Ecommerce Website and delaying and modifying credit card payments.

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mattwnz

20155 posts

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#166319 9-Mar-2015 15:35

Wondering if anyone has a solution for this.

My client is wanting to setup credit card payments for an online shop. They have a merchant account, and plan on possibly using payment express. However as they sell large items which they must get a quote for freight each time they sell an item. This means that the frieght can’t be calculated in the shopping cart as there are too many variations. So they want to initially capture the customers credit card like a normal credit card transaction for the product amount, plus a standard freight fee, but they don’t want to have it processed until they reach agreement with the customer over the amount that is added on for any additional freight charges if they are needed. They are using Big Commerce which uses PXPay and PXPost payment plugins. However asking Payment express about this, they have said that the plugins with big commerce are 3rd party and are very limited, and it only allows real-time purchases and refunds. So it may not be possible to use payment express.

They also only want a single transaction per purchase. They also want this manual control incase they don’t have stock on hand, and they need to order stuff in, and they don’t want to bill the customer on their credit card until they have new stock I had heard it is against merchant agreements to charge a credit card when you don't have the stock to supply. They don't want to move to another ecommerce system, as that is a huge job. Anyone come across this type of implementation?
Big Commerce did used to allow you to manually accept credit cards, where you logged into the control panel to retrieve the number and then process them through
an eftpos terminal, which works for this situation. But they no longer have this option as it isn't PCI complainant. But it appears realtime processing is the only option.

ubergeeknz

3344 posts

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#1254107 9-Mar-2015 15:39

"Freight can’t be calculated in the shopping cart as there are too many variations"

IMO, they need to solve this problem. I don't believe this is not possible.

cyberhub

224 posts

Master Geek

#1254129 9-Mar-2015 16:05

I agree with ubergeeknz.
You need to be able to automate the shipping which should be fairly straightforward to do with varibles and then implement a stock control system. I have had customers like this. If it gets too complicated they will really need to a custom build which costs lots.

Normally it is much easier to get them to fit in the "box" or quote some large figures for custom work.

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mattwnz

20155 posts

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#1254135 9-Mar-2015 16:13

ubergeeknz: "Freight can’t be calculated in the shopping cart as there are too many variations"

IMO, they need to solve this problem. I don't believe this is not possible.

Part of the problem is Big Commerces shipping doesn't have regions for NZ. I have asked them to add them in, and they say it is a simple job, but several years later they still haven't added it. Also no NZ freight companies have plugins for it, which will automatically calculate the shipping. We are taking big variations, as weight and sizing varies significantly,eg you may get something bulky but light weight, or something smaller but very heavy. . Freighting those types of items are very costly in NZ. So if the cart makes a muckup in it's calculations, it could end up costing a lot of money. If it was in the US or even Australia, it would be simple, as plugins exist for freight companies in those areas. But in NZ it is very limited. I see that there are payment processors that do allow you to delay/authorise payments as shown at https://support.bigcommerce.com/articles/Public/How-can-I-set-my-payment-gateway-to-only-authorize-transactions-and-not-capture-the-funds-automatically , but they all appear to be overseas processors, and I think Paypal maybe the only one that does NZ dollars. They also look like they only capture the funds to allow you to delay the processing, rather than allow you to modify the amount that gets charged.

Dynamic

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#1254546 10-Mar-2015 10:53

mattwnz:
ubergeeknz: "Freight can’t be calculated in the shopping cart as there are too many variations"
IMO, they need to solve this problem. I don't believe this is not possible.

We are taking big variations, as weight and sizing varies significantly,eg you may get something bulky but light weight, or something smaller but very heavy. Freighting those types of items are very costly in NZ. So if the cart makes a muckup in it's calculations, it could end up costing a lot of money.

When setting up items in your system to be sold, they must have their dimensions and weight defined. Based on that, calculating shipping should be easy based on the volumetric rates from your chosen shipping company.

Shipping multiple items in one carton is a little trickier as you want the cart to calculate whether it can get 2x Widget1 and 3x Widget2 into CartonSizeX which you know the size of and then need to calculate the weight of your widgets to ensure they don't exceed the max weight of the carton or shipping company maximum (e.g. some courier companies won't take anything above 25kg).

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mattwnz

20155 posts

Uber Geek

#1254631 10-Mar-2015 14:12

Dynamic:
mattwnz:
ubergeeknz: "Freight can’t be calculated in the shopping cart as there are too many variations"
IMO, they need to solve this problem. I don't believe this is not possible.

