I am looking for the best alternative to using Interchange or Agora for our shopping cart.  I would prefer a local application that uploads to site.

Anyone who has an opinion of the packages out there, please respond.  

I like how Fortune3 works, but unless you host with them, it VERY expensive.  And their hosting gets pricey too.

Shop Factory looks a little better, but you have to purchase various modules than can quickly add to over $1000.

You really have to look at what features you need in your shopping cart software!  It took me months before finally settling on one I liked and even then, I have spent countless hours over the last couple of months customizing it the way I want it to and I am probably only half done.  

Decide who is going to process your Credit Cards for you, then find a cart (preferable low cost of free) and try it out.  If you don't like it - delete it and get another one.  Stay away from the ones that cost money up front because nothing is worse than shelling out $100 or more for a cart and decide after 5 minutes it's nothing but garbage.

My 2 cents worth.

Honestly, for something like that you can use PayPal.com.  Open up an "International Business Account" and go from there.   That is who I am using for my credit card processing transactions (for now) as they only charge 2.9% + 0.30 USD per transaction.  The money is held in a PayPal account until you choose to spend it at another web site that accepts PayPal, pay for an eBay auction that accepts PayPal, or decide to have the funds transferred from your account to a checking account in the same name (ie: if you open a business account, the checking account has to be the same name or the payment won't go through).

PayPal is great but does have some limitations such as if a customer comes to your site and has never paid through PayPal before, there is a $2000.00 USD limit on the customer until they go through the motions to verify their account.  So if the customer wanted to purchase $5000.00 USD through you and had never paid through PayPal before, they couldn't because of the limits.

Check out www.PayPal.com for more information.

It's a great place to start if your business is just starting out and the transaction volume is low but definitely do not stay with them for the long term unless they suit your needs.

Just my 2 cents worth.

PS:  PayPal accepts CAD, USD, EUR, GBP, and JPY
 
 [ March 02, 2003, 01:13 PM: Message edited by: Navodyne ]

That makes sense - I would like that as well.  Unfortunately, most places charge a huge monthly fee (somewhere around 35.00 USD) plus 4.5% per transaction, plus a transaction fee (0.10 - 0.50 USD), plus they keep any where from 5 to 10% in whats called a rolling reserve fund for six months - that the part I hate the most.  They will keep 5-10% of month 1, and give it back to you in month 7, month 2 in month 8 and so on!  What new business can afford to loose that much money for 6 months?  And to top it all off, the set up fee of between $195 and $495 USD will kill you as well.

That's why I am still using PayPal!  

Just do a search for Credit Card Merchant Account on Google or where ever and you should be able to find something.  I found a bunch to suit my needs but like I said - way to pricey especially when PayPal is only 2.9% + 0.30 and no monthly or setup fees.