Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with ecommerce

Not money-laundering, I swear!

danblaker — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:45:44 -0800

Seeking e-commerce partner that supports funds disbursements (and Ruby on Rails). I'm building a (Rails-based) website for intramural sports teams, and I want to offer teams the ability to collect credit card payments from members for things like jerseys and parties. Essentially, each team would have its own merchant account; but all transactions for all teams would go through our website front-end. Another option would be to have a single merchant account for our organization, then we'd disburse funds to each team on a regular basis; but this option seems messier and more suspicious.

We'd like to use Shopify's well-tested ActiveMerchant library for RoR, and it has a long list of supported payment gateways. So far, I've spoken to authorize.net and they said they couldn't support the disbursement side; so before going down the list and calling each of the gateways, I thought I'd check here! Any suggestions?

Help me find an ecommerce solution for digital products!

katillathehun — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:49:31 -0800

I need an ecommerce solution for digital products - something that will email my customers a download link to their orders the instant the purchase is complete. What service or software can you recommend? I'm creating a template site for those folks who dig my design work but can't quite afford my personalized services. The more automated the purchase process can be, the better. Other features I kinda need:

* Time and download limits: "Your order will be available for X days and may be downloaded X times."

* Quantities. Most of my templates will be unlimited, but there will be a premium selection that can only be ordered once.

This whole thing is a work in progress, so I'm flexible on payment methods at this time.

As for me, it would be awesome if what I'm looking for were free, but if you know of a good solution that will cost me, I'll check it out, too.

Yahoo Store design firm recommendations?

beaucoupkevin — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:24:38 -0800

1) Client insists on using Yahoo Store because they're comfortable with it and have a decent relationship with Yahoo. 2) Client's current Yahoo Store design firm is lethargic about any changes, even when they're responsible for breaking them in the first place. 3) Does the hive mind have any recommendations for a new design firm that can implement some (modest, mostly back-end for metatagging and on-page content updates) changes quickly?

Who did Office Depot go to set up an online storefront?

cha4 — Tue, 13 May 2008 08:40:00 -0800

I've been tasked with finding an e-commerce consulting company to help guide us (we are a wing of a fortune 500 company) through the entire e-commerce process. Not so much creating it necessarily, but more guidance/consulting. My google-fu is yielding all fluff. Ideally, looking for "Company X helped Barnes & Noble switch to an online storefront" type of info, so I can back up any suggestions I might be able to make.

Ordering coffees from around the world, online

nitsuj — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:17:00 -0800

I enjoy drinking coffee from various regions. Is there a good online resource for A) determining good coffees from various regions and B) ordering said coffees online? For instance, I enjoy drinking Community Coffee from the New Orleans/Southern Louisiana region, and pick it up anytime I see it. But this doesn't happen often, so I end up buying whatever Coffee X that is available at my local grocer.

-What are some other good regional coffees?
-Where can I order them online?

Some notes: I don't like flavored coffee; no hazelnuts or vanilla flavors, please. I have a grinder, so I'd like to buy full bean if possible.

Ecommerce software with integrated configurable (granular to the minute) release schedule for products?

imbecile000 — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:16:05 -0800

I am having trouble finding a e-commerce software that releases products at specific times of day (I am looking to get as granular as down to the minute). Anyone know of an ecommerce system that has such a queuing/scheduling system? We'd prefer to buy than build it ourselves! All e-commerce packages I've looked at allow you to release products into the store as available for purchase by day (by defining what day that product will be available or in stock) - but I would like to queue up products.

For instance: Product A (10 units of inventory) are available for sale at 8:10am, Product B (5 units of inventory) available at 8:20am and so forth up to a couple hundred different batches/releases a day. On the front end it would additionally useful if the latest product could be most prominently displayed and the last 10 products could be seen in a list.

BONUS (nice to have) if the products that aren't for sale yet, but will be up for sale later in the day are browseable with a countdown clock ticking down to when they are available.

