Losing faith
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URL: http://forums.romancart.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=12985
Printed Date: 27 March 2026 at 2:30am
Topic: Losing faith
Posted By: raineshoe
Subject: Losing faith
Date Posted: 16 April 2014 at 3:00pm
| I have to say after having used Romancart for the last 9 years I think it must be I'm completely at my wits end with the new templates etc. Due to various family problems at the moment and other issues with the entertainment market I was hoping the templates would be a quick and easy way to add stuff to the site and not have too much to do with it. I have spent days trying to fathom out how to use the user defined template all to no avail and have no answers from Support either. I am really, really seriously considering walking ie going to another cart system so is there anything that anyone else would recommend. EKM powershop look quite good and I know someone else that uses this already. Any other possibilities? |
Replies:
Posted By: Red
Date Posted: 17 April 2014 at 8:26am
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Hi Rainshoe with you on this, we are also thinking of finding a different cart (our renewal due June), our guess is that not many Roman Cart users are able to use any of the new introductions as we only get partial completed projects with no guidance on how to use them and then they go onto something else, nothing gets finished. When you take into account the length of time this work has taken so far with no proper results I think it is time they thought about getting some new developers in that know what they are doing. We are also interested in any suggestions re a different cart ( we make to order and need to use a large number of modifiers) which is why we chose Roman Cart however I am sure there are other carts that could offer this Red |
Posted By: Red
Date Posted: 17 April 2014 at 12:30pm
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Hi Rainshoe logging out of paypal I noticed sellr so had a quick look, it is run by Romancart is this what they are pushing towards, see pricing for this. I also went to the renewal page on Roman cart to see the pricing for each level and notice a new £999.99 priced level but no information as to what it gives you, probably all of these new additions once fully added. Red a concerned Roman cart user. |
Posted By: Red
Date Posted: 18 April 2014 at 9:11am
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Hi Rainshoe I took a look at EKM yesterday, signed in for their 14 day free trial, they have moved on a bit since we last used them and we are very tempted, they have some nice features our only problem is the time we have left to change over, if we change we would want to use their cart only mode on our own website but we only have 6 weeks prior to our Roman cart renewal with a lot to do in that time with 4 birthdays and a holiday to fit in. We need to decide what to do this weekend. Red |
Posted By: raineshoe
Date Posted: 18 April 2014 at 8:08pm
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I think I've just made my mind up. After I have sorted the family emergency this week I think I'm defecting to EKM Powershop. I know someone who uses it and they say its great and the staff are helpful. Also, I notice they cover all our payment options and also allow download of order information to Sage or Kashflow. I haven't found any package that Romancart downloads to so if I'm also changing from Quickbooks to Kashflow I think as I found Sage hard to use not being an accounts whizz. Needs a bit more investigation, but as we are in a current market slump and I'm using the time to get rid of stock we find hard to shift and other things, its a good time to swap. I've been loathe to swap from Romancart having used it for the last 9+ years, but I've really had enough of posting asking questions that never ever get answered yet others do to the point that I'm getting a complex about being blacklisted! I'd get a wiggle on Red if you are going to jump. I have a little longer as my cart runs out September, but prepared to lose the money for something that's easier to maintain. Also, just thought I'm sure EKM Powershop is going to be less expensive for pretty much all the same stuff if new pricing is afoot and since I can never seem to get an invoice out of Romancart when I pay (or email asking for one from accounts) maybe EKM is more reliable on this front. |
Posted By: raineshoe
Date Posted: 18 April 2014 at 8:19pm
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PS - had a look at Sellr and its just like Romancart used to be like when it first started out, or at first glance that's what it looks like. Way of selling to more people ie if they don't like Romancart they won't necessarily know they are signing up to the same company under the Sellr name. Also, the templates on there are far more advanced than anything we've been offered so far it would seem. We have been given one template to try out or modify for our own use. That site has loads of templates and some of them would suit me even better. However, EKM for me is now the way to go. |
Posted By: raineshoe
Date Posted: 19 April 2014 at 12:54pm
Just thinking here does say a lot doesn't it that people who have been with Romancart for a long time are starting to vote with their feet 
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Posted By: raineshoe
Date Posted: 19 April 2014 at 9:01pm
