Which is better? A third-party service you pay to use or having your own dedicated shopping cart system installed on your website?

Getting a handle on this question requires answering two slightly different questions:

1. How many products are you going to sell initially, and how many NEW products will you add to your line every year?
2. Is product sales the primary goal of a website or is it a secondary consideration? 

Now - some examples to help you out:

• Musicians, bands and other performing artists: Typically will have less than 20 items for sale as a secondary goal of the site (the primary goal is self-promotion).
• A Bed and Breakfast wanting to augment their income with a "Gift store," product sales is a secondary goal of the site (again, the primary goal is site promotion).
• A small basement company with only 1 or 2 current products and the intent of adding an additional product yearly would use such a cart as a primary goal.

The point being that start-up companies we have worked with have tried the third-party route and hate them for a variety of reasons. Here are the top three:

• Cost - Specifically the on-going cost for the privilege of using a third-party shopping cart site. If sales are slow, you still have to pay for the use of the service - just like your light bill.
• Appearance - The basic (entry level) pages look like junk. Most such services will allow you to upgrade to a more professional looking presentation (read: more cost), but even then, they always look like a third-party website.
• Functionality - Depending on the service, making even a simple change to the price of one item can be time-consuming. The reality: Our clients want to just get the job done with the least amount of hassle!

Even though third-party shopping cart service site do keep their software up-to-date "free of charge" (those costs are actually built into your subscription fee), a lot of our clients have experimented with such services and decided -

"It just isn't worth it"

Here's the secret most such services won't bother to tell you:

Once you have a solid software system in place to handle online sales, changes are rarely (if ever) needed.

Enhancements? Sure, those happen all the time. But changes to the "core code" are rare.

Essentially, I got tired of trying dinking around with packages that were gross overkill for what was actually needed.

What visitors see when they look at at a MySimpleCart page is very much like this one. (Opens a new window; close to return here). Play with it... It's live, but the Checkout process is disabled in this demo version.

As installed, this shopping cart system also comes with a "backend," with is a geekeze term meaning: A way to update the cart. Take a look at this program by clicking here.

• Shipping and handling charges based upon:
  • Fixed amount per item (all items charged the same amount).
  • Single charge for the first item ordered, then a second charge for all additional items.
  • A special S&H charge may be applied individually to each item.
• State tax calculation for a specific state (determined on installation).
• A clean interface to the website owner's PayPal Business account.
• Online updates to the contents of the cart, including product image installation.
• Does not require "resizing" product images prior to use.

The major things MySimpleCart does not do from a sales standpoint (at least as of this writing) are the following:

• Calculate S&H charges for UPS or USPS. (These are usually flaky even with third-party services and rarely correct.)
• Categorize products. Actually a way to categorize products is there, but not finished just yet...
• Automated online order fulfillment for electronic file distribution. It can, but this requires a separate website add-on that is not currently packaged with MySimpleCart. (The reason is that not everyone needs that functionality...)
• Odd items like Gift Certificate redemption through the cart. (I haven't figured out how to do that - yet...)

• A visitor does not have to have a PayPal account in order to pay for something through their services (this requirement was dropped when eBay™ acquired PayPal in 2002).
• Their fees are competitive (and often better) than other online merchant card services. And, yes, it will cost website owners a small amount per transaction to accept credit cards. If that's a problem, the business itself is probably in trouble to begin with.

HirMon & Associates uses PayPal, and over the past 5 years, we've noticed it has a lot going for it:

• Accepts virtually every major credit card for payments, including American Express™ with no additional fees.
• Allows our clients to pay by eCheck
• Interfaces with just about every major shopping cart system available (including those we have created in-house for specific uses).
• It's free and there is no monthly sales minimums or other arbitrary criteria surrounding having one of their Business accounts.
• Since insisting that our clients use our online payments system to remit their invoices, neither Jacqueline nor I can remember the last time we had a "bounced check;" it's impossible.
• At least 80% of our clients pay online.

• PHP version 4.4.4 or later
• MySQL version 4.1.x or later
• Permission of the web host to install and run third-party software

We typically handle resolution of these items as part of the installation service for the MySimpleCart for PayPal.

• A web browser, either of the following are recommended:
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer Version 6.x or later
  • Mozilla Firefox Version 2.x.x or later
• Additional software required:
  • None

As with all HirMon & Associates website software, you cannot buy MySimpleCart add-on directly and install-it-yourself.

What you will need:

• A PayPal Business account (not the Personal or Platinum varieties); there is no charge for setting up such accounts: they are free.
• A base service fee of $125 for us to set up the raw system on your website. This fee includes:
  • Tailoring the form to change verbiage to fit your requirements.
  • Modification of one (1) existing page on your website to create a new web page containing the form and processing system.
  • Installation of all software components (3)
  • Assistance (if required) with setting up the PayPal Business account.
  • Functionality testing prior to completion.
• An additional programming fee of $100 per hour to complete the work required to do the fulfillment required, if any (e.g. this is optional).