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Rapidlink & Rapidcart3 & Cartloom & Lynx & Paysnap...
I do not really get the difference between all these e-commerce/get paid online plugin.
Could someone make the distinction clearer for me so I can choose exactly what I need ? Please
I know they are competing products on some level. But I'd just want a clear explanation on what's inside of these plugin and why would I need a Paypal solution + an ecommerce solution ?
Thank you
Could someone make the distinction clearer for me so I can choose exactly what I need ? Please
I know they are competing products on some level. But I'd just want a clear explanation on what's inside of these plugin and why would I need a Paypal solution + an ecommerce solution ?Thank you
Comments
Well, some of the products do different things, and some are similar versions of the same thing.
The main e-commerce solutions for RapidWeaver are RapidCart, CartLoom, PayLoom and PaySnap.
RapidCart, PatLoom and PaySnap are One-Off purchases that you can use again and again. CartLoom requires you to sign up to the CartLoom website and pay a monthly subscription.
RapidLink is a an add-on for selling and managing Digital products with RapidCart.
The main differences between them is the Payment systems that they work with.
RapidCart can be synced with a PayPal, Google Checkout, E-Junkie or Direct Order and CartLoom does similar stuff although i've never used CartLoom before.
PayLoom and PaySnap are for use with PayPal only.
All have their own pro's and cons so it depends on what you'll be selling and how you want to accept payments to decide what one to use.
I've used RapidCart and PaySnap and they are both excellent and i'm considering trying CartLoom out in the near future.
An example of a RapidCart site that i'm working on at the moment is here if you want to have a look: http://www.chrisadamsdesignstudio.com/EDV/index.html
The Shopping cart style and store layout is fairly typical of the RapidCart structure but i have amended some of the features myself with some additional code from the Omnidea support page.
I'm also working on a site using PaySnap which you can see here: http://www.smcoaches.com/Express
Neither of which are fully live and finished yet but you'll get the idea.
Hope that helps a bit to get you started
Cheers
Chris
Chris Adams Design Studio
I found it difficult to get RapidCart to look like I wanted - I use Freestacks theme for it's flexibility and found Rapidcart had to look like RapidCart wanted. Couldn't add Stacks around the page.
I tried it and ditched it. Though the site for Eleanor de Vetre site (previous post) looks brilliant.
I use Cartloom now but whilst sales are low, the $10 a month although cheap is unnecessary.
Also as the Stacks that make it work easily in RW have not been updated by the third-party that made them, I'm forced to recode 50 or 60 items by hand to even get an Add to Cart button to work properly! Although Yabdab are replacing those stacks he doesnt know when. Cartloom is therefor, I think, meant for anyone and everyone, not just RapidWeaver people.
Hence I'm looking around again. Odd that Mr YabDab when I asked about these problems, and mentioned I might ditch Cartloom, never mentioned PaySnap. Which he wrote, too!
PaySnap, if it works with Freestacks, which I guess it will, might therefor give me ease of implementation, one off payment for the stuff, flexibility - and what on earth is PayLoom for, goodness knows - cos that's by him too!
Good luck. It gets expensive trying all these out!
True enough that RapidCart isn't a stacks element so it doesn't have the flexibility of a stacks page but it makes up for it in features. Equally PayLoom is also a Plug-in so offers more features that PaySnap but again, doesn't have the layout flexibility.
I guess the main way of choosing is how you want to accept payments as PaySnap and PayLoom are only compatible with PayPal, where as RapidCart and CartLoom can be used with other payment options (Google Checkout E-Junkie etc).
PayLoom (and possibly PaySnap - not 100% sure) aren't iOS compatible either so if your worried about customers using the site on iPads and iPhones for example, you might want to take that into account.
I think CartLoom looks great and offers a good service but i've been reluctant to sign up for the monthly fee yet.
PaySnap is well worth a look though if your looking for a Stacks element and use PayPal.
Chris
Chris Adams Design Studio
I tried entering the same Cart ID on each RC page created, but it refuses to share the same cart....
Is there something i am missing besides the Cart ID?
Any help would be greatly appreciated
You need to export/publish your website.
It's in RapidCart Documentation:
http://support.omnidea.it/kb/rapidcart-faqs/why-my-cart-is-being-emptied-navigating-to-another-page
RapidCart 3, RapidLink, RapidMaps 2, RapidViewer and RapidBot.
www.omnidea.it
Follow us on twitter.com/omnidea
Cartloom seem to be the only plugin that offers card payments. That's the major difference. My only slight niggle is being UK based, I'd prefer a UK based solution rather than a US one. Cartloom also allows digital downloads, physical sales and orders (we invoice client) and if I recall, pay-to-view parts of the site. It seems good, and I'd buy straight away of was UK based.
The monthly charges are reasonable. We pay over twice that currently.
Anyone know of anything?
Cheers, Clive
Focusing on the difference between PaySnap and RapidCart in terms of ease of use, and look and feel (not payment merchants), I'm hearing that PaySnap is more easily set up and adjusted since it's a Stack with the familiar inspector, and that CartLoom is perhaps more involved to set up and less flexible in how you can make it look.
Any other comparisons that would help? Are my thoughts correct?
I'm looking for a Rapidweaver solution to sell a large, heavy item that will be shipped. I need it to automatically notify visitors when the item is out of stock, to work with Paypal, and to calculate UPS shipping charges to any location in the U.S. It doesn't matter whether it's a plugin or a stack.
I use Paysnap on my website payment page here and can easily duplicate the paysnap stack by copying across so I can have the same payment option on other pages too -GPS example.
For me the main feature missing from Paysnap is a way to implement a percentage discount.
Also takes a long time to get everything set up and editing details can be a bit tedious.
Nigel
Can anyone suggest an Add on or do I have to change the whole cart system to something like rapid cart? or Cartloom?