Open Source Shopping Cart

pinto — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:28:10 -0800

Simple e-commerce solutions. I have a fully built site, with individual webpages pointing to specific product items. I simply want to add a backend shopping cart functionality that resides on the server, without relying on PayPal. Whats the best opensource solution that allows me to pass a variable (ie, add a "Buy This" button to already-designed pages) to a shopping cart php function (inventory isn't necessary at this point) and allowing checkout/payment? Is this possible or is PayPal the easiest way to go without completely
rebuilding my site in an opensource commerce engine (ie OsCommerce)?

I know this has been addressed to some extent before , but I don't think I need a sweeping e-commerce solution, just a cart, checkout, and merchant services (visa/mc) hookup.

Have you registered your library?

newrambler — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:08:16 -0800

Help me furnish our new library by making an online registry! The main library in my system is moving to sleek new quarters in the fall, and they need some new furniture. My director asked if I could make a sort of registry site where people could "buy" chairs and tables and so on, and I said, "Yeah, probably."

I've been looking some e-commerce software, but while some might work, they all seem bigger and clunkier than what I need.

Basically, I just want people to see pictures, quantities, and prices for the furniture and then be able to "buy" a piece (probably via PayPal). So the site would say "there are 5 chairs available," and then after someone "bought" one, it would say "there are 4 chairs available."

Is there a program out there that would work well for this, or would I be better off building my own form? If I choose to do the latter, what kind of skills will I need? Like donnagirl, I work for an awesome library that is giving me time specifically to devote to this project, and also like donnagirl I have some basic html & css skills, and I've also done a little cut & paste php jiggery-pokery, but I'm not a programmer by any stretch of the imagination. I anticipate doing more similar sorts of things for the library, so learning new skills would, I think, be worthwhile in the long run, but if there's a simpler solution in the short run, that would also be helpful.

How to buy something from my customers through my simple e-commerce site?

rckites — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:38:56 -0800

I'm working on a website/business model that requires me to not only sell my products, but to also buy certain items from customers. I need to know if I can do this with my current CMS (Shopify.com) or any other CMSes out there Shopify has a really simple interface, and I like the way the storefront looks. However, it is really designed for selling items (their business model relies on a percentage of your sales, after all), and I don't know how to go about adding a page for buying rather than selling.

I have a very limited understanding of scripting, and I know shopify uses ruby/rails, but I'd like to know if it is at all feasible to do something like this. Would I have to use a different CMS? Would I have to create something from scratch?

Small business ecommerce solution?

s01110011 — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:55:03 -0800

What is the best(are there any at all?) FREE storefront (Amazon Webstore, Shopify, WebBuilder, and bigcartel )type websites that don't use payment gateways? I need a quick, easy to setup website to sell one specific line of products - Maybe 5 items total (at the moment, only three are ready to ship). Something secure and convenient for customers. Are there any free websites that offer this? Right now, I'm leaning towards just pushing through with bigcartel or shopify - time is an issue.

Any suggestions? My web/programming skills are non so I don't know that building a site from scratch would be a viable option. As it is I just struggled with putting up a template based website using a WYSIWYG editor.

The demand is there, the money is not.

mhp — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 20:19:14 -0800

We have a lot of local talented artists locally, with a pretty happening music scene. Lots of these are college students with not much money, but loads of talent. Help me help them. A couple friends of mine and I are opening a venue/record store, and we've got a fairly successful online store selling local albums and other merchandise on consignment, but there are quite a few bands that we get asked about all the time, that we don't have, because they never made one because of a lack of funding.

We think this is a shame, and want to help.

Our solution is this:

1. They need $500 to produce a CD.
2. Let's say they raise $300 on their own, but they need $200 more to produce it
3.The decide to offer preorders of their cd for $5
4. We accept preorders, but we don't charge anybody until there are 40 willing people ($5 x 40 people=$200) or the band adds some more money
5. After the goal is reached, we charge everybody the $5 and give all of it(minus 15% or so)to the band, who then makes the cd, and gives to us so we can ship out the preorders

Are there any obvious flaws with my plan? Has this been done before, It seems that I've read about it someplace else, but my googling has failed me.

