best shopping cart for quick set up of 100 non tangible (d..

Hi

I am currently using CGI-centrals amember membership script with beta
shopping cart as it seemed ideal for my needs 2 years ago. my business
has been slow to start and now I have a lot of items to add... Also I
realise I did things backwards as the program was built primarily as a
membership script first and the shopping cart functionality was added
later.

I have done some research and found that a number of carts out there
support digital products by providing password protected access to
users who have purchased the product.

I would like the ability to import a text file or .xls file of my
products and have them added automatically. Also I want my user to
click on 'add item to cart' and have the total price listed on the
same page. I dont want it to open another page until he clicks on
'checkout'

any carts out there that will allow me to do this with minimal
interaction with customer support and minimal action on my part. I am
not familiar with PHP.

tia!

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 14:45:29 -0600, nospam8.RemoveThis@rogers.com (Idolator#556) wrote:

 >I have done some research and found that a number of carts out there
 >support digital products by providing password protected access to
 >users who have purchased the product.

Howdy,

Most of the certified shopping carts have found they needed to add support
for downloadable products. Some handle it better than others.

 >I would like the ability to import a text file or .xls file of my
 >products and have them added automatically.

The best option is using a Excel (*.csv) comma delimited file but look out
for commas and quote marks inside the fields. Those will break most file
import routines unless the programmer knows how to write their own parsing
routine.

Most of the shopping carts use SQL. What you really want is to be able to
download the product data base, make changes, and upload the corrected file.

SQL is not a nice way to handle that.

 >Also I want my user to
 >click on 'add item to cart' and have the total price listed on the
 >same page. I dont want it to open another page until he clicks on
 >'checkout'

This is a good way to ensure lots of successful "Charge Backs". There are
very good reasons why you confirm exactly what has been ordered as each
Order button is clicked.

 >any carts out there that will allow me to do this with minimal
 >interaction with customer support and minimal action on my part. I am
 >not familiar with PHP.

You'll find lots of hobby quality shopping carts floating around. The old
adage is, "pay me now or pay me later!". A "Pepper Tree" mechanic may save
you some money now but later you can expect to pick up the tab for the
results.

Drop by <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.stitchingplace.com" target="_blank">http://www.stitchingplace.com</a> to see an example of one way to handle
downloadable products. I've got a couple of other somewhat similar sites
hosted on BIZynet.

Thanks, Chris <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.bizynet.com" target="_blank">www.bizynet.com</a> and <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.bizycart.com" target="_blank">www.bizycart.com</a>
BIZynet Coordinator cgunn.RemoveThis@bizynet.com - (850) 936-1234
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