DaniWeb IT Discussion Community - eCommerce

Can anybody recommend the best shopping cart software ?

PrinceyPaul — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:12:31 GMT

We are {company name and link removed} and we are now using oscommerce but we found out it is not seo friendly. Can anybody recommend seo friendly shopping cart.

Tom

News Story Hold the front page: Piracy is not killing the music business!

happygeek — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:39:06 GMT

If piracy and illegal downloaders really are killing the music industry, how come more singles have been sold this year than ever before and people who file-share spend more money on legal releases than those who do not file-share?

I have to admit, it's not been a good week to be on the side of law and order and the established way of things as far as the music business is concerned. While the UK Government pushes ever onwards with the Digital Economy Bill which promises a robust legal and regulatory framework to deal with illegal file-sharing, and continues to insist that illegal downloading is a real threat to the music industry, figures have been released which seem to undermine the official 'three strikes and your out' to save creative output position.

According to the Daily Mail a newly published study shows that, in the UK at least, those who download illegal music actually spend considerably more on buying legal music than those who do not admit to illegal downloading. When it comes to music singles and albums, the illegal downloaders spend an average of £77 per year on official releases while people who say they have never downloaded any music illegally spend only £44 per year.

Of those asked, around two thirds would stop downloading illegally if music download services were cheaper. Just reducing the cost to 45p a track could double the sales of legal downloads it would seem. Add to this the fact that 42% of people said they download illegally to try before they buy, and 83% insist they buy more music as a result of such downloading, and you get the feeling that the music industry needs to be examining new music distribution business models and exploiting them rather than applying the big stick with fingers in ears going la la la approach.

The British Phonographic Industry, the UK music industry trade association, reckons that illegal downloaders will cost the music biz around £200 million in lost sales by the end of this year. Yet at the same time it is being reported that the BPI is also saying that 2009 will be the biggest year ever as far as sales of singles in the UK is concerned. The previous record for most single records being sold was et, er, last year in fact. Even more proof, were it needed, that illegal downloads are simply not killing the music business as is constantly being suggested by the industry powers that be.

price thresholds for e-commerce

MktgRob — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:18:54 GMT

Could anyone provide insight into at what price point you would stop selling through an e-commerce site and move to a face to face, consultative sales model? I have a client who is eager to have an e-commerce offering but I am pretty certain their price points or their business model for implementing their products is conducive to an e-commerce application.

I am confused about Domain Parking

salmanafzal — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:34:05 GMT

Hi all,

Today i read an article about parking a domain,in that article the author mention that by parking an article you can earn some money he mentioned "whenever the default domains are shown to visitors or clicked you will earn some money" but how it will work?

I am new to internet world pls guid me in a right direction.

Thanks

Salman Afzal

Debit Cards as Credit Cards

MktgRob — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:35:14 GMT

Are there any issues in e-commerce applications if someone wants to use their debit card as a credit card for a purchase?

Displaying prices in different currencies

HelenLF — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:42:25 GMT

I am developing an ecommerce website for a UK client whose market is also based in the US.
Can anyone advise me of the best way to display dollars versions of the prices (as well as pounds) and keep this info reasonable up to date?

Thanks in advance

Shopping Cart software

TechExpressInc — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:41:23 GMT

Can someone recommend a good free shopping cart database software package?
Thanks Russ

Do you use Paypal for ebook sales?

xoox — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:18:32 GMT

For ebook sales, is it better to go through third party sellers like Clickbank or Lulu or do you sell it directly using Paypal.

Paypal's recent report shows 78 million users and I wonder if we should plainly go by numbers or lose commission to third party sellers?

E-commerce Database in the Cloud

MktgRob — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:39:51 GMT

I am workiing with a client who has just completed a project with a customer who sells pre-paid calling cards on consignment. It was explained to me that the codes for the individual cards are stored in a database in the cloud and that my client had to integrate their solution to communicate with this database.

As I am relatively new to cloud computing and this scenario of a database in the cloud sounds really interesting, I was wondering if anyone has a quick non-technical explanation of how a database in the cloud works?

re: jobs

walba — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:53:24 GMT

hey, are there any online jobs like data entry?

dash commerce starter kit...anyone?

ricksvoid — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:16:15 GMT

Ive got my first paying gig since graduation and im very interested in finding out what the .net community thinks about e-commerce.

I have a decent command of the VB.net language and asp.net but I know very little about e-commerce.