| Hey Red if you read this have you looked at Blue Park. They look very good too. I'd almost gone with EKM, but found Blue Park integrate with Quickbooks. |
Posted By: Red
Date Posted: 20 April 2014 at 9:20am
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Hi Rainshoe Thanks for the updates, Grandchild`s birthday yesterday so was not online. Blue Park from a quick look does look interesting. Our problem when looking for a cart is the number of product modifiers we use for each item and how that displays. We have decided to stay as we are for now as we do not have enough spare time at the moment to complete a change over prior to renewal, we have lots of Birthday weekends away, Eammon`s 60th and a weeks holiday prior to our renewal date, we are also halfway through a complete redesign of our website at the moment but having taken a look at what other carts have to offer we do plan to look properly into a new cart later in the year. Re Romancart`s Sellr, I agree the templates on there are far more advanced than anything we've been offered, is that what the developers have been working on? Red |
Posted By: raineshoe
Date Posted: 20 April 2014 at 11:27am
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I have just one question for EKM which I will sort out after this weekend about EC Vat. If that is okay they will be my first choice probably. Blue Park is looking good but don't take Nochex so need to ask about that. Just investigating some more options at the moment. Looked at Volusion and although that is popular didn't like it at all. Looked at Opencart but don't think I can be bothered with it, personal choice. Looked at BigCommerce but seems more US configured than for UK. That's as far as I have gone so far. Will update you more when I know more. I think it may be that Sellr is where Romancart staff have been more focused looking at what is on offer. I quite like the look of it, but have had enough now of Romancart and what's connected with it so need to change completely I think as I think the same issues will evolve over time with Sellr. |
Posted By: raineshoe
Date Posted: 20 April 2014 at 11:48am
| Ha, signed up for trial of Sellr just to see what was involved. Its exactly the same layout as Romancart etc only all template based. You can set up your own template or they will do it for you to your instructions by the looks of things. Its not as user friendly I don't think as EKM is, although a lot of the menu options would be familiar to people on Romancart. The templates seem easier to alter to than on here, but as templates have only just been launched on here we will have to wait and see what happens. |
Posted By: raineshoe
Date Posted: 20 April 2014 at 1:05pm
| Been trying Bluepark today and certainly gives a lot of what I would like. Was almost 100% certain to use EKM but now not so sure as BluePark has a lot going for it. |
Posted By: Red
Date Posted: 21 April 2014 at 8:33am
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Hi , I only had a quick look at Blue Park but their list of features is extensive, looked more at EKM and that I think would work for us as we want it to and with EKM they have a button strip that the customer can change the prices to show in a different currency which would help for our overseas customers. Having looked at different carts over the past few days a lot seem to offer more than Roman Cart. Red |
Posted By: raineshoe
Date Posted: 21 April 2014 at 10:49am
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I'm swaying towards Blue Park now as there are one or two bits I like better. |
Posted By: Neil128
Date Posted: 21 April 2014 at 4:09pm
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Hi I can offer a possible solution take a look at the demo I have set up http://nop-330.dnsite.net/ - here , feel free to make changes and to make test purchase, Nochex is set up in test mode so you can proceed all the way through the checkout and completed the payment. Feel free to ask me any questions you may have. |
Posted By: ckart
Date Posted: 22 April 2014 at 8:55am
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I thought I should let you know that I moved from EKM last year, it can be good if you want a basic CMS managed site, but can be restrictive if you want more control. There was a basic lack of support & some major problems were going on for months without an answer, i.e, PayPal not showing the customer an amount. They also moved my site three times without informing me, this disabled links including the payment gateway, which really was unacceptable. A lot of new features seemed to be launched without proper testing or consideration on how it would affect existing users. The mobile site was a good example, this was turned on by default for all users despite the fact it wouldn’t work with Sage Pay; I only discovered it by accident! I know that we are all eagerly waiting for the new custom cart templates, but I would rather wait until it has been fully tested than launched half cocked! So far I have found Roman Cart far better for my needs, the support has been much better & as I used EKM Response for my mailing list, I’m saving nearly £300 per year. Steve ------------- www.nfed.co.uk Connecting the central southern equestrian community since 1999 |
Posted By: Red
Date Posted: 22 April 2014 at 10:41am
