[MCN-L] Favorite e-commerce system
Robert and Kaia: thank you! Anybody else have an opinion? Or, in particular, experience with international e-commerce solutions (not related to donations and memberships but to sales)? Amalyah Keshet -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Robert Weiner Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 2:23 AM To: 'Museum Computer Network Listserv' Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Favorite e-commerce system Dear Simon, The answer isn't simple. Merchandise sales (including the ability to manage an inventory or calculate tax and shipping charges based on zip code and quantity) are pretty different from online donations and memberships, or ticket sales, or subscriptions. And then there's the question of integration with your web site and back-end database. But here are some resources: Idealware and TechSoup published a roundup of online payment multitaskers in 2007: http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/webbuilding/page6123.cfm but it's not specific to shopping carts. They reviewed credit card processing options last year: http://techsoup.org/learningcenter/funding/page10327.cfm They also reviewed online donation processing systems, although that report is 4 years old; http://www.idealware.org/donations/ And Affinity Resources maintains a list of online donation processors: http://affinityresources.com/pgs/awz55Online2.shtml Page 2 of that chart lists other services from each vendor, including shopping carts: http://affinityresources.com/pgs/awz55Online3.shtml As to Google Checkout, I'm not wild about it. The price is hard to beat (at least for U.S. charities), but it's limited. Although it can be used for memberships and donations, I think the user experience is too much like buying goods, and the receipts can't be customized sufficiently. PayPal Standard is also limited, but the Pro version is pretty robust. One option might be to use a shopping cart for goods and a donation processor for donations and memberships. Robert __ Robert L. Weiner Consulting Strategic Technology Advisors to Nonprofit and Educational Institutions San Francisco, CA robert at rlweiner.com 415/643-8955 www.rlweiner.com -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Kaia Landon Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 11:24 AM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Favorite e-commerce system I'm surprised this hasn't drawn any responses to the list yet, so I'll bite. For most of our e-commerce needs, we simply use Paypal Payments Standard. We have also used Google Checkout. Between the two, I actually prefer Google Checkout, but it does not have the option to allow people to pay without creating an account, while Paypal does. As far as I am concerned, this is a major drawback. (I also get the feeling that convincing someone to use Paypal right now is easier than Google Checkout, but I have no statistics on that.) For transactions without an account, however, Paypal requires the visitor to click through a TON of screens to actually complete the transaction. This is obnoxious in its own right, and I am quite certain we have lost sales due to this (why it needs to be more than 2 screens I don't know). We have investigated our options for running online card transactions through our regular credit card processor, but the monthly fees on this are prohibitive for the volume of sales we usually do. If we consistently did $2,000 in sales through the website, per month, we would almost certainly use them. We have experimented with CiviCRM for events, but I'm currently waiting for at least 2.2 for it to have more of the features we really need. For simple event ticketing, CiviCRM (in tandem with a payment processor of your choice) can be a good choice, but if you need more complexity (multiple registrations without requiring multiple email addresses, for instance), it's just not quite there yet. We will probably transition our online store to Ubercart later this year. Again, this works with your payment processor, so it isn't perfect, but it is certainly easy to get running, and is also easy to make changes. Ubercart has a lot of nice features, especially compared with hand-coding the store pages with tables and Paypal. (Ubercart and CiviCRM both work with Drupal, although CiviCRM at least can be standalone.) Kaia Landon Curator of Education Mesa Historical Museum On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 4:20 AM, Amalyah Keshet [akeshet at imj.org.il] akeshet at imj.org.il wrote: Looking for the same information. Thanks in advance to all. Amalyah Keshet Head of Image Resources Copyright Management The Israel Museum, Jerusalem -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Tanner, Simon Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 5:26 PM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: [MCN-L
[MCN-L] Favorite e-commerce system