We are taking big variations, as weight and sizing varies significantly,eg you may get something bulky but light weight, or something smaller but very heavy. Freighting those types of items are very costly in NZ. So if the cart makes a muckup in it's calculations, it could end up costing a lot of money.

When setting up items in your system to be sold, they must have their dimensions and weight defined. Based on that, calculating shipping should be easy based on the volumetric rates from your chosen shipping company.

Shipping multiple items in one carton is a little trickier as you want the cart to calculate whether it can get 2x Widget1 and 3x Widget2 into CartonSizeX which you know the size of and then need to calculate the weight of your widgets to ensure they don't exceed the max weight of the carton or shipping company maximum (e.g. some courier companies won't take anything above 25kg).

The problem with Big Commerce at least, is that they don't have NZ regions to allocate different freight rates to. So yes you can setup volumetric freight. But there is only one region in NZ, so you can only setup sending it to one location in NZ, even though it is more expensive to fright between islands. Calculating it in the cart also doesn't handle combined items well. eg. They may buy 5 chairs and a table, but these are all seperate items in the cart, and the frieght is calculated for each item by the cart. When they could be freighted a lot cheaper when packed altogether. Currently they are happy with their current method, where they do things manually, as they are higher value items, so they are not selling big volumes, and it wouldn' t be cost effective to have something totally custom built, when their only problem is with credit card management. eg they want to capture and authorise the credit card is valid, but bill it later. I guess one way to caculate freight, is to have it as an add on varaition for each item. But it would be a bit of a nightmare to manage especially when freight rates rise.

Dynamic

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#1254695 10-Mar-2015 15:29

mattwnz: The problem with Big Commerce at least, is that they don't have NZ regions to allocate different freight rates to. So yes you can setup volumetric freight. But there is only one region in NZ, so you can only setup sending it to one location in NZ, even though it is more expensive to fright between islands.

Oh, I see more clearly the issue.

Is it time to drop the platform, or can you pay someone to 'fix NZ'? Throwing a grand at them might make a huge headache go away. Start phoning them twice a week and don't take no for an answer. The squeaky wheel gets the oil.

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bigmacpaddy

71 posts

Master Geek

#1254750 10-Mar-2015 16:45

Or, don't take payments online.

Allow a basic order to be placed online, then you send the customer a final invoice with shipping included. On the invoice have the bank account details for direct deposit or they can call you to process their credit card. You can use something like BNZ's Buyline which lets you process credit cards over the phone on your computer. Or maybe paypal has a manual payment option where you can send them a link for their invoice including the amount so the customer can process it at their end.

As i see it you are going to be manually processing the credit card details later anyway when you adjust the price, so you are not creating any extra work.

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PANiCnz

990 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1254826 10-Mar-2015 18:06

You've mentioned PCI compliance so I assume you've considered compliance costs for your customer if they start capturing credit card data?

mattwnz

20155 posts

Uber Geek

#1254840 10-Mar-2015 18:18

PANiCnz: You've mentioned PCI compliance so I assume you've considered compliance costs for your customer if they start capturing credit card data?

Those costs would already be covered wouldn't they with systems like Big Commerce (which is a PCI compliant platform), and using a gateway like Payment Express? There main reason for using a PCI compliant provider is so they don't need to worry about it. eg If you use paypal on your website, you don't need to worry about it.

mattwnz

20155 posts

Uber Geek

#1254850 10-Mar-2015 18:23

bigmacpaddy: Or, don't take payments online.

Allow a basic order to be placed online, then you send the customer a final invoice with shipping included. On the invoice have the bank account details for direct deposit or they can call you to process their credit card. You can use something like BNZ's Buyline which lets you process credit cards over the phone on your computer. Or maybe paypal has a manual payment option where you can send them a link for their invoice including the amount so the customer can process it at their end.

As i see it you are going to be manually processing the credit card details later anyway when you adjust the price, so you are not creating any extra work.

I think that maybe the route they will have to take for the time being. The other option maybe for them to do the processing manually after the order has been placed, by sending an email link to a credit card gateway .They are happy with the Big Commerce platform apart from the shipping/region problem, and it is disappointing that even though it is an Australian developed platform, they have forgotten that NZ has regions, and even after they have been notified, they still won't add them as it is low priority for them. But if anyone has any other suggestion for a software as a service type ecommerce system, I would be interested to know. Shopify apparently maybe a better option.