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Thanks for that info, we used EKM prior to Roman cart and found the templates difficult to change however I thought that now that may be different, they do seem to have added quite a lot since we use them. The reason we moved was that they switched All Carts Off for a day with no warning (lost sales for all EKM Customers for a day), so from what you are saying it has not changed much. The point you make about fully tested prior to launch I am afraid also applies to Roman cart, we get part finished releases and then they move on to something else, take the New Cart templates which we have been told would be available for a very long time now, still unable to use as the custom part has not been released and no answer as to when it will be. We also have issues on here re new releases changing the way existing functions respond. Red |
Posted By: jackslad
Date Posted: 22 April 2014 at 4:51pm
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Here's my pennyworth. RC do need to prioritise the new templates because as they are they will need changing to work correctly for me. I do like RC's back-end routines and would be reluctant to change to another cart system as a new one will have a learning curve to overcome and will have problems where RC has none at present. So I am waiting for the new templates to be unlocked - I will make a considered judgement about them once I have had the opportunity to amend them myself. ------------- _____________________________ Reflections of infinity, Hitchin |
Posted By: raineshoe
Date Posted: 27 April 2014 at 12:28pm
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I've now decided on Blue Park due to finding I can download my sales straight into Quickbooks which is a big plus for me. I had thought of using RCs accounts, but that's been a damp squib for me. I'm finding RC is not as good as it used to be. I like it and find it easy to use, but some stuff lately is lacking. I really would love to use the storefront that you can amend to your own preferences, but there are no instructions on how to do this, and when I've asked about various things on the forum have had no response although other posts are answered. So finally had enough. I looked at Sellr that had been posted by someone above which is part of Romancart and its vastly better for templates, but when I delved deeper the back end is exactly the same as Romancart and I can see the same problems with never getting answers from support. |
Posted By: Red
Date Posted: 27 April 2014 at 2:20pm
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We also feel Roman Cart is not as good as it used to be, we do not wish to move carts as we have things set up now that work for us however new features get introduced that either do not work properly, never seem to get finished or simply do not work with the existing functions as Roman Cart just go onto something else. Our problem is that the new functions being introduced have been planned for years now and when finally introduced are unusable, how much longer is it likely to take? We for instance would like to use the new widget but need to use the old style individual product modifiers (not the group system being pushed) so even though you can generate a widget code via the old way it does not work as it does not update the real time prices or enter the modifier information into the cart. We are also waiting for the ability to be able to edit the new cart pages but need to be able to change colours and add text to them, but again no information as to when this is likely to be available. I am sure there must be plenty of other Roman Cart users that are also fed up with it all. Having looked at other carts they do seem to offer more functions and have better templates, I think Roman Cart are getting left behind and as you say Rainshoe Roman Carts Sellr has far better templates than we have, I think they have been putting all their time into that. Red |
Posted By: raineshoe
Date Posted: 01 May 2014 at 2:19pm
| I have to say I do like Romancart back end and its easier than Blue Park to use, but prepared to take up the learning curve especially as I use Quickbooks and you can download your sales data straight into Quickbooks. when accounts download facilities were asked from Romancart they went and set up their own accounting which doesn't fully meet my requirements and I've never fully really understood how to get it to work. I suspect others think the same as all of us on this thread, but are not so vocal in their opinions. I just need some time now to start setting up Blue Park and then I'll be off. |
Posted By: MountMan
Date Posted: 02 May 2014 at 1:55pm
I have sites with both R/C and B/P and I have to say the the B/P is the bees knees , and so quick with updates or any errors you might find, also they seem to work 24/7/365 as a few of B/P forum members have said they have even got help on a Sunday evening  ------------- Keep well Steve I know one day my boat will come in - knowing my luck I will be at the Airport !  |
Posted By: raineshoe
Date Posted: 06 May 2014 at 11:50am
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Thanks for that Mountman its helped me finally sign up and start making the move. I've signed up about an hour ago, but it will take me sometime to move over. I've heard other good reports too about Blue Park so fingers crossed. It seems to meet more of my needs now than RC. I've been with RC since 2005 roughly starting off with the basic free cart and building up to the full cart. I like the back end, but have had enough of the messing around and not getting answers etc. I think RC have grown to big and don't have the staff to manage it properly any more. Interestingly, though RC have done nothing to try and keep me considering they are losing a customer that has been with them 9 years approximately. |