I'm surprised this hasn't drawn any responses to the list yet, so I'll bite. For most of our e-commerce needs, we simply use Paypal Payments Standard. We have also used Google Checkout. Between the two, I actually prefer Google Checkout, but it does not have the option to allow people to pay without creating an account, while Paypal does. As far as I am concerned, this is a major drawback. (I also get the feeling that convincing someone to use Paypal right now is easier than Google Checkout, but I have no statistics on that.) For transactions without an account, however, Paypal requires the visitor to click through a TON of screens to actually complete the transaction. This is obnoxious in its own right, and I am quite certain we have lost sales due to this (why it needs to be more than 2 screens I don't know). We have investigated our options for running online card transactions through our regular credit card processor, but the monthly fees on this are prohibitive for the volume of sales we usually do. If we consistently did $2,000 in sales through the website, per month, we would almost certainly use them. We have experimented with CiviCRM for events, but I'm currently waiting for at least 2.2 for it to have more of the features we really need. For simple event ticketing, CiviCRM (in tandem with a payment processor of your choice) can be a good choice, but if you need more complexity (multiple registrations without requiring multiple email addresses, for instance), it's just not quite there yet. We will probably transition our online store to Ubercart later this year. Again, this works with your payment processor, so it isn't perfect, but it is certainly easy to get running, and is also easy to make changes. Ubercart has a lot of nice features, especially compared with hand-coding the store pages with tables and Paypal. (Ubercart and CiviCRM both work with Drupal, although CiviCRM at least can be standalone.) Kaia Landon Curator of Education Mesa Historical Museum On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 4:20 AM, Amalyah Keshet [akeshet at imj.org.il] akeshet at imj.org.il wrote: Looking for the same information. Thanks in advance to all. Amalyah Keshet Head of Image Resources Copyright Management The Israel Museum, Jerusalem -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Tanner, Simon Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 5:26 PM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: [MCN-L] Favorite e-commerce system Hi everyone, I am wondering if people would be willing to share their favoirte e-commerce systems and providers? This could be the shopping cart software, or the electronic funds transfer system or a bespoke provider of a turn key solution. But what is your favorite (and why would be nice)? Any answers not posted to the list I will provide as a digest. Many thanks for your help. Happy New Year! Simon -- Simon Tanner Director, King's Digital Consultancy Services, King's College London, Centre for Computing in the Humanities, 26-29 Drury Lane, London WC2B 5RL Tel: +44 (0)7887 691716 or Admin: +44 (0)20 7848 2861 Email: simon.tanner at kcl.ac.uk http://www.kdcs.kcl.ac.uk/ ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
[MCN-L] Favorite e-commerce system
Dear Simon, The answer isn't simple. Merchandise sales (including the ability to manage an inventory or calculate tax and shipping charges based on zip code and quantity) are pretty different from online donations and memberships, or ticket sales, or subscriptions. And then there's the question of integration with your web site and back-end database. But here are some resources: Idealware and TechSoup published a roundup of online payment multitaskers in 2007: http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/webbuilding/page6123.cfm but it's not specific to shopping carts. They reviewed credit card processing options last year: http://techsoup.org/learningcenter/funding/page10327.cfm They also reviewed online donation processing systems, although that report is 4 years old; http://www.idealware.org/donations/ And Affinity Resources maintains a list of online donation processors: http://affinityresources.com/pgs/awz55Online2.shtml Page 2 of that chart lists other services from each vendor, including shopping carts: http://affinityresources.com/pgs/awz55Online3.shtml As to Google Checkout, I'm not wild about it. The price is hard to beat (at least for U.S. charities), but it's limited. Although it can be used for memberships and donations, I think the user experience is too much like buying goods, and the receipts can't be customized sufficiently. PayPal Standard is also limited, but the Pro version is pretty robust. One option might be to use a shopping cart for goods and a donation processor for donations and memberships. Robert __ Robert L. Weiner Consulting Strategic Technology Advisors to Nonprofit and Educational Institutions San Francisco, CA robert at rlweiner.com 415/643-8955 www.rlweiner.com -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Kaia