I have a web design/development question that I need some ideas for. I am creating a company website where they want to charge for services. I am thinking there has to be a way to use form builder or shopping cart for the customer to select a service and then place an order, but nothing is coming to mind.

At first, I thought we could use form builder, and get personal information including CC number, etc. but this is too unsecure. Then I wondered how shopping cart could help with the secure payment, but then there are design issues with "add to cart" for services, and limited image capabilities. They are not purchasing products instead a service.

Any ideas. The simpler the better.

Hi Eric,

I can't see why Shopping Cart wouldn't work as many products border on the product/service line.

One of my "products" is auction templates and auction shop design. They can either be off the shelf or custom designed. If the client chooses the custom design option they are selecting a service from me and then we negotiate on what they want via email.

Once the client purchases the service they get an email to start the process for what their requirements are. Often customers will contact you prior to purchase to work out what they want anyway.

I see. that is a good idea. May I visit your website so I can see how you have it all setup?

Depending on how simple you want to go, it doesn't get any easier than a PayPal or Google Checkout button against the service. I built a site for a friend that does corporate training and it worked perfectly.

There are free button builders available on the net, including ones that allow text input from users.

Thanks Tassie and Will for the feedback.

templatesanddesign.com

a work in progress. Most of my work is coming through my Oztion shop as the website is only new.

My stuff is always a work in progress. Thanks.

Hiya Eric,

I too see no reason why Shopping Cart Creator couldn't get you started with this. What you can do is setup Paypal to route your customers to a custom form after they have purchased so that if they have created an order with any customization needed they can then fill out a form you have created with the Form Builder and send that in. Have it setup to reference their email address and item number or whatever you choose for being able to address their specific order and then just match up the order to the form email you receive and you're on your way to customization.

In order to facilitate any possible errors in the return page that maybe gets missed you can add a link to the autoreply I think in Paypal to the form for customization so that they can still get there to fill out the form. Not sure if that's a setting in PayPal but it seems to me there was something you could do for your invoices to add something to it. If not I'm sure you can do a generic email reply setup that you can send when you get orders to be sure they filled out the form for customization etc. Not too hard I don't think.

This gives you the versatility of filling out product situations for all of your possible choices or setting up packages or whatever you want, and when the Pro version comes out you'll be quite please to know that there will be many more options available for something like this to accommodate multiple pricing and selections.

Just my 10 cents