# E-commerce shopping cart. ONLY shopping cart



## Jblack™ (Apr 7, 2006)

Hello, there are a bunch of free software scripts for shopping carts but most of them come with a full featured store. I would like to design my own store and use the "shopping cart" to only make the "add to cart", "quantity", "style", etc... buttons. SO in a sense i just want a Shopping cart, NO store!!! I just want to be able to have it so that i can keep track of quantities so like if i sell 12 and i only set it so that i have 12 in my inventory, it doesnt allow the consumer to buy it and could possibly even say sold out. I just mostly want the buttons. Actually im kind of looking for a simple interface that i can put in maybe as a unit or even as separate buttons. I just need it to be compatible with a merchant account possibly authorize.net. I've searched but the ones i've tried out are all full shops that i cant integrate easily. Anybody have and suggestions. Even if the script isnt free, i would need it to be cheap meaning less than 50


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## Vtec44 (Apr 24, 2006)

You can give PayPal shopping cart a try, although it doesn't have the ability to keep track of your inventory. Google Checkout maybe a bit better, but I don't have any personal experience with it.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> Actually im kind of looking for a simple interface that i can put in maybe as a unit or even as separate buttons. I just need it to be compatible with a merchant account possibly authorize.net. I've searched but the ones i've tried out are all full shops that i cant integrate easily.


I don't think there will be anything "easy" and "cheap" that fits what you need.

What you described is what cubecart and other shopping carts do. You just have to take the time to set them up properly to do what you want, and don't use the features you don't want.

You can design your own store and just use the add to cart/checkout buttons with most shopping carts. Some make it easier than others to customize the shopping cart pages.

Essentially, a shopping cart and catalog pages ARE a store. If you are selling t-shirts online, then you will need a store of some sort (maybe the terminology might be different, but the function is the same).

If you have more time than money, then I think cubecart would work for what you need and allow you to just style it the way you want. If you have more money than time, then you could hire someone to develop the website (using cubecart or another off the shelf cart) and set it all up for you so you just have to do the daily sales maintenance.


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## Jblack™ (Apr 7, 2006)

I'm absolutely DONE with PayPal. They jerk their customers too much. And i'd rather have a real merchant account unless PayPal has some different solution that I don't know of. It will take a lot for me to go back to them. But depending on the responses i get here and in other places I might...


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## Jblack™ (Apr 7, 2006)

I already have the website... cleanclothingny.com but if you noticed it has one iframe that the stuff goes into and the rest is just a layout. Its hard fitting a whole full featured shop into that so that it looks nice when i coudl design my own and just use the buttons and shopping cart. I will check out cubecart. I've tried EasyCart Pro, OsCommerce, and some other cart... i forgot the name.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> I already have the website... cleanclothingny.com but if you noticed it has one iframe that the stuff goes into and the rest is just a layout. Its hard fitting a whole full featured shop into that so that it looks nice when i coudl design my own and just use the buttons and shopping cart.


For search engine marketing purposes, I wouldn't suggest leaving the website and ecommerce in an iframe. It will make it harder for people to find your products in a search.

Looking at the site, it doesn't seem like it would be difficult to integrate cubecart into the layout and have it match the look and feel.

All the store pages in cubecart are templated, so you could just apply your HTML to the catalog page and shopping cart templates to make it match your design.


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## kentphoto (Jan 16, 2006)

Mal's E-commerce has very good cart/buttons features. Very simple, and easy.


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## Jblack™ (Apr 7, 2006)

^^^^^^ Link? ^^^^^^ or can i just google "Mal's Ecommerce"?


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

Jblack™ said:


> ^^^^^^ Link? ^^^^^^ or can i just google "Mal's Ecommerce"?


Yep, it's the first link
Mal's Ecommerce - Google Search


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## Vtec44 (Apr 24, 2006)

Since you're already using WordPress, checkout WP Shop.


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## Jblack™ (Apr 7, 2006)

that cubecart isnt right for me but the wordpress thing looks good because of its highly customizable design. But still, im looking for just a small: price, add to cart, style, quantity, etc... interface where i can design my template to look however i want with the picture wherever i want. i kind of like how this site does it... Commonwealth® "For The Greater Good" the way it doesnt seem like a "shopping cart script" but more like part of the page.


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## Vtec44 (Apr 24, 2006)

That site looks like nothing more than WordPress pages with HTML modifications. When I clicked on the "Add to Cart" button, it goes to PayPal simple shopping cart.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> that cubecart isnt right for me but the wordpress thing looks good because of its highly customizable design.