Landon Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 11:24 AM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Favorite e-commerce system I'm surprised this hasn't drawn any responses to the list yet, so I'll bite. For most of our e-commerce needs, we simply use Paypal Payments Standard. We have also used Google Checkout. Between the two, I actually prefer Google Checkout, but it does not have the option to allow people to pay without creating an account, while Paypal does. As far as I am concerned, this is a major drawback. (I also get the feeling that convincing someone to use Paypal right now is easier than Google Checkout, but I have no statistics on that.) For transactions without an account, however, Paypal requires the visitor to click through a TON of screens to actually complete the transaction. This is obnoxious in its own right, and I am quite certain we have lost sales due to this (why it needs to be more than 2 screens I don't know). We have investigated our options for running online card transactions through our regular credit card processor, but the monthly fees on this are prohibitive for the volume of sales we usually do. If we consistently did $2,000 in sales through the website, per month, we would almost certainly use them. We have experimented with CiviCRM for events, but I'm currently waiting for at least 2.2 for it to have more of the features we really need. For simple event ticketing, CiviCRM (in tandem with a payment processor of your choice) can be a good choice, but if you need more complexity (multiple registrations without requiring multiple email addresses, for instance), it's just not quite there yet. We will probably transition our online store to Ubercart later this year. Again, this works with your payment processor, so it isn't perfect, but it is certainly easy to get running, and is also easy to make changes. Ubercart has a lot of nice features, especially compared with hand-coding the store pages with tables and Paypal. (Ubercart and CiviCRM both work with Drupal, although CiviCRM at least can be standalone.) Kaia Landon Curator of Education Mesa Historical Museum On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 4:20 AM, Amalyah Keshet [akeshet at imj.org.il] akeshet at imj.org.il wrote: Looking for the same information. Thanks in advance to all. Amalyah Keshet Head of Image Resources Copyright Management The Israel Museum, Jerusalem -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Tanner, Simon Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 5:26 PM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: [MCN-L] Favorite e-commerce system Hi everyone, I am wondering if people would be willing to share their favoirte e-commerce systems and providers? This could be the shopping cart software, or the electronic funds transfer system or a bespoke provider of a turn key solution. But what is your favorite (and why would be nice)? Any answers not posted to the list I will provide as a digest. Many thanks for your help. Happy New Year! Simon -- Simon Tanner Director, King's Digital
[MCN-L] Favorite e-commerce system
I have been using Acteva.com for years! I use it for fees for copyright consultations, course registration/payment, payment for Newsletter subscriptions...and it is great. Customer service is outstanding! Acteva is at www.acteva.com. My page is at: www.acteva.com/go/copyright. Happy to answer any specific questions. Lesley Lesley Ellen Harris www.copyrightanswers.blogspot.com -- Original message -- From: Tanner, Simon simon.tan...@kcl.ac.uk Hi everyone, I am wondering if people would be willing to share their favoirte e-commerce systems and providers? This could be the shopping cart software, or the electronic funds transfer system or a bespoke provider of a turn key solution. But what is your favorite (and why would be nice)? Any answers not posted to the list I will provide as a digest. Many thanks for your help. Happy New Year! Simon -- Simon Tanner Director, King's Digital Consultancy Services, King's College London, Centre for Computing in the Humanities, 26-29 Drury Lane, London WC2B 5RL Tel: +44 (0)7887 691716 or Admin: +44 (0)20 7848 2861 Email: simon.tanner at kcl.ac.uk http://www.kdcs.kcl.ac.uk/ ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
[MCN-L] Favorite e-commerce system
Hi everyone, I am wondering if people would be willing to share their favoirte e-commerce systems and providers? This could be the shopping cart software, or the electronic funds transfer system or a bespoke provider of a turn key solution. But what is your favorite (and why would be nice)? Any answers not posted to the list I will provide as a digest. Many thanks for your help. Happy New Year! Simon -- Simon Tanner Director, King's Digital Consultancy Services, King's College London, Centre for Computing in the Humanities, 26-29 Drury Lane, London WC2B 5RL Tel: +44 (0)7887 691716 or Admin: +44 (0)20 7848 2861 Email: simon.tanner at kcl.ac.uk http://www.kdcs.kcl.ac.uk/
