I've been reading the many posts on setting up shopping carts. And what I've
gathered is the following: --paypal is easiest to setup but I'd need to
manually manage inventory (plus I'd be using paypal instead of my own merchant
account which has better fees) --mal's e is easy and cheap ($8/mo for deluxe)
and it can be integrated with the optioncart (~$45) database to manage
inventory --cartweaver ($250) integrates with DW nicely and obviously has it's
own database --then, I have another option of going with someone like
WebSavvyMomma who has a server-side software ($150) that a site can be
installed into, but this option isn't great if I want to have more ability to
control my pages. So, I can't really decide what's best to do. I don't want
paypal because I want a database to control inventory (my site -- well, my
wife's actually -- will have several hundred products to keep track of) and I
want to use my quickbooks merchant account. I'm new to webdesign, but am
learning slowly, using DW CS3, so I'm concerned that I might not be able to use
CartWeaver (I also don't know which of the 3 scripting languages to buy). I
also don't know how difficult it will be to integrate mals e and optioncart
into my DW site. I like the fact that Mals e can download straight into
quickbooks -- that's a big plus for me since I'm trying to eliminate as many
steps as possible. Does anybody know if CartWeaver can download transactions
into quickbooks? If anybody has any thoughts on comparing these options I'd
appreciate it. I'm trying to get my wife's DW site online as soon as possible.
Currently we have a really unattractive frontpage site that needs to be
replaced soon, if not yesterday!

Just my personal opinion for what its worth -
I suggest that you go with Mals at the moment because it sounds like you
have more of an idea on how that works and you already know that it will do
what you want with quickbooks.

This way, you will meet your need of having it on line soon. Then you can
learn more about webdesign and DW and decide if you want to stay with that
option or utilise something else down the track.
Regards
Fiona

PDG Shopping Cart, http://www.pdgsoft.com is a really easy to use and fully
integrated shopping cart solution that I just used to build a cart for a friend
of mine. It fully integrates with quick books, has pre-designed skins already
available or you can create your own skin, which is what I did. They will even
put together the skin for you for free if you give them the layout. It has the
database software built into it, you can create categories and even
subcategories by using keywords if you need them. They have good
documentation, great customer support (if you get someone who is not as
knowledgable ask for a call back from Claire Bailey) , the only drawback that I
have found is that they are not familiar with Dreamweaver or Fireworks at all.
It is a little pricey at $399, but if you are looking for a very easy turnkey
solution...worth every dime in my book!!! They even have all of the pre-set
home, catalog, about us, etc. pages if you just want to use there format. My
only issue at the moment is that I am having difficulty getting the search box
and button in my wrapper so that it stays relative to the rest of the page...
Let me know if you have any ideas there! Good Luck!

Did you already dismiss osCommerce? It has a ridiculous number of plugins, so
I'd be surprised if it didn't suit your needs. Quite easy to modify too, plus
you can't beat the free price and awesome user community.
http://oscommerce.com

I've used ZenCart and Xcart in the past. Both offered nice options and were
vary customizable for look and feel. ZenCart is a free, open source cart with a
large community and plenty of plugins. Xcart is a commercial product (about
$400, if I remember correctly) with good tech support. It also has plugins for
purchase. It may not be free but I found it to be well designed and very
secure. Both were compatible with several payment gateways. While we're on the
topic of shopping carts, I've been trying to decide between Cartweaver and
WebAssist's eCart for building a custom cart solution. Anybody have an opinion
on these products? I've been leaning toward eCart because of all the other
WebAssist products for DWCS3. Mike

Thanks for all the replies. I guess one of my concerns, not knowing anything
about setting up shopping carts, is the amount of control I'll have over the
pages within the cart catalog and those unrelated to the cart, such as the
events page and the about us page. Do some of these shopping carts take
control over these other pages (which I don't want) and do some still allow me
to design the remainder of my site?

"paxbaby" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:fo7jme$1a0$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> Thanks for all the replies. I guess one of my concerns, not knowing
> anything
> about setting up shopping carts, is the amount of control I'll have over
> the
> pages within the cart catalog and those unrelated to the cart, such as the
> events page and the about us page. Do some of these shopping carts take
> control over these other pages (which I don't want) and do some still
> allow me
> to design the remainder of my site?

Cartweaver does create its own pages for the ecommerce bit, but if you've
designed a template for your site it's very easy to just go to one of these
CW-generated pages and then have DW apply the template to the page so it
looks like all your other pages in the site.

So with CartWeaver the cart is controlled on my own computer, because I've paid
a one time fee and it's mine, whereas a shoppingcart like GoDaddy that has a
monthly fee, I wouldn't be able to control that layout because it wouldn't be
on my system. Am I understanding this correctly? Any thoughts on which of the
three programming styles would be easiest for a beginner using CartWeaver?
PHP? Thanks

"paxbaby" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:fo7ogf$6b1$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> So with CartWeaver the cart is controlled on my own computer, because I've
> paid
> a one time fee and it's mine, whereas a shoppingcart like GoDaddy that has
> a
> monthly fee, I wouldn't be able to control that layout because it wouldn't
> be
> on my system. Am I understanding this correctly? Any thoughts on which of
> the
> three programming styles would be easiest for a beginner using CartWeaver?
> PHP?

I couldn't say for GoDaddy as I've never used them (and have heard too many
horror stories to want to use them). As for which 3 is better/easier? You're
going about that question wrong. You need to find out what scripting
language and database formats your host supports first.

Hello. Does anyone have any experience with AuctionInc. Shopping Cart? I
realize that it wouldn't help in this scenario (because it's geared towards
PayPal) but perhapse someone can provide a review.