Are there any other considerations I may have missed?
Is this a stupid idea, or does it have potential?
Name Suggestions? The store is called "The Station"

Looking for a good ecomm partner

shotsy — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 10:38:59 -0800

I have been tasked with finding a Ecommerce vendor for my company. Basically, we're looking for a company that can handle the whole process for us; ordering stock, taking orders, delivery, etc. We'd like to provide branding for the storefront, but let them handle the transactions and delivery. I've looked through a number of the top links when Googling this, but it is difficult to tell quality. I'd really hearing if anybody has had a good experience, or knows of a company to avoid. Many thanks.

We can pay, so I'm not just looking for the cheapest option.

Where do you buy/sell "used" scientific equipment online?

pwb503 — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:55:23 -0800

A friend of mine is trying to sell a piece of scientific equipment online (a UVB sensor and radiometer that is brand new but not returnable; over $2000 retail). Other than eBay, craigslist, or some random Google result, can anyone vouch for a website people use to buy and sell stuff like this?

I need help with a tagline for my new ecommerce store

adriana — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:49:36 -0800

Can you help me find a great tagline for my new ecommerce store? I am opening a new ecommerce store that will sell backyard related items: patio furniture and lighting, storage sheds, hot tubs, gardening tools, etc.

The name of the business is Better Backyards, and I need help in coming up with a great tag line. Any help very much appreciated.

Can I integrate an online gallery and online store?

Biblio — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 07:04:36 -0800

What's the best way to integrate an online photo gallery with an online shop? I am helping my brother-in-law set up a site for his photography. Putting together a site with both a gallery and a shop is no problem, but we'd like to integrate the two, so that when you click on a picture in the gallery, you get a nice lightbox effect with an enlarged image. Below that would be info about the photo with the sizes available and the pricing. One more click and you could add the size print you'd like to your cart. Is there any software out there that does this or are there two that would work together to achieve this?

The core of the site right now is in Wordpress, but I'll try another CMS if it makes achieving this easier.

Advice for someone wanting to build an e-commerce site... ?

dobbs — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:01:01 -0800

I've built plenty of websites. I've never built an e-commerce website. I generally use Dreamhost as a host and Expression Engine as a CMS. What's my next step for building an e-commerce site for a new client? Resources? Recommendations? etc. I'm in Canada if that makes a diff; products will ship world-wide.

Hold my hand through the world of e-commerce.

infinityjinx — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 07:25:51 -0800

What inexpensive web hosting would you recommend for my super small business? Oh, and how does the shopping cart thing work anyway? So far I have: a product (for a very niche market); a domain name; most of my web site done using SiteSpinner. Now I need: hosting with a shopping cart and either PayPal or secure credit card payments (or both?). As far as I know I don't need anything complicated like a hundred email addresses and databases, but I don't really know anything about this aspect of the biz. How much can I expect to pay right off the bat? Per month? Who do you recommend; what else should I know?

Midphase seems to be the cheapest I can find, at $7.95/month, but they say I need a business checking account. Is that true? I'm not expecting to make a living off of this, just something to do as a creative outlet for fun and maybe make a little mad money.

What say ye, hive mind?? Thanks for your time!

Cool E-Commerce?

Work to Live — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 12:17:39 -0800

Etsy.com displays products in interesting ways. What are some other unique e-commerce experiences? Etsy allows visitors to shop by color or view items in reverse chronological order. Maybe not the most usable ways to shop, but certainly unusual and fun.

What are other sites that are thinking outside the box (or breaking it entirely) when it comes to product display, shopping cart and/or user experience?

How to charge money for Web content

bricoleur — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 09:34:08 -0800

If you were a web developer who needed to set up a subscribers-only section of a website, where the subscriptions are paid for online (credit card and possibly PayPal), and auto-renew by default, how would you go about it? Would you find a payment gateway that handles auto-renewing subscriptions and use their API to build a little checkout app? Or find an off-the-shelf cart that supports such a gateway, and just set the cart up and enable the gateway? Or is there an altogether better way? Additional constraint: The solution has to work on a Windows server.

