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E-Marketing   URGENT - Need Help Fast!  
 
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Shopping Cart And Crm All-in-one Solution
Posted By: pleasestopit* on 10/31/2006 9:50 AM (CST) 250 Points
I have two Members Only kind of website where customers pay a monthly subscription in order to get access to stock market information. I plan to launch new products next year, not necessarily subscription based, it can be DVDs or books.

Anyway, I'm looking for a solution that would allow me to create order forms, collect payments (a shopping cart that would integrate with Authorize.net), track campaign results, and manage the customers database. Does anyone know an existing company that offers a service like that?

Would it make sense to create my own software to do this? How much would it cost approximately?

My goal is to be able to create and modify order forms for cross selling in an easy way. Beable to track the results and make changes to the copy. And collect all the customers data into a single database.

Posted by: ahunt Accepted Answer
10/31/2006 10:05 AM (CST)
The most cost effective answer for you is to purchase shopping cart software that meets as many of your needs as possible. To create the shopping cart for you will run, at minimum, $10k-$15k. This doesn't include the time you'll spend reviewing Functional Requirements with the developer, testing and possibly identifying bugs in the system after you go live. Ask your Authorize.net contact to recommend shopping cart providers that work well with them and start your search from there. Granted, pretty much any shopping cart provider will work with them, but this way you can use Authorize.net to help you narrow down the field of vendors to work with.
 
Posted by: Harry Hallman Accepted Answer
10/31/2006 11:26 AM (CST)
I am not sure it will do everything you want but look at www.monstercommerce.com. I use several stores on their service and it is inexpensive.

Harry Hallman
 
Posted by: Frank Hurtte Accepted Answer
10/31/2006 11:32 AM (CST)
in a case like yours it is almost never worthwhile to develop your own software solution. Modify, or adapt to an existing software.

If you develop your own, you will continue to have maintance and modification costs that will be a whole lot more than you are bargaining for.
 
Posted by: rockyboy2 Member Response
10/31/2006 2:15 PM (CST)
the best shopping cart is through pay pal they have special business accounts available use my link for speed https://www.paypal.com/uk/mrb/pal=5WK7B3WRFM2TU
pay pal for business is the only solution also if you contact my very good friend jeff he will sort you out his fees are reasonable and he has full msql database he only takes on recommends a very helpfull guy
here is the email sales@jctwebhosting.com
just mention my name michael Nicolson webmaster1 he is hosting a couple of sites for me and if you need any software let me know
 
Posted by: KathySmithFilms* Accepted Answer
10/31/2006 2:22 PM (CST)
I would consult with one of the MarketingProfs that have gone through this invented wheel because I searched www.del.icio.us.com and surveyed the most recommended which today came up:

http://www.ecommerce.com.au/

http://www.zoho.com/

http://www.netsuite.com/portal/home.shtml

When I looked at all three, I still would go with someone that is set up and happy with the functions and consult more word of mouth from these experts.

Good luck,
Kathy
 
Posted by: rockyboy2 Member Response
10/31/2006 2:23 PM (CST)
Hi its me again webmaster1, you can purchase a nice members site software for $100, I have it. Let me know if you need it then contact jeff at sales@jctwebhosting.com
and he will load it for you hope this helps Michael Nicolson, Top search on Google, webmaster1, if you want to make direct contact with me install this, it links you for direct messages to my desktop it's called Desktop lightening and eliminates the need for email, here is the link
http://www.desktoplightning.com/rockyboy2
Any of my friends here, and fellow webmasters and experts, love you all, can subscribe its a viral marketing tool
 
Posted by: rockyboy2 Member Response
10/31/2006 2:28 PM (CST)
Hi Kathy is that you? my dear girl from Adland Pro love and kisses from rockyboy2
 
Posted by: darcy.moen Member Response
10/31/2006 6:55 PM (CST)
I know two software packages that works with Authorize.net, 2checkout.com, and Paypal (and other payment gateways). The price can't be beat...it costs ZERO dollars! How can this be?! Well, they are opensource software packages.

Free? Are they any good? Yes.

One is www.oscommerce.com and the other is www.virtuemart.net

I've multiple clients using one or the other of these shopping cart solutions. They are very stable, and reliable.

Selling the subscription is easy, figuring out how to restrict access to a web site is another matter. That is one I won;t share in this public forum, but it can be done.

Hope I helped you.

Darcy Moen
Customer Loyalty Network
 
Posted by: pleasestopit* Author Response
10/31/2006 11:22 PM (CST)
Thank you for your answers. My question is more about building a marketing database. Most shopping cart solutions would help you build a transactions database, but I need to build a customers database too. This database will have contact info for all customers, wich products they have bought, how long they stayed as a subscriber, how many promo emails they received, etc.

Initially I was looking for a shopping cart that would have this CRM functionality. But if that's not possible, then I would settle for 2 separate solutions that can be integrated.

I agree that it's best to purchase existing solutions. Which ones should I consider?
 
Posted by: isaacj* Accepted Answer
11/1/2006 3:49 PM (CST)
You should look into X-Cart and the Marketing Manager Pro add-on you can get from X-Cart developers. Together they won't do everything you want, but X-Cart will give you shopping cart software that stores customer information - including products purchased and if they're subscribed to a newsletter, etc. Marketing Manager Pro is an add-on from another company that will allow you to search through and segment all of the information X-Cart stores so that you can get a list of customers that ordered a particular product, have been a customer for a certain period of time, haven't visited in a set amount of time, etc.

I'm not sure this is everything you're looking for - but I've found X-Cart and the abundance of add-ons made by developers in their community to be a solid, cost-effective solution for my company.

www.x-cart.com
and
http://www.firetanksoftware.com/fts/customer/home.php
 
Posted by: ozeworks Accepted Answer
11/1/2006 6:11 PM (CST)
Hi

I have been developing applications for over 27 years.

Your requirements point to a custom build. However you can fast-track your development and reduce you costs by going with an open source solution for the core system and add on to it as needed. You can add other open source to your core e.g you can link ecommerce solutions to forums and CRM solutions. You would need to customer build your forms.

You are looking for a company that develops internet solutions and are not just website (HTML/Dreamweaver) developers.

If you would like to talk offline to me about what you are trying to achieve and possibly get a quote then please contact me.

regards
Kym
 
Posted by: darcy.moen Accepted Answer
11/1/2006 7:11 PM (CST)
Okay, I'll cave in and spill the beans.

Virtuemart has a neat feature. It plugs into the Joomla content management system.

Joomla CMS (another opensource project, get it from www.joomla.org) has a registered user feature. Visitors can create user names and passwords, and become registered users of your web site.

Now, virtue mart is a component you add to the Joomla CMS. Virtue Mart has a setting switch that will add customers who buy with the Virtuemart shopping cart to the registered users list of the web site. In other words, when someone makes a purchase through your web site, they are added as a registered user of the web site.

Sounds like what you are looking for?

Now, the trick is to set up the CMS so only paid members (those who bough memberships) can access the subscriber only content. Well, I've done just that for another client. Contact me via my profile and I'll email you a link to the client's site. I'd share the link publically, but it would blow the stats the web site is generating on another marketing campaign we are running. I can spare a few hits from the question asker though.

Darcy Moen
Customer Loyalty Network
 
Posted by: yaffer21* Member Response
11/3/2006 8:18 PM (CST)
Oscommerce and SugarCRM is another open source solution.
 


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