Posted By: jackslad
Date Posted: 06 May 2014 at 3:30pm
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Its often instructive to read some of the questions on support websites and also see what reviews say about particular shopping carts. Hence I don't plan to jump ship as yet and still hope that RC can finalise the new templates and ensure that unlocked ones can be adapted to my particular business. ------------- _____________________________ Reflections of infinity, Hitchin |
Posted By: raineshoe
Date Posted: 08 May 2014 at 1:18pm
| I've jumped ship for more than just the templates reasons. The templates are just the final straw. I'm also fed up of posting questions on the forum for support to answer which are blatently ignored in favour of answering other questions. I am beginning to think I'm black listed my posts have been ignored that often or else it might be that the other posts are just easier to answer. Anyway, I'm in the process of building a site with Blue Park, but will be around for sometime yet as its going to take some time to get it set up and running. |
Posted By: Red
Date Posted: 08 May 2014 at 2:04pm
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Hi Rainshoe I understand your frustration with it all, I think Support just don`t post if they do not know the answer to a question or how to fix it or they will often give a reply that does not relate to the problem or make out you are doing something wrong with the system to cover up they don`t know how to correct it. I would not have thought you were blacklisted if they wished to do that I would expect to be first on that list. I am trying to hold out on moving if I can, waiting on the widget problem to be sorted and the cart templates as those items are both a priority for us however not sure just how much longer I can leave it prior to taking the same step. Red |
Posted By: raineshoe
Date Posted: 08 May 2014 at 8:59pm
I'm sure your right Red re the posts. It makes me feel though like I'm black listed though  I even said that once!
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Posted By: raineshoe
Date Posted: 09 May 2014 at 1:31pm
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Attention of Red Just for info found Blue Park a steep learning curve as not as easy to master as Romancart, but now I've done a bit, getting to know where things are and its becoming quite easy. I've also found it much more versatile than what Romancart offers particularly with regard discounts and loyalty points - well ones that suit my needs anyway. I'm so far really glad I took the plunge. Its just going to take me a bit of time to find my feet and get everything entered. |
Posted By: Red
Date Posted: 09 May 2014 at 3:00pm
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Thanks for the info Rainshoe, It`s the time needed to learn a new cart and enter all product info that puts us off moving however we will have to see how things go, if we do move it will be later this year and we will keep Blue Park in mind, thank you. Support did sort out the problem we were having with the new widget yesterday so I think that would now work for us when we have the time to look at changing the colours on it, we now need them to unlock the cart page templates so we can copy one of theirs and change colours/add text, I believe they said this would be available at the end of this week, we will see. we wish you well with your move, I am sure it will work out well for you, when we looked at other carts they do seem to offer better functions, it`s just taking that step from a system you know to the unknown. Red |
Posted By: raineshoe
Date Posted: 10 May 2014 at 7:49pm
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Oh definitely a daunting step into the unknown. I have a while before renewal for Romancart so using the time now to set the new one up so that when I have to finish with Romancart I can make the final jump. I'll look at how Blue Park do modifiers. Not tried anything like that as yet. Its much more complex to use, but once you know where things are it does get easier. For example I couldn't get magnify on the product images, but some help from the forum (my option to use that rather than support) and a little bit of fiddling it now works really well. Oooh and just discovered I can do gift vouchers yay. |
Posted By: Red
Date Posted: 30 May 2014 at 11:12am
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Hi Rainshoe Re Blue Park, do you have to use one of their templates or can you build your own website and add on the code for the button / widget to link to the cart? have taken a quick look and it looks like it is all ready made shop templates. I know EKM would allow us to just add on to our existing website. Red |
Posted By: Red
Date Posted: 31 May 2014 at 11:32am
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Had about enough now, just found widgets don`t work for a copied product. This was the only new feature we thought we could use but as usual does not work properly. Red
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Posted By: raineshoe
Date Posted: 31 May 2014 at 1:38pm
Now set the clock running to see how long it takes for a reply if any at all to your post re the Widgets.... 
