Shopping Cart Platforms

There are many shopping cart platforms out there. We tend to stick with open source. Not only are these systems free but there are many communities and open source developers that can offer fantastic help & support. Some of the systems we use are...

• Joomla/Virtuemart
• Prestashop
• OScommerce
• Zen Cart
• WHMCS

Payment Gateway & Payment Processor Options

Many new clients do not understand how on site credit card processing works. We can not just simply add this function. You need to get a gateway, a merchant account and an SSL certificate. We only work with certain gateways and processors. Here are the options...

• PayPal - Everyone knows what PayPal is. Using PayPal is by far the easiest option. Users can pay with Paypal accounts AND can pay with Visa, MC, Amex, Discover through the PayPal site. Many clients do not know that a buyer does not need a PayPal account to purchase their products. PayPal is free to signup and takes a small percentage out of each transaction. Another great thing about PayPal is that you do not need an SSL on your site as the processing is done at PayPal.
• PayPal Website Payments Pro - This is a premium PayPal service. Which will allow you to process credit cards on-site without sending the customer to the PayPal website. This is around $35 per month. You can sign up at https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/website-payments-pro. With PayPal Pro you do not need a separate merchant account. One drawback of this method is that they hold up to 30% of every transaction for 90 days. I wouldn't suggest PayPal Pro but it is an option.
• Authorize.net with MerchantPlus (Recommended) - Authorize.net is the gateway that we recommend above all for on site processing. What most people do not know is that if you order right from Authorize.net, you need a separate merchant account ($35/Mo+). There is also a setup fee of $99. What we use and highly advise our clients to use is the Authorize.net reseller, Merchantplus. Merchantplus gives you the same Authorize.net gateway with no $99 setup fee and even better, they offer a merchant account/payment processor with the gateway so no need to find an external merchant account. The fees are also lower. We are partners with Merchantplus and have used them for 3 years now and we are very pleased with them. You can sign up here.
• Manual Credit Card Payments - If you have a merchant account from a bank or you have a virtual terminal, we can give you a form for the customer to enter their credit card info and it will get stored for you to manually run it. You will also need an SSL certificate for this method.

Both Paypal Pro and Authorize.net have Virtual Terminals where you can manually charge a credit card in your admin interface.

As far as our pricing, standard PayPal is obviously the cheapest. For on-site processing, it is usually around $300 more than just using PayPal.

SSL Certificate

If you are going to be taking credit cards on-site then you need an SSL certificate. This is not included in our services. SSL can be anywhere from $9.99 per year to $500 per year. There are all different kinds. We can give you some suggestions as well.