Trust me, the cubecart design is highly customizable. As I mentioned above, you can customize just about every aspect of the templates. It takes time, but it has the features you'll need to run a store and grow.

But if you're more comfortable with wordpress, then that might be the way to go.



> kind of like how this site does it... Commonwealth® "For The Greater Good" the way it doesnt seem like a "shopping cart script" but more like part of the page.





Vtec44 said:


> That site looks like nothing more than WordPress pages with HTML modifications. When I clicked on the "Add to Cart" button, it goes to PayPal simple shopping cart.


That's what it looks like to me too. Just regular WordPress pages with PayPal add to cart links.

That won't keep track of inventory or tie into authorizenet. To do those things, you're going to need a shopping cart.

You can make any page look however you want it to and make most "shopping cart scripts" look exactly the same. You can make cubecart look exactly like the Commonwealth site and pages. 

You can even create a webpage and then just take the add to cart HTML from the shopping cart and add it TO the webpage.


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## Jblack™ (Apr 7, 2006)

oh really. I didnt try to add to cart but from what it looked it was simple. I think i might try my hand at the cubecart and see where i go. thanks. any other suggestions are welcomed


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## Jasonda (Aug 16, 2006)

If you want the least amount of work possible, you can try looking for a remotely hosted cart rather than a cart you install on your own server.

Something like UltraCart (ultracart.com). It's hosted, so you pay a fee per month. I haven't used it myself, but you might check it out.


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

Jblack™ said:


> And i'd rather have a real merchant account unless PayPal has some different solution that I don't know of.


PayPal do have a more full featured option with monthly fees, etc. that is more like a regular merchant account, but given this:



Jblack™ said:


> I'm absolutely DONE with PayPal. They jerk their customers too much.


I wouldn't really worry about it.


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## SantaA (Jan 3, 2007)

problem with remotely hosted carts is that you don't have many customization options to change the look of your shop. im right now looking for a decent solution as well and tend to go for cubecart.


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## Jblack™ (Apr 7, 2006)

I want to install the cart on my own server and just get the secure certificates from my host (SSL or whatever it is). The payment processors have their own carts that are compatible. I was going to use either Authorize.Net - Payment Gateway to Accept Online Payments, or Credit Card Processing Services,Credit Card Processing Equipment,Credit Card Merchant Account Services, Accept Credit Cards or something of the sort. I just want to customize it to be minimalistic with ONLY the add to cart, price, etc... and just do the rest over myself in HTML like i did all the other pages on my website.


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## jtrainor56 (Sep 24, 2006)

Black,

If you do not mind having no support and want to mess with the scripts yourself, then you want to check out CartIt.... Its a shopping cart only and the basics are there for UPS online shipping, you just may need to work on the scripting...


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> I just want to customize it to be minimalistic with ONLY the add to cart, price, etc... and just do the rest over myself in HTML like i did all the other pages on my website.


Since you know HTML, you can probably do it this way:

1. use just about any shopping cart you like and just install it on your site but in a separate folder, like /shop/

2. then design the HTML pages how you want them to look. Just leave a space for the "add to cart" stuff.

3. Then setup your shopping cart software and add your products. 

4. Then load one of the shopping cart pages that is generated by the shopping cart script and on your browser, do a "view source".

5. Grab all the parts of the HTML that is the FORM for the add-to-cart, size, quantity functions and copy them to a clipboard or text file

6. Go back to the HTML page that you designed that has the space for the "add to cart" buttons and PASTE the add to cart form HTML from your clipboard/text file into that space.

7. When you load the page in a broswer, just test to to make sure that when you click "add to cart" on the custom HTML page you created, that the t-shirt gets added to your cart.

Wallah! You've stripped down the shopping cart to do what you need it to do and look how you want it


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## Jblack™ (Apr 7, 2006)

Rodney thats a great idea. I actually have installed and tried 3 scripts already so doing this will be no problem. Although i wish there were an easier way (consistency wise...), this is easy enough and should get the job done.


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## Twinge (Apr 26, 2005)

Another option might be to Google around for some php scripts you can make a basic cart out of. However, using these would likely require some knowledge (or willingness to learn) of php, as well as have more potential for security holes.

Otherwise, Rodney's idea is likely a good bet. Make sure you change any directories as appropriate, and THROUGHLY test the site to make sure everything works when doing it this way.


