Some organizations have asked us about the quickest, simplest way to set up an e-commerce system for them to sell their publications, software, and podcasts.
PayPal buttons are easy to set up and PayPal’s standard payments product has no monthly fees. However, once payment has been accepted, if you want to control what the purchaser can download from your site you will need to set up a decent amount of coding to track and allow access to your product(s) for specific users, and consider many other details.
When it comes to shopping cart software for your website, there are a lot of options. Most shopping cart systems are set up for typical retail applications – allowing users to select from a variety of products, account for taxes, discounts, and shipping costs. Tailoring them for product downloads can be cumbersome and often complicated database links are required.
So, we decided it would be worthwhile to look for some systems that would handle payments for website product downloads and would be simple to set up and use.
Reliability, price, features and customer service are important factors to consider in your choice.
E-junkie and FastSpring are two popular choices.