Ok I just read a nice long post about how paypal's shopping cart isn't the greatest for customization...the post was 2 years old, have things changed since then?
If not what are some good shopping cart examples. For oscommerce do you have to setup a sign-in feature on your site? Because I would rather not have that for my customers...
Paypal integrates in many shopping carts, it can offload a lot of the responsibility associated with storing CC info, and can be integerated so no one knows you're using paypal. But normally you'll be sending customers off to paypal to pay after which they come back to your site for the "thanks for paying" page. Which is the easiest and safest way to do things, and doesn't require you to get an expensive SSL certificate. Also, for the complete unobtrusive version you'll be paying fees. Besides that, paypal is free (except for fees on top of purchases).
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But normally you'll be sending customers off to paypal to pay after which they come back to your site for the "thanks for paying" page. Which is the easiest and safest way to do things, and doesn't require you to get an expensive SSL certificate.
SSL certificates are not expensive. You will need one if you use Paypal Pro, which enables you to process credit cards through paypal without your customer leaving your site. The cost for Pro is $30 a month.
An SSL certificate from verisign for 1 year is at least $400. Pretty pricey, especially compared to free. That's why it may be better to send people off to paypal. Also, you wan't be responsible for ANY of the security issues. As a matter of fact you can be sure paypal protects itself from your mistakes as well as your visitor's hacking activities .
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Ok I think I will be using payments pro....now which shopping cart?
I read paypal might not be the best choice when it comes to customer experience and customization?
Not every cart is compatible with Paypal Pro. Paypal has a list of carts on their site who are. The list is extensive and includes the biggie carts like Cubecart, Zencart, Shopify, Volusion, etc.
Customer experience when it comes to processing paypal on your own site really rests with you. Your customers won't even know paypal is processing their cards. The processing is all done behind the scenes.
I would look at carts that can do 1 page processing. Customers seem to complain about having to go through multiple screens to checkout more than anything else regarding credit cards.
SSL certificates are sold at places like theplanet.com (used by the mod of this forum) for $49 or godaddy.com for $29.
Shared ones are even cheaper; $20 a year.
There is nothing magical about them. The $49 one works identical to the $400 one.
Using Verisign for SSL is like using Register.com for domains. You can pay them $80 to register a domain, or pay godaddy $8.
Totally agree. You might also want to check out getting a static IP when you install SSL . Probally another $30.00 a year. Opinions vary whether or not your need one. I have them on our sites.
On the Paypal screen issue. Yeah, if you use the one with multiple screens that offers the customer the option to pay with PayPal Account or pay with credit card using PayPal you get a lot of confused customers and bailed carts. The way the page is worded A lot of people think they need to have a paypal account .
paypal shopping cart question.... 
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