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## apparel4sale (Jan 10, 2007)

Rodney said:


> Since you know HTML, you can probably do it this way:
> 
> 1. use just about any shopping cart you like and just install it on your site but in a separate folder, like /shop/
> 
> ...


This will definitely not work for all your customers. This type of system will only be able to track sessions (i.e. customers) using cookies. This has two major problems. (1) More and more people don't allow cookies, and some web browsers even turn them off by default. This will make your shopping cart completely inoperable for anyone not using cookies. (2) Even if the user allows cookies they may not be on the shopping cart pages long enough to get assigned a cookie, or they may do a few things before they get a cookie, really messing things up.

Your real problem is you want a high end solution using only html and not paying much for it. I don't think that combo exists. I use osCommerce, but I program in PHP so adding the open source patches that make it super customizable is a breeze. I believe Yahoo's shopping cart is along the lines of what you are looking for. They are completely customizable (I believe with only html) and will handle all the shipping cart and merchant account technology for you.


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## kentphoto (Jan 16, 2006)

Like I said before, Mal's e-commerce will let you just create your drop down menus, and add them to the site. Beyond that, you can do all the other things a shopping cart can. - discount codes, quantity discounts, shipping rates calculated to individual regions, etc. It's pretty simple.


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## CrazyTeeShirts (Oct 31, 2006)

Yep, Mal's is ultra simple and easily integrates into any design and a wide variety of credit card processors. I've used it for a half dozen sites now, it's inexpensive, has great support and is always being improved.




SantaA said:


> problem with remotely hosted carts is that you don't have many customization options to change the look of your shop. im right now looking for a decent solution as well and tend to go for cubecart.


My fave, Volusion, can be remotely hosted and can be fully customized.


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## gnizitigid (Jan 23, 2007)

I think oscommecre can be integrated well as compared to cube cart in given design! opencart is also the second choice for this!


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## PrintMonkey (Jul 15, 2006)

Might check out "Merchant Order Form".
It's a form/cgi script based shopping cart.
Will do most what you want, just not sure about inventory count.
Will fit easy into your site.
Has a very good manual.
Downside, might have been a while since the last update.
Been using it for over 5 years, but now moving on to a template/datebase driven site.
MerchantPal.com

M


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## The60s (Jan 29, 2007)

Hi sorry for asking a newbie question but is shopping card and credit card processing the same? meaning if you use that specific cart you would be using its card processor as well?


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> Hi sorry for asking a newbie question but is shopping card and credit card processing the same? meaning if you use that specific cart you would be using its card processor as well?


No, they are separate. The shopping cart just handles the "add to cart" and checkout" functions, and displays the products and sizes. You would still need a merchant account (a merchant account allows you to accept credit cards) or PayPal (or Google Checkout) to actually accept payments from customers. They are totally separate.


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## DjBrennan (May 14, 2006)

Rodney I have taken your advice and installed cubecart onto my server. Now I'm not sure where I go to customise the pages so that I can copy the html from my existing website to the store templates... i have searched the admin section and on the database i created but i'm not sure where the templates are that i can customise... can you point me in the right direction?


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> Now I'm not sure where I go to customise the pages so that I can copy the html from my existing website to the store templates... i have searched the admin section and on the database i created but i'm not sure where the templates are that i can customise... can you point me in the right direction?


It should have customization instructions in the installation instructions that came with the product. 

You can find more info on their website. This pinned forum topic in their forums has a lot of links that can help:
Skining, Templates and Layout Modification - CubeCart

Especially this one:
https://www.cubecart.com/site/helpd...edgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=2&nav=0,2


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## DjBrennan (May 14, 2006)

Thanks for your help Rodney, I have created my own skin with help from the tutorials you suggested. It says that I can now customise the templates with Dreamweaver, but i'm not sure how to go about this... I have tried opening up files from directory skins/myskin/styletemplates/ with dreamweaver in design view and they still seem to be in a code-like form... are these the pages I need to customise? where it says {LANG_LATEST_PRODUCTS} do i just leave this part or replace it...?
Thanks for your help


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> I have tried opening up files from directory skins/myskin/styletemplates/ with dreamweaver in design view and they still seem to be in a code-like form... are these the pages I need to customise? where it says {LANG_LATEST_PRODUCTS} do i just leave this part or replace it...?
> Thanks for your help


Yes, you'll probably need to edit them using the dreamweaver code editor.

The tags like {LANG_LATEST_PRODUCTS} should be left there if you want the "latest products" to show in that spot. You can remove it if you don't need that feature in your store.


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