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Posted By: ae3799t
Date Posted: 05 July 2014 at 8:09am
| I do not need the templates, but I have also found RomanCart to be very poor with getting things right. They are very frustrating to deal with because they will give you a song and a dance, instead of fixing the issues. They seem to want to blame everything else, instead of themselves. Still they do have a lot of functionality and most of it does work reasonably well. Their price is also reasonable. I do not like the way they try to keep you by preventing you from downloading your cart data, especially since they only store a couple of years and then your data is gone. Many other things do not quite work completely. Their main focus seems to be selling to more customers, and not on taking care of issues for their present customers. I am not quite ready to give up on them and jump ship with 2 of our websites, but we have 3 carts and need a 4th. We will opt for another cart and if that works, will replace 1 of the carts. Maybe in 6 months or a year, we may replace the other 2. or we just may write our own cart, if we have the time. |
Posted By: raineshoe
Date Posted: 05 July 2014 at 4:34pm
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I've been with RC for quite a number of years, and have jumped ship, well partially, on my way. I did it because the templates were the final frustrating straw and I'm wishing I'd gone earlier as finding the new cart I am using does so much more for me. I found that many things partially work and also found that many of my queries on the forum were going unanswered while others were getting answers to their questions so I decided enough was enough. Loving the new cart I'm using, but need time to get it set up. Clearly I am not alone in what I think.
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Posted By: ae3799t
Date Posted: 07 July 2014 at 6:18am
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I am looking at CS-Cart now (a UK business/we are in the US). It comes with all source code and is very reasonably priced and seems to have a good deal of functionality. We have to host it ourselves, but we already have 1 website where we host an OSCommerce cart, so that will not be an issue. I made a list of the functionality in RomanCart that we actually use and the functionality that RomanCart fails at, that we want to use. What cart are you looking at? |
Posted By: raineshoe
Date Posted: 07 July 2014 at 9:03am
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I've signed up with Blue Park. So far can't fault it for anything. Does a lot more than RC for me. It will take a while to set up as I've decided to do it from scratch as I want to make some major changes to my site and products etc. The support at Blue Park has also been more than excellent. |
Posted By: jackslad
Date Posted: 08 July 2014 at 11:02am
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An option I plan to use on my new site is Shop Integrator. Has live currencies showing which is vital is you are selling abroad and a much more elegant cart system than RC IMHO. The underlying architecture of RC is in my view out of date and is really aimed at traders selling into the UK or US market only. Hence the "region" page is seen as an add on when it should be redundant if the cart is aimed at selling into more than one market. Shop Integrator costs the same as the basic RC offer as well. ------------- _____________________________ Reflections of infinity, Hitchin |
Posted By: Red
Date Posted: 08 July 2014 at 12:14pm
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Hi Jackslad is Shop Integrator template based or can you just add button widgets to your existing website? We also would love live currencies which so many other carts do have. Red |
Posted By: jackslad
Date Posted: 08 July 2014 at 12:28pm
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There are loads of different widgets to put on your own site. The currencies are drop-down options you pre-set. You set the base currency but a USA customer will be able to see the prices in dollars. So the currencies are tied to your selling destinations - although they don't have every world currency! Have a look - they are a UK company. And for me, as there is no "region" page - the full address is a once-only entry by the buyer which to me is logical and simple. The many bespoke shipping options are linked to the country as entered in the cart address. Simple really - a pity RC can't do it! Have just been reminded that if the prospect has to do more than 3 clicks to buy - the merchant will lose the order. I have had too many drop-outs from foreign prospects. ------------- _____________________________ Reflections of infinity, Hitchin |
Posted By: Red