I noticed that there is an existing starter kit called dash commerce that I believe I could adapt for this purpose. Does anyone out there have any experience using this starter kit as a time saver? I will be using authorize.net as my payment gateway.

Also, how do i transfer the clients credit card info unto authorize.net?
Im open to any suggestions. I wish I had the time to build the shopping cart from scratch but unfortunatly I am in a position where i just need to make it work, make it look good and get paid.

Live Chat Software

ep2002 — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:07:19 GMT

Hi all,

Happy holidays if you are in NA.

So I'm looking for the best live chat/help software there is.

Years ago I used one & it wasn't that great.

Features I want are:

1. Makes a loud noise when someone tries to connect b/c we don't want to have to sit on the site all day waiting, as it's not a busy site.

2. We can try & contact them even if they haven't initiated contact.

3. Allows me to see transcripts of conversations.

4. Allows surfer to read over previous conversation.

5. Won't screw up the site hogging the memory, won't cause problems with popups already on the site, etc.

6. The skin is nice looking or we can change it.

I think that's it for now.

Thanks

Michelle

dedicated IP

jpl80 — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:13:03 GMT

Is there an advantage to running your e-commerce site on a dedicated IP address? I have been told that if you want to do serious business online and have good Search Engine rankings, you need a dedicated IP and shared hosting is bad.

Tell me if you can!!!

gtey — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 07:22:06 GMT

1. the general potential that e-commerce offers to a business
2. tge barriers to a business developing e-commerce
3. how barriers can be overcome
4. the help available to businesses to develop their e-commerce potential
5. the protecting of payments and security of client information in e-commerce

E Commerce......?

mikaqimi — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:13:17 GMT

I have to write a Report about E Commerce. Therefore i want some details regarding the following.
1. History,current status and future trends
2. Tools and technologies that support e commerce based business models.
3. Major issues and challanges in implementing eCommerce business models.
4. Real world example where eCommerce has been successfully used and the factors that contributed to its success.
Example for business models has been failure and the reasons(Atleast one example for each)

News Story Patent on Streaming Porn Tossed Out

slfisher — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:50:39 GMT

A company that has been attempting to obtain licensing fees from adult companies, as well as other providers such as Internet radio stations and leading satellite and cable companies such Echostar, DirectTV, Time Warner Cable, and CSC Holdings, Inc., has had its patent thrown out by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Acacia Research's patent on streaming media technology had been targeted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation as part of its Patent Busting Project for being overly broad. "Laughably broad patent would cover everything from online distribution of home movies to scanned documents and MP3s," the EFF described it.

The company systematically acquired a number of patents on streaming media, with an eye toward making money on licensing fees, according to a 2003 CNET article.

"The company's digital media strategy began in earnest several years ago," the article said. "It had determined that it owned about a third of the patents it needed to mount a licensing strategy for Web streaming, and its attorneys spent considerable time researching the rights held by another set of companies that Acacia ultimately purchased in 2001. By the time Acacia finished, it owned five U.S. patents and 17 international patents dating back to 1991."

Acacia started with the adult website market. "The case reaches all the way back to 2002, when Acacia began sending out media packets to online adult companies asserting that the companies were violating patents associated with its Digital Media Transmission technology, which Acacia claimed covered virtually any manner of transmitting and receiving digital and audio content over the Internet," according to an article in XBIZ Newswire. "Although Acacia was able to secure settlements from a number of adult companies, other companies fought back, and eventually coalesced into the united Adult Defense Group effort, spearheaded by Homegrown Video parent company New Destiny Internet Group."

In 2003, the company began targeting Internet radio providers, and obtained licensing fees from a number of them, including Radio Free Virgin, the online music division of Richard Branson's Virgin corporation.

In 2004, it moved on to colleges and universities, sending letters demanding licensing agreements of a minimum of $5,000 to more than 100 of them.

The company has not yet commented but is expected to appeal the ruling.

Is OsCommerce good?

virtualmisc — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 18:35:33 GMT

Anyone used OsCommerce for a long time?
I am planning to use it.
Just wanted to make sure i was doing the right thing.
Any other options?
Thanks

Zen Cart Shopping Cart - MagneticOne Data Feed

Allison2009 — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:20:48 GMT

Hi,

MagneticOne Store Manager for Zen Cart says that they have the option to upload the data feed to update the color, size and quantity in the shopping cart. I tried to update it, I was not sure how to use it.

