Switching from Yahoo Store to ??

Looking to change from my Yahoo Store to something else and need a new shopping cart.

Looking for suggestions.

Here are a few things I need:

1) Cross-selling feature. Suggests other items to customer.

2) Export data to Excel, and Quickbooks

3) Sales tax report (I can't believe Yahoo Store doesn't do this)

4) Real time shipping calculation (UPS, DHL, USPS)

5) Sales tax calculation at time of order

6) Compatible with PayPal Website Payments Pro

7) Store and retrieve past orders

8) I want a service, not cart software

Other stuff that I probably take for granted now :)

I currently use a merchant account, but I'm looking to switch to PayPal payments pro because I believe it will be less money over all.

Any suggestions which carts to look in to? There are so many it is a full-time job searching them.

Thanks!

I would recommend taking a look at mainly full service hosted solutions. Options like Volusion, Squirrelcart, Modular Merchant, and 3Dcart can do everything on your list. I'm of course biased for Modular Merchant since I'm most familiar with the software, it's capabilities, and the people that work there.

I'd recommend starting up some trial accounts and calling into tech support at each of the companies I mentioned (maybe even sending a support ticket). See how you like the software and service (ie. Does it work the way you want it to? Is it easy to work with? Is tech support responsive to your requests?) I'll mention that all web businesses will run differently with different priorities, so it's best that you do your own internal testing to verify the solution fits your needs

I hope the list helps you get started. Goodluck :)

I use Volusion for all 3 sites that I work on. The cross selling feature is the only things that I don't believe they currently do. But you should check out their forum and see if there is a "work around".....I'm not into programming so I stick with the simple stuff. I've been very happy with them and they do offer a 2 week free trial.

Jeccles, does Volusion have the cross sell/upsell feature on their development schedule for future release? I've only personally worked with a couple clients that switched from V to MM so haven't had much experience with it and that was awhile ago.

I know that it is a feature that has been asked for continuously since V5 came out. So, I would hope it will be in the next version. They are really good at listening to what their customers want.

Yeah, I've heard only a few negative things about V mostly about customization and bandwidth and those are the things MM is strong in. Others I've spoken with about V are satisfied with it. :)

Thanks for the info. I checked into Modular Merchant a little and it looks promising.

Is there a website that actually uses it for their cart that you know of so I can see how it works without doing the trial first?

There are links to several MM client stores below. The Theory11 site was the last one I worked on personally and it was the first site to employ MM version 3 skinning system. They have been with MM for over 2 years as they went live when my baby was born and she's 18 months now (Ok, sorry off topic) :)

Anyways, I mentioned the skinning system because the checkout steps will be different depending on how you configure your store.

http://www.theory11.com
http://www.ipopin.com
http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com
http://www.designaglow.com

I tried to show MM clients using each feature you mentioned.

I was wondering if the demo mode in Modular Merchant has an expiration? I don't always have the time needed to play around with demo's and it can take a while.

The trial period is a pretty standard 30 days. I'd recommend contacting the MM staff directly if you need the trial period extended. They are pretty flexible if you'd like to get your store populated and designed before paying.

How about Zen Cart? Does this have a cross-sell feature? I didn't see it listed in their feature set.

Anybody using Zen Cart? How do you like it?

Isn't Zen-Cart an open source cart? If it is and you know what you're doing you could probably set it up to cross sell. We've heard alot about V but we went with Searchfit. It has all of the features that you're asking for in a cart.

"SSL Security certificate included. Your store will used the shared SSL certificate assigned to Modular Merchant's client area. No additional SSL certificate to install"

Yikes! typos always make me a little nervous.

Outside of that, is this cart a do-it-yourself template driven cart, or do I need a programmer to do it?

Definitely consider volusion, with their next upgrade they should have what you need. Stay away from monstecommerce, Americommerce and yahoo stores for sure.

Wow! Thanks for the tip about Volusion. Very nice and a good value. Can I sell down loadable products with their system?

SteveNed, like the original poster, I am an existing Yahoo Merchant user and I too am looking to see if any better options exist. Americommerce is on my list of roughly half a dozen other hosted ecommerce solutions. I am curious to find out why you recommend to stay away from Americommerce. Thanks!

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Originally Posted by SteveNed

Definitely consider volusion, with their next upgrade they should have what you need. Stay away from monstecommerce, Americommerce and yahoo stores for sure.

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Originally Posted by Make'n Money

Wow! Thanks for the tip about Volusion. Very nice and a good value. Can I sell down loadable products with their system?

