I am setting up a site for someone who only has a few products at this time, and doesn't have a merchant account (just PayPal). They don't have advanced computer skills - I don't want to set them up with something and then have it be impossible for them to add products later. I am thinking that PayPal buttons would be the best option at this time til they grow to need something more complicated.

I have been going through the lists of e-commerce plug ins over and over, and it's difficult to get a handle for how easy or difficult they are to manage on an ongoing basis without downloading and testing each one of them which I would rather not do.

Here is a nice list of e-commerce solutions I found-
http://speckyboy.com/2008/10/23/10-p...for-wordpress/

If anyone has comments about any of these, I would love to hear them!

For simple sites I like the WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart. To add a product to any page you use the shortcode [wp_cart:PRODUCT-NAME:price:PRODUCT-PRICE:end] and replace PRODUCT-NAME and PRODUCT-PRICE with the actual name and price. To make this easier on my customers I add the Post Snippets plugin which allows you to create reoccurring text with variables. The customer clicks the button to add a product and puts in the product and price into the variables. You don't have all the bells and whistles of a full fledged shopping cart but it is simple.

Larry that sounds exactly like what I need! I was looking for something where they can just click a button. I will let everyone know in a couple weeks how it goes. Thanks!

What shopping carts would be best for about 40 products

Originally Posted by lucy

Larry that sounds exactly like what I need! I was looking for something where they can just click a button. I will let everyone know in a couple weeks how it goes. Thanks!

I don't think you can select a best based on how many products. If you look through these forums Shopp seems to be coming to the top but I have never tested it out.

Our selection isn't based just on the # of products, it's a factor of how much they are using the cart at this time and how much revenue they are taking in. If you are doing enough revenue, 40 products could make it worthwhile to have SSL, a merchant account, software license, etc. I don't want people to spend more than is necessary when they are just starting out and I see this as a bridge. However, if people are already selling and it's an ongoing business I tell people to get the best cart they can afford that meets their need, because cheaping out on the cart costs you way more in sales than you would spend on a decent cart.

Lucy...

I meant to quote shumes1025 on the 40 items post. Your points are right on about the cost of a cart. Unfortunately their are many who want to get everything for free and then complain that it won't do the job.

That's OK! I knew what you meant.

I agree about the cheap carts. Especially if people already have a business going in B&M or eBay and then when they go into ecommerce they put up a free cart, by themselves, with no personalization whatsoever and wonder why they get no sales.

I also use PayPal's free Shopping Cart on my website so that customers can buy many products with a single payment.It is eay to use because it requires no CGI scripting necessaryImprove customers experience - with customizable buttons and safe payments, happy clients become repeat clients.

www fdis-wolverine com/E_Commerce_Online_Payment_Solutions.html => E -Commerce Payment Solutions

Agreed... PayPal is the easiest to use by far... but not good for international payments - like from India, korea, china...

Then, what is the best e-commerce method for international usage?

www novinseo com

You would need to check on their site. This forum is for the Atahualpa theme.