Anyone in this forum has used the "MagneticOne Store Manager for Zen Cart". If so, kindly advice how to do this.

I appreciate your help very much.

Thanks in Advance.

integrating an escrow system into a website

dkny101 — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:55:25 GMT

Hi. I looking for someone who can give me advice and someone who knows the legalities of integrating "escrow" into a website.

I want to have my website allow clients to be able to deposit money in their account within the website, have a $ figure balance, pay another registered user in the website via an escrow solution within the website or through a 3rd party payment processing company, and withdraw the remaining funds in their balance within the website. The payer would only know the unique ID (for the website) of the receiver.

I would like to know the rules regarding USA and the other major European countries. So far I have been informed that this is not legal in Canada as the website would not be able to accept a payment on behalf of another merchant (meaning the end receiver) unless the receiver of the funds had a merchant account with the payment processing company and the money was sent directly to them.

If this is possible, please advise how I could set it up (if I could do it through an existing solution or by making my own solution I developed). Any help would be appreciated.

PayPal Drop downs with price options

greenglow — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:04:47 GMT

I have this PayPal button set up . I wanted to have a drop down for amount and a second one for quantity.
I used the PayPal button maker to create the drop downs but the amount and quantity did not carry over-every time I tested it the amount in the cart default to the lowest price-$25 and the quantity doesn't carry over either.

I would like help making a drop down for both amount and quantity where both values carry over to PayPal.



     

    

    


    

        

            

                

            

            

                

            

            

                

            

            

                

            

            

                

            

            

                

            

        

    Card Value
Quantity                 
Occasion (if any)

Facebook and Twitter feeds

Arsham3 — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:55:22 GMT

Hi, I would like to know how can I automate my blog so posts automatically feed into Facebook and Twitter?

Thanks.

How to process digital purchase from Google Checkout

jj.amonit — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 04:00:37 GMT

I am testing out Google Checkout and have a question.

First I'll tell you what I am trying to do. My site is a digital service. Users will be able to purchase 'projects'. They will have options to buy 1, 5, 10, 25 &50 projects at a time. Each has their own price.

What I want to do is have either a cart or buy now button for each option and then send the user to Google checkout. Ideally, Google would then notify me and automatically my site will credit the user's account.

How is the best way of going about this? I know how to do the db stuff, and I now that I can place a link in the buy now button. However, if I place a link for the user to click on upon purchasing, they theoretically could just keep refreshing that link and adding more and more credits for free. I can't think of a way to prevent this.

I would like to send a unique key to the db, and set the status as 'pending' before sending the info to Google, but I don't know if or where to do that. Once the user has paid, then they would click the link and I would cross reference the key and change the status, thereby preventing any tampering.

I could also put a limit to the number of purchases in a given time period. Perhaps a day. You could only make one purchase in that given time period. I could track that easily, but I don't want to prohibit sales.

I think this is more of a 'logic' problem than a code problem. Am I not seeing a step that I could take?

I thought about using the API Callback URL, but it's universal and I don't even know if that is what it is for. How would I tell the Callback URL which option the user purchased?

Anybody been through this before?

Thanks for any and all ideas.

payment gateway for non profit organizations

stevenpetersen — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 04:45:51 GMT

is there a special payment gateway for non profit organizations, prohaps a free one..?

Urgent Help Needed

Allison2009 — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:28:37 GMT

We have a website, viz., www.plussizebeauties.com. I have a few issues with this.

1. We have developed a php website (Shopping Cart). Now, we have changed over to a Zen Cart Shopping Site. We have changed the categories and sub categories also in the processHel. The issue is google has crawled/indexed the previous website and it shows 404 error. Though we have removed the previous version, Google WebMaster shows, crawl error.

2. How to remove those 404 errors from the website.

3. We have created some links pointing to the previous site's url. Whether I can edit the links pointing to the present website urls. Will this affect the search results for the website.

Pay Pal form values and special characters

slyme — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:21:25 GMT

Hi, thanks for reading this ...

I am passing this value (for example) to PayPal:

The Pay Pal Shopping Cart displays this value as 'Mï¿½nï¿½ge ï¿½ Trois California Red Wine 2007'

I'm guessing that this has something to do with character sets or some such - I have tried a few different ways of coding the special characters but so far no luck ... any one got a clue?

thanks,

Simon.

