Suggest a simple eCommerce system to use with Wordpress

Question

This is the first time I've implemented an eCommerce system for my freelance business, and I'd like it to go smoothly. So to get started, I'm asking the questions here.

I'm using Wordpress because it's nice and simple. I want to offer customers a way to be able to pay invoices online (hosting and freelance services), either within Wordpress or as a similarly simple external system. I will also want a small shopping area (and cart), selling stock photos and templates. I've looked at wp-commerce, but not sure if it will do all I need it to do.

Also, how do I offer payment via Visa or Mastercard? What does it cost?

My hope is that if this system goes well, I'll be able to offer a similar setup for customers. Emphasis is definitely on completely customisable, no-fuss and simple. I'm a Mac person :)

Answer 1

Try WP e-Commerce, they're pretty awesome. :)

Or you can roll your own by using PodsCMS or run Magento in a separate folder, but this won't include a WP to Magento communication. They will still be two separate apps.

The last easy, simple, and secure options that I can think of is either integrating PayPal in to your theme or using Foxy Cart and integrating that in to your WordPress theme. Chris Coyier made some screencasts with a review on Foxy Cart and how to integrate it with your WordPress installation.

If you want to use credit card payments than you either have to sign up with a third party merchant processor that is PCI-DSS compliant and use at least a 128-bit SSL certificate on your site. Note that if you do this than you should not be storing CC's on site either. Alternatively a service, like Foxy Cart will take care of the secure merchant processing if you sign up with someone like Authorize.net.