Two web sites - possible to use same checkout?

[zefeena]

Hi, I currently have two websites (both same host, on different domains) running independently of one another but with some cross over of products. Previously I had one site but this is on the old MS2 version and so I set up a new website as a specialist product site. Essentially the first site sold everything, and I moved all Bra Making items to my new website running on the latest version. Customers sometimes want to buy off both sites so its causing a little confusion! If I was to create another NEW website running the same version etc to put my old website stuff on to, is it possible to combine the checkout. I.e regardless of which site the customer purchases from they end up at the same checkout page? I would prefer to keep the bra making website separate from the general sewing website as I had so much stuff on it tings were hard to find!

[MrPhil]

If I understand your request, you want to have two independent stores (different URLs), but have them share the same back end (share customer accounts, checkout, etc.)? You're not looking to have a shared shopping cart between the two sites, are you? I don't think osC can do that. I think osC can be set up (add-on?) to make it look like there are multiple stores on one site, sharing a common checkout. You could even just put the specialty store into its own category, and have the new site's URL just redirect into your combined site.

 

Or, just leave the two sites as completely independent stores, and cross advertise them on each other. Note that a customer will need to finish a checkout on one store before jumping over to the other. You're bound to have problem reports because customers will click a link to the other store, and lose their cart. Maybe just make the ads as simple images with no links, and/or put live links to each other only when checkout is completed. That would be a good feature in general, for where osC is part of a larger site -- kill links to off-store while there's anything in the shopping cart and checkout is not complete.

[♥bruyndoncx]

I'm in the same kind of situation, I understand it has to do with cookie domains and it is not easy to get around it.

A possible solution I can think of is to customize the bra checkout as a tunnel to the main site, so you basically create a function to push all the bra shopping cart to the main site shopping cart

 

You could present is as 'checkout through main xyz site' option

[burt]

Using two checkouts could present problems with payment processors, especially Paypal, with regards to invoice numbers and the error message "this invoice has already been paid".

 

The best option is to have 1 shop, on which you split your products accordingly based on whatever parameters you want - still a lot of work, but less work (I think) than running two shops and having annoyed customers who want to shop at both.

[npn2531]

In order to have two sites to the same checkout page, then that checkout page has to be the first SSL page. In other words that means all the sign on and customer account pages would have to be insecure. So for example when customers get to the checkout pages which would be SSL and they needed to edit a shipping or billing address they would have to exit the secure SSL pages. And actually that would just be the beginning of the issues that would be created.

 

Perhaps you have both sites access one database. The SSL would not work, and your customers are going to get warning messages about insecure this and that, and people who know to look for the 'lock icon' (ie nearly everybody) are not going to be happy.

 

You really need to get everybody on one site, and just be really good at organizing your products, and coming up with creative ways to help direct and inform your customers. It seems that would be much easier.

[zefeena]

I though it might be complicated! Originally I tried to put everything on one site, the problem is that a lot of the stuff is pretty specialised but people with a lack of knowledge try their hand and then buy the wrong stuff (meaning returns!). A lot of the products also 'cross-over', so I get the same problem of where to categorise them as I am doing in choosing which site they belong on! The SSL is not an issue. I do not take secure info, upon checkout everyone is sent to Paypal. Thank you for your suggestions though, as said, i'll have to improve my organising/categorising skills.