Specific product/service recommendations appreciated.

Learn more & buy more!

slowfasthazel — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 14:00:44 -0800

Can you direct me to websites for companies that sell things, but also have a strong educational component to support the things they sell? I'm looking for the websites of companies that focus on educating their customers about their product or companies that use product education as a selling tool. I'm thinking of products that are raw materials you would make something out of, but I'm interested in any suggestions you might have.

Thanks!

Storage and Shipping in the same place?

theholotrope — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 09:25:30 -0800

How to get storage and shipping in one place for business? I plan on importing products into the US and selling them on ebay and maybe through Amazon. I need a service that stores my products and that I can also email a shipping address to them, If I sold something, and they can ship it for me as well. The idea would be that I send the container to a distribution center somewhere in the country and ship from there. I don't need to live anywhere near this distribution center, by the way.

Amazon does this with their Fulfillment program and looks like a good bet but I want to have options. They also force you to get your own webstore on Amazon for 40 bucks a month. But Im guessing this will be good for sales so its not a big problem. Oh, and I think they don't ship worldwide yet. Haven't checked into this recently.

Anybody know of a good service that does this?

When and how to charge VAT

subpixel — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 05:48:23 -0800

Is there a simple rule that governs VAT charges for e-commerce between EU countries? Every EU country has it's own VAT rate (Germany: 19%, Spain: 16% etc.).

So what rate is to be charged if you're a German business selling & shipping a tangible (non-electronic) product to a customer in Spain or the UK?

I'm assuming that if you're an EU business selling & shipping a tangible product to the US you don't charge VAT at all...right?

Can I "own" PayPal transactions?

subpixel — Mon, 21 May 2007 17:03:06 -0800

Can I develop a shopping cart that allows people to pay via PayPal but keeps the transaction on my site? What I thought I had seen, but can't find, is an example where:

1) customer adds item to cart + hits checkout
2) customer is asked to login to a paypal screen
3) customer completes order at store domain (the cart has captured the paypal account info above)

Are you for real?

forallmankind — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 13:12:00 -0800

Hope me! How can I verify if this online merchant, which also masquerades as this online merchant, is for real? Usually I don't bother with any site I consider potentially unscrupulous, but my story is this: I need a Denon FG-5000 replacement drive for my Denon DN-S5000 turntable, and this appears to be the only retailer online in North America claiming to have one in stock.

I've searched high and low, and short of importing one from Europe - which isn't a viable option with the exchange rate - this appears to be the end of the line.

Is it possible to verify if this retailer is for real?

We wanna take plastic!

jbickers — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 20:25:06 -0800

Help me find the best credit card processing solution for a very specific, slightly unusual non-profit need. A non-profit that I'm involved with sells annual memberships for $10. We'd like to be able to take credit card payments for online sign-ups. That part I can figure out ... but, the organization also has a twice-yearly booksale, a great big mother of an event - three days, tens of thousands of books, huge warehouse with tons of people coming through, buying books by the grocery cart.

For those six days out of the year, we would really like to be able to accept credit card payments - and ideally, it would be through the same system that facilitates online signups. One more wrinkle: the booksale is usually held in an auditorium or warehouse somewhere, and Internet access is not usually available - so a laptop/website based solution won't cut it.

So, ideally, we're looking for a credit card processing solution that will ...

1. Inexpensively facilitate low-dollar ($10/year) online transactions
2. Provide us with at least two portable card-swipe units, preferably the kind with cellular connectivity built in, those little hand-held jobbies with built-in receipt printer
3. In re #2, either loan them to us or rent them, since we only need them six days out of the year
4. Not charge a prohibitively large monthly fee, as most of our activity happens in the weeks surrounding the booksales (members get access to a "members-only" cherry-picking opening night, so most signups happen a few days prior)

Phew. I know that's really specific, but the options out there are labyrinthine. Thanks in advance for any help!