Shopping Cart Software - Buy or Build?

[mtorbin]

Hey all,

I'm working on a proposal to implement a shopping cart on my company's web site. There are a TON of software packages out there and there doesn't seem to be any one consensus on which works. So what's the deal? Do I buy or do I build from scratch? Has anyone had any experience with this?

- MT

Matt Torbin
Web and Graphic Arts Engineer
PEI-Genesis

http://www.peigenesis.com

aim: dgtlby
direct email: mtorbin_at_mac.com

 

[audiopro]

The biggest problem we faced was interfacing our system with that of our bank. The Bank supplied sample scripts which after many hours of study, by myself and a skilled C programmer proved to be all but useless. We developed several solutions to the problem only to be thwarted by our ISP's reluctance to install required modules.
We have arrived at a solution now but can't help feeling that the Bank has tried it's level best to force us to use their pre made system, available at a price.

Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[BabyJeffy]

I can't help myself. I'm happy that you have a solution (and don't wish to take any of that away from you) but wanted to post a followup to your comment...

We have arrived at a solution now but can't help feeling that the Bank has tried it's level best to force us to use their pre made system, available at a price.

Or... from their point of view:

They have developed a secure solution to ensure that the details of their customers remain secure, to ensure that the merchant has confidence that they will get the money for a transaction... and to minimise any fraud scenarios that may come about through abuse.

Why should they let some small web developer dictate the business practices of their multi-million dollar organisation? If I were the bank, I would do no different.

If you don't like their practices... vote with your feet.

Cheers,
Jeff

 

[johnwm]

You may also need to view it from the most important viewpoint, that of the website's paying customer. Given the choice of sending my credit card details to PayPal/Major International bank or sending them to some fly-by-night company I've never heard of till now, I know who I'll choose to do business with.

I would always encourage my website customers to have their site built with a payment portal from a known and trusted third-party banker, even if only to give the end-user confidence in the financial part of the package.

________________________________________________________________
If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ222-2244 first
'If we're supposed to work in Hex, why have we only got A fingers?'
Essex Steam UK for steam enthusiasts

 

[audiopro]

BabyJeffy / johnwm
We designed our shopping cart with security very much at the top of the agenda. We had already written the website containing the product selector and conversion to a shopping cart was quite painless. We realised early on that payments would have to be made through a secure portal provided by the bank which supplies the card terminals to the client's retail shops. The payments themselves are to be handled by the bank's own portal and not by "some fly-by-night company". Our problems stem from the creation of a security feature which takes place before any contact with the bank is made. Once this security feature is created, Order and Customer details are sent to the bank, along with this security feature, for payment processing. Our "fly-by-night company" will never deal with credit card details. The example scripts supplied by the bank to submit this information, simply did not work and any amount of contact with their dedicated help line provided no useful answers to our questions. We feel the main problem was that we are in the UK and the help line is in India where culture and language problems made simple communication difficult. This unfortunately appears to be business practices of multi-million dollar organisations.
Another security issue involves the need to store the customer's address details without which we would be unable to ship the goods to the customer.
By simply describing the problems we have encountered it was possible, elsewhare in these forums, for a forum member to identify the bank in question.


Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[BabyJeffy]

Keith, I would have suggested that as soon as you identified a problem with the helpline, you made an appointment with your account manager where a very simple conversation could have taken place... and if you are were happy with the result of that conversation, move your business elsewhere.

I refuse to accept feeble excuses from banks. As a result I have moved banks several times here in the UK. I make sure they know why I changed -- and I only make the decision to change after meeting with my account manager.

The fact that HSBC has successful online transactions being managed for it's clients says to me they do know what they are doing. They may have to invest some of their profit back into customer services, however

Glad it's all sorted, anyway.
Jeff

 

[Foamcow]

Hehe..

By simply describing the problems we have encountered it was possible, elsewhare in these forums, for a forum member to identify the bank in question.

That'd be me then I guess.

Actually, the supplied scripts DID work. The problem I had was with a third party module.

Incidentally I also had need to speak to their support staff in India, and despite the accent issue I found them to be helpful. I must say, I was suprised!

I would also say though that the supplied documentation is a bit on the poor side and returned error codes/data are not particularly informative or useful in the debugging process.

Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time

 

[audiopro]

Yes Foamcow - you are that person.
Maybe I am the one who has problems with the language?
I have been on the help line since and they are really trying to help. At least we are moving on with the project although not as quickly as we would like.
Testing tomorrow (after an early night!)


Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[Foamcow]

Well testing on my project has stopped at the moment while I wait for an SSL certificate to be issued.. only taken a week so far (sigh). So I can't help with much else at the moment.

Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time