Date Posted: 08 July 2014 at 12:55pm
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Thanks for that info we will take a look, agree with you that fewer clicks to buy means more sales completed. websites need to be as user friendly as possible especially for the overseas buyers who may struggle with English. We were looking into Blue Park but found the fact that it was template based to be a drawback for us, that for anyone that is happy to go along with templates does seem to offer far more than Roman Cart does and it does have the currencies. Red |
Posted By: ae3799t
Date Posted: 08 July 2014 at 3:50pm
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You mention another issue that I have with RomanCart. They do not use the customer's address to determine data, that can save the customer a click or 2. If you want to charge a tax, you have to make the customer select from a long list of states. Why? Why not use the delivery state. It is my understanding that you loose 30% of the customers for every extra click. Example: For every 100 customers, the second click will loose 30. The 3d click will loose 30% of the 70 left, etc. You would also think they would have a way to enter the tracking number and selecting the shipping method, so the customer gets a link to their tracking page, instead of just a tracking number. I have lost count of how many customers have replied back to the shipping information, asking when they will get their package. We had this functionality in Easy Cart, which was a very basic cart. More importantly, they need to take some responsibility for issues that arise. Our PayPal Pro issue is still not resolved because RomanCart refuses to take any responsibility and work with PayPal to get it resolved (Master cards orders end in Incomplete Orders). PayPal is willing, but RomanCart wants their customer to test and find the issue. They claim that they pass the card number only, as if that cannot possibly be done incorrectly. Any decent coder knows that they can be using a double byte language, not passing a byte order, missing the null and a host of other issues that can create a problem. For me personally, the number one issue with RomanCart is their entire focus is on increasing their customer base, and not on resolving important issues for their present customers. Despite the frustration with these guys, it is still a reasonably good cart, at least for local sales. Still, it could be a great cart, if they would wake up. |
Posted By: raineshoe
Date Posted: 08 July 2014 at 8:45pm
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You hit the nail on the head, all the things we have complained about hence my jumping ship. |
Posted By: rscass
Date Posted: 09 July 2014 at 7:00pm
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In reply to ae3799t - 3d click loses you 30% of your business? Where is that statistic from? Is that a US thing? It's more or less universal in the UK - every major website I shop on uses 3D secure. I'm on PayPal Pro and haven't had any issues that I'm aware of. What's been happening? Richard. |
Posted By: raineshoe
Date Posted: 09 July 2014 at 9:12pm
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ae3799t as I understand it was on about how many button clicks in your browser it takes to arrive at a purchase nothing to do with 3D secure. |
Posted By: ae3799t
Date Posted: 10 July 2014 at 5:33am
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No, Sorry if I was not clear. For every extra click you lose 30% of those who are in the process of checking out. For example, say you have 100 customers who start the buying process. The add to cart and checkout, and are asked to enter their billing address, then they need to click continue, estimates as high as 30 of those 100 will drop out. Then say they have to enter the shipping address (on another page) and need to click continue again, out of those 70 that did not abandon the first click, 21 will abandon, leaving 49 left. If they have to click on another continue, 30% of the remaining 49 (about 15) will abandon, etc. This was one article. Not everyone see it this way though. I more recently read another article called "20 Tips to Minimize Shopping Cart Abandonment, Part 1", that has a different outlook on this. Here is a quote. "How many steps are in your checkout process? This is usually what most people focus on. Our clients' checkout processes range from one to seven steps. We've discovered the number of steps is not all that critical. One client was able to bring the checkout process from six steps down to one; we found no correlation between reduction of steps and reduction in abandonment rate. Once people found what they came for, they found the time to check out no matter how many steps were involved". |