Independent Adult Stores

I've been doing a lot of research on what's out there for building an independent adult store with a shopping cart that also has an affiliate program available and of course billing/processor options. I'd be interested in what others have used for:
1. the shopping cart software
2. affiliate program in combination
3. with a processor accepting adult products and able to pay affiliates as well

Primarily, the site would be used to sell private labeled videos/dvds, and possibly some t-shirts and hats type thing, but want to have it setup as a promotional option for affiliates as well, even if they have to signup seperately for the store link code through a sponsor program.

So far I like the looks of this cart system: Ecommerce Templates as it does have an affiliate program built in, but not at all sure which of the processors it currently is configured for takes adult, or writing to see if they can hook up to epassporte for instance.

Another option looks to be Netbilling and their shopping cart and seeing if it can work with this My Referrer for the affiliate part of it.

Any other combinations I should look at, or feedback on stuff you've used and how it's functioning for you?

Hi Bec,

I've read many of your posts and many of the compliments you receive. Gotta hand it to ya :)

When I saw this post, I couldn't beleive my eyes.... we are looking at the same software.

We have a bid request on www.RentACoder.com as well for someone to develop our own shopping cart software.

We have multiple stores including our own as well as for customers. Unfortunately for us, Ecommerce Templates is a single license and not multiple license. So we would have to buy one for every store that we run and maintain on our servers :(

But to give you our opinion, this would be a good route for you to go if you only have 1 or 2 stores.

With your design expertise, I'm sure you would have no problem customizing the pre-fab design of their templates. Although, some of them are nice and enables semi-novice's like us to get a store up and running quickly with some decent eye appeal.

We are still considering getting one however, just to play with it and see what we can do.

Just an FYI... we are getting quotes to develope the software for us ranging from $450 to $600 on www.rentacoder.com

Regarding the processors with Ecommerce Templates, here is the link for that:

http://www.ecommercetemplates.com/pa...processors.asp

I know VeriSign accepts adult. We use Capital Merchant Solutions and they hooked us up with VeriSign. So I know they do adult stores such as what we run and what you are wanting to setup. What they don't do is VOD (streaming video or Membership type sites). Another key factore in my decision to go with CMS is that we only pay 2.39% which is excellent in comparison to other processors.

As for affiliate tracking, we don't rely solely on the cart to track it. We also keep records of first time customers and the affiliate code and then cross reference all orders with our affiliate database just to be fair and keep our affiliates. Not to mention they pass on the "good word" to other potential affiliates.

OH... You might want to read my article on US Biz & 2257.

Some Box covers are also explicit and subject to 2257 record keeping.

Good luck!

PapaBear

PS:
I don't like hooking our stores up to virtual gateways directly. I've heard to many stories (nitemares). Again, just my own opinion. So that isn't a factor in our decision making.

Thanks for the detailed feedback Papabear ... after a lot of looking around, there really doesn't seem to be a lot of readily downloadable options for what I want, which is probably what you also discovered and the same reason you're looking at having a custom system done up.

Right now I'm trying to expand the affiliate offerings for a client and funds are still tight, so may go with what I can get online for now and look at something that works across multiple domains for him at a later date. For now, I think one store would suit his needs.

Yea, ticks me off on the damn box covers ... I'm already having to backtrack on some movie ads I was installing and find stuff that isn't so explicit.

On that same note ... stores we get through places like PE Cash that get fed onto our domain ... we need documents for that whole mess too now? If so, sounds like I'm dropping some affiliate stores and quickly.

A friend of mine is setting up their first store. They are using http://www.x-cart.com/pro_features.html and they really love it. It is compatable with affiliatetracking.com's system to easily set up a WM program. They went with NetBilling to get their Merchante account.

So far as shopping cart programs go, take a look at Oscommerce, its free and, from what i recall, even has a basic affiliate system built in to it.

You might also want to contact Allan and see how much http://www.auscoding.com would charge to have something written for you :)

Regards,

Lee

I looked at Oscommerce a bit, and it seemed like a good program. The only thing that I had trouble with was editing the templates. (I didn't play arround with them much.)

Appreciate all the leads, thanks guys! ... any others, feel free to chime in!

I would STRONGLY recommend XTCPrint.com for your hats and stuff. (Like a cafepress thing, but run by some very nice adult people)
And they do GREAT work, with very little on minimums. (Like 1)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EmporerEJ

I would STRONGLY recommend XTCPrint.com for your hats and stuff. (Like a cafepress thing, but run by some very nice adult people)
And they do GREAT work, with very little on minimums. (Like 1)

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Thanks, but my client is located right next to a print shop and the guys give him some awesome deals on all his shirt and hat printing needs. Cool to know there's an adult style cafe press around though!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by andymike

A friend of mine is setting up their first store. They are using http://www.x-cart.com/pro_features.html and they really love it. It is compatable with affiliatetracking.com's system to easily set up a WM program. They went with NetBilling to get their Merchante account.

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I would agree with andymike... unfortunately, MS SQL/Windows servers aren't supported. It's more for Linux/Unix servers which is the problem that we have run into in our research for a new cart.

Bec, Chip would probably be a good source of feedback as well for Xcart as they use it on their site.

PapaBear

Thanks - I'll go and check with him about the cart and how're they're liking it. Appreciate all the feedback!