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Yes you can sell down-loadable products with Volusion.

Hey Make'n Money

I am currently with Yahoo Merchants and want to jump ship as well.
Let me know which you shopping cart you ended up going with!

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Originally Posted by MrGray

Hey Make'n Money

I am currently with Yahoo Merchants and want to jump ship as well.
Let me know which you shopping cart you ended up going with!

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Will do MrGray. I'm on my last couple of days of my free 14 day trial with Volusion. It looks real good, but I want to also try corecommerce before I decide.

I will report back what I decide on and why.

Thanks for the tip, but searchfit is to spendy for my needs. I can do what I want other places for less then half what they charge.

I'm not saying they are no good, just not for my needs at this time.

Thanks again for the input.

Id recommend Interspire Shopping Cart found at their website interspire.com. I cant say enough good things about the support I have received from them and I recommend their software to all of my colleages. I have worked with Yahoo Store before and I can tell you the price definitely isnt worth it. Anyways try out Interspire's free online demo and good luck with your ecommerce!

You may try Fastcommerce ecommerce platform. Lots of goods features may meet your need.

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Originally Posted by Emilyecho

You may try Fastcommerce ecommerce platform. Lots of goods features may meet your need.

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Sorry, I don't like the ads you get with fastcommerce. I believe you have some sort of connection there, correct?

The options like Volusion, Squirrelcart, Modular Merchant, and 3Dcart can do everything on your list. They are of course biased for Modular Merchant as they are most familiar with the software, it's capabilities, and the people that work there.

vplanet commerce or magento

If you are looking to save big on credit card processing discount rates, you must look into “Interchange-Plus” pricing. You can use a payment gateway like Authorize.net with any Ecommerce Platform provider.

Interchange plus PASS THROUGH pricing is the least complex, fairest pricing model in the processing industry.

With interchange plus pricing, Merchant Account providers simply add an agreed upon markup above the actual cost to process a transaction. In other words, they PASS THROUGH the actual cost to process your transactions and add their markup to cover the cost of servicing, risk monitoring and revenue. That’s it. It may sound intimidating, but it’s really pretty simple.

You may want to also look into Avactis which allows easier way to build an online store in less time.

Here are some Avactis Features:

Easy Integration with existing website
Unique Design for product and category
Multiple Designs in same store
WYSIWYG HTML Editor

Our Avactis Services include followings

Avactis Custom Template Design
Avactis shopping cart setup, template integration and customization
Avactis module development
Avactis mod_rewrite, SEO
Payment gateway

I've most recently used Ashopcommerce.com for a couple of weeks but based on your list it seems to have what you're after. It's a hosted cart with SSL included. Whilst they promote a free store on the site, it's actually bundles of apps starting at $25/month. it's light on features for that but maybe it suits what you need.

A user-friendly back end, lots of features and admin tools, mobile compatibility, integration with QuickBooks, and popular CMS, a Facebook storefront, and responsive technical supports. You will find all this in Avactis Shopping Cart. One of the primary advantages of Avactis over other shopping cart software is easy and fast integration of an online store into the existing website.

Is a fairly standard trial period of 30 days?*If you need to extend the probationary period, I suggest you directly contact the MM staff.

I've only personally worked with a couple clients that switched from V to MM so haven't had much experience with it and that was awhile ago.

I worked with many clients who had changed from V to MM. So I have not gain much experience regarding the same. I need your held regarding this. Waiting for your earliest response.

The trial period is a pretty standard 30 days. I'd recommend contacting the MM staff directly if you need the trial period extended.

The trial period is a standard 30 days. I'd recommend contacting the MM staff directly in the event you need the trial period extended. This is one thing that you need to know.

...These are the first nice word's I've seen about Volusion all day... Of course, they're all 4 years old. How's Volusion doing in 2012? I was about to switch horses from Yahoo to Volusion, but in my research to plan how I'm going to make the switch, set up the cart, and so on, I have read almost nothing but complaints about Volusion. The most commonly seen complaints have been, in descending order of frequency:

web site goes down
shopping cart goes down
confusing, out-of-date interface
payment issues between website owner and Volusion

Has anybody had any experience since 2008 with Volusion? How are they? Are there any platforms that anybody recommends over Volusion?

Thanks!

*If you work for Volusion, or any other e-commerce service, please do not respond. I've already heard your sales pitch, now I'm looking for independent info. Thanks!

Any updates to any of these comments would be appreciated. Is MM still highly regarded? Is it better to go with an open source cart at this point?