is the same as you used in your first.

I have one merchant account but I do business under several unrelated business names. So my official business name and the one on my merchant account is very generic. All of my payments (merchant account and PayPal) are processed through that generic name. Customers get a note letting them know that payments to xyz.com are process through our parent company, genericname.com. (Actually, I am going to edit the order confirmation email here to include that - I just haven't gotten that far yet! :))

I need an SSL for each seperate zen cart/domain, but that's way cheaper than getting a merchant account for each! :-)

Iron-chick, What a great piece of info. Solves a major hedache for me. Thanks!

This would be a very valuable mod for many people, I believe...but how would it work with a HOP script? My merchant account (Cybersource) only provides a single return address after checkout. Would this mod still detect the appropriate storefront after the sale when user is returned to 'Checkout Success' page? That would be excellent.

Then the biggest problem would be trying to figure out a nice generic brand-name for the merchant account, that would show up on the buyer's credit card statement.

Iron-chick & others:

I need an SSL for each seperate zen cart/domain, but that's way cheaper than getting a merchant account for each! :-)
Only need separate SSL's if these url's are not colocated on the same hosting account. If colocated, only need one like outlined earlier, and use in a similar manner as the hosts shared SSL.

Muddler & Crew:
As others have pointed out, you do not have to have the SSL attached to a Zencart directly. It could be like: pay.com for the SSl, buy1.com, buy2.com, and so forth for your carts. They just all point to pay.com as the SSL site. But it could also be on a zencart site.

Absolute:
What you seem to be describing sounds really fantastic in principle. I know that you have stated that you will post the mod when you are satisified. Could you pre-release share a bit of how you are reconciling zen sessions from multiple carts? This is what I would see as the start of corruption in the DB as each cart will generate their own session ID's and at some point they may use an ID already used as the carts do not communicate with each other. This is just for starters. Would be really interested in how you have mediated this.

I do see the real value in one DB multiple store fronts, just am cautious as corruption will bring all stores to a halt.

Keep posting your progress as many are interested...

For me, it's worth it to have seperate SSLs so that the buying experience is more unified. I'd rather my buyers go to https://www.sell1.com from http://www.sell.com than to https:https://www.buy.com. It's part of the advantage, for me, in having my own SSL as opposed to a shared SSL.

Iron-chick

I need an SSL for each seperate zen cart/domain
I took this in the literal, and you actually meant:

I prefer to use an SSL for each seperate zen cart/domain

Yes, this is considered more professional to some individuals but either way works...