Mal's E-commerce Store
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Because Mal's is hosted on their servers it is much easier and quicker to set up than a shopping cart that would run on your own server. You never have to worry about your code needing to be upgraded or your server being secure - that is all taken care of.
The downside is that your customers must leave your site to go to Mal's to complete payment. However, you can customize your Mal's account so it looks pretty seamless, and have them directed back to your site when they are finished.
Mal's vs. PayPal
When should you use Mal's and when should you use PayPal only? With Mal's you can also accept PayPal, but if you are only accepting PayPal (and not credit cards directly through your own merchant account) I would usually advise you to just use PayPal's shopping cart. The reasons to use Mal's and not just PayPal are:- You want to accept credit cards directly, not just through PayPal.
- You need the advanced shipping calculations Mal's offers. (PayPal has limited shipping charge calculations.)
- You want a more customized looking checkout process. (PayPal has limited customization options.)
Managing your Mal's e-commerce store
I create online catalogs that integrate with the Mal's e-commerce shopping cart. I create a database of your products with a title, price, description, and image for each item. Then I create an admin area where you can update any of your products or add new ones. The catalog automatically integrates with Mal's e-commerce so you have a fully functioning Mal's store without knowing any HTML or doing any coding yourself. I can also create text pages like "About Us" and "Shipping Information" that you can edit yourself as well.