News Story Libraries Often Only Source of Free Internet

slfisher — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:43:37 GMT

Far from being made superfluous by the Internet, a recent study by the American Library Association finds that the library is often the only source of free Internet access in a community.

More than 71 percent of all libraries (and 79 percent of rural libraries) report they are the only source of free access to computers and the Internet in their communities, according to the survey. 76 percent of public libraries offer free wireless access. However, nearly 60 percent of libraries report Internet connection speeds are insufficient to meet patron demand at some point in the day, and 81 percent of public libraries report there are not enough public Internet computers to meet patron demand some or all of the time.

Libraries are particularly being used in the economic downtown, with 66 percent of public libraries ranking job-seeking services, including resume writing and Internet job searches, among the most crucial online services they offer – up from 44 percent two years ago. In a separate survey, 80 percent of New York libraries indicated they helped someone search for a job in late 2008, the ALA said. More than 90 percent of public libraries provide technology training such as online job-seeking and career-related classes, general Internet, and computer use instruction.

With more governments turning to the Internet themselves to reduce costs, many government services are now often available only, or most easily, via the Internet, leaving people without Internet access stuck.

Ironically, at the same time libraries are being called on more heavily, they are having hours and staffing cut due to budget restrictions, with 44 percent of states reporting declines in state funding for public libraries in FY2009 – in some cases by as much as 25 or 30 percent. In addition, 14 percent of libraries reported FY2009 declines in local funding as well.

Design approach (prototype)

jayr05 — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:55:56 GMT

I am new to the ecommerce scene and i need ideas/suggestion on ways i can make my ecommerce site more secure as well as how i can go about designing my enquiries system that will cater for my customers. as well as the appropriate technologies i would require to implement this.

The site is for an engineering company

Secondly i'm aware of the back end and front end technologies however i need assistance with some suggestions on the most appropriate technologies i can use for my website.

Thank you for your help

Using Web Analytics To Increase Your e-Business

InsightsDigital — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 02:21:46 GMT

For an e-commerce site, it is important to monitor conversion rates and optimizing it. So what other metrics do you assess/monitor on your website to help increase sales? I found this very interesting slides stating this:
http://www.slideshare.net/dennis.mor...s-to-sell-more

So have you used web analytics to increase your sales?

Cheaply! The system administrator ready to remote work (freelance)

peterstrauff — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:17:10 GMT

Cheaply! The system administrator ready to remote work (freelance) in the hosting company or in the dedicated servers provider!

I have over 7 years of experience in the system administration. I worked with most of the control panels as ISPManager Pro, cPanel, ISPConfig and etc. and operating systems: Linux (Debian, Fedora, Redhat/CentOS).

Profession fields

I. Linux Server Software Installation (RedHat, CentOS, Fedora)

1.1. Linux Server Software Installation (apache, mysql, bind, squid, exim, postfix, sendmail, ProFTPd, and etc.).

1.2. Linux Server and Hosting Panels Installation (ISPConfig, WebMin, Kloxo (Previously Lxadmin) ISPManager).

1.3. Maintain Dedicated Server (Update Server Software, Server Configuration, Secure Server Configuration).

1.4. Support in organizing and implementing the Data Center migration.

1.5. Installation PHP Sripts

II. Update and Bugs Problems

2.1. Mail Server problems (Sendmail, Postfix, Spamassassin, Dovecot, Users configured).

2.2. DNS Server configured.

III. PHP Scripts Installation and Fixes Problems

Classifieds, phpBB, SE, and etc.

IV. FFMPEG Installation

Installation Codecs + FFMPEG + configure.

V. Server System Administration Pricing

5.1. Software Installation on Servers with CentOS installed only – $15 per hour and $7.5 per ½ hour

5.2. Software Installation on Servers with CentOS consists other Software (apache, mysql, php and etc.) – $20 per hour and $10 per ½ hour

VI. Payment Methods

Paypal

Contact

E-mail: peterstrauff@gmail.com
ICQ: 594670873

P.S. Please, formulate your problems in good English. I do not understand slang.

Amazon?????

dahagaku — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 23:12:33 GMT

if you order anything from amazon do you have to use a creit card or can you just pay with money were if not were are some sites that do...??

Which is the Best?

php_noob — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 04:02:19 GMT

I am completely NOOB on this certs, But which do you prefer in SECURITY and PRICE?