Hi,
This is a bit compliacted and I really need help from someone who knows about shopping carts.

First Question:
Does the standard plan allow users to have a paypal shopping cart?

Now here's where all my problems start:
I have a website (well, will have) that sells handmade jewellery. I want to sell my jewellery through a shopping cart.

Now I will also sell other people's jewellery. That is they will sell their own jewellery on my site, they will recieve the payment for it. However I want to take 10% of all the sales that occur on my site, to cover my costs and from the exposure my site will give their jewellery. Plus to make it worth while for me!

Originally I though when the payment goes through to the seller I would just get the 10% directly in my account. However paypal said they can't do this.

I will be uploading ALL the pics, info html etc for thier jewellery, so they will just receive orders by email and get money in thier account.

Anyone know how I could possibly do this, under one shopping cart? Doesn't have to be paypal, however I don't have much to spend on this venture. I don't know much about shopping carts at all.

I thought perhaps I could just receive a confirmation email every time they sold something, then somehow I could just take the 10% from their account. What do you think?

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!
I've probably forgotten something... I will add it later if I have! Sorry the message is kind of hard to follow.

Thanks Michelle.

Hello.  I do not work for PayPal, but have been using them for almost two years so I am very familiar with how they work.  PayPal will not allow payments to be split and thus be disbursed to more than one receiver.  PayPal also does not allow you to "take" money from another persons account.  You can Request Money but it is up to the other person to approve the transaction.  The seller has the money, and they could easily say "No" to approving the request and you'd be screwed!  If you do not have a lot of money to spend on this venture, I suggest you sticking with PayPal for your online credit card processing as it offers one of the best (lowest) per transaction rate in the business!  

Any other credit card processers, will charge you a higher per transaction rate, keep a portion (5 to 10% of the sale) for 6 months to offset any chargebacks you may have, as well as a pretty hefty up front application/setup fee.  PayPal doesn't.

Having said this, you have a few options:

1.  You collect all the money in your PayPal account, and every day or whenever, calculate your 10% and send the rest to the acutal sellers.  Therefore you will be acting as a "middle-man".  This way you will be assured you are getting your 10%.  Keep in mind though, that the customers are giving you the money so if there is a chargeback or dispute, the funds will come from your PayPal account and you will have to collect the money from the seller.  

2.  The customers send the money directly to the seller and you bill the seller for the 10%.  Of course, if they decide not to pay you, you can send the account ot a collections agency and/or ban the seller from selling on your site until the 10% is paid.

3.  Require that the customer give you a "deposit" equivalent to 10% of the selling price for you to list the item on your web site.  You could further explain that if the item does NOT sell, you will keep a certain percentage for your effort and refund the rest.  Say keep half and refund the other half.  This way, you have your money, and if the item sells, the seller receives their money.

Either option will require a certain level of trust between the parties.  Honestly, option 3 seems like the best one because no matter where sellers go, they have to pay for the service they are looking for.   The question is, how and when would you like to be paid!

Now, once you pick an option, you have to pick a shopping cart and that will be the toughest of them all.  There are literally hundreds of shopping carts out there and you will find that many of them will not meet your needs.  I don't think too may consignment stores are on the internet - at least I've never found any.  

Good luck though.  Hopefully my 27 cents worth will help you.

Actually, PayPal only charges 2.9% + 0.30 cents per transaction with NO reserve fee attached.  I checked out 2CheckOut.com and they charge 5.5% and in most cases a rolling reserve fee of 5 to 10% held for six months to offset chargebacks.  Also, 2CheckOut.com required proof of products being sent BEFORE you receive your funds.  Also, PayPal doesn't require confirmation of goods being sent and received before payment is deposited in your account.  You money is in your PayPal account in real time and you can withdraw it to your local bank account at any time.  Also, if you keep your account in good standing, you can apply to have your rate lowered from 2.9% to 2.2%.  PayPal also offers a MasteCard linked to your PayPal account so you can receive your funds even faster and in some cases will give you 1.5% cash back on every purchase you make!  

The only drawback to PayPal is the customer is signing up for an account at the same time they are paying for your goods.  Other than that, it's pretty great!