Cyberwalker Blog

Samcart vs Paypal: A product comparison

If you are in the market for an e-commerce platform so you can sell online then you may come across an ecommerce platform called Samcart, as well as another ecommerce product called Paypal, and may be wondering what the difference is. This post will explain the primary differences between the two products — Samcart vs Paypal — and what they are each used for, how they compare, and if they can be sued together (spoiler alert, they can!).

What is SamCart?

Samcart is a commercial ecommerce technology product found at http://samcart.com. It is an e-commerce solution that lets a company sell products or services online to customers that want to use either a credit card or their Paypal account.

It is primarily used as a landing page product. That means you create a single page with Samcart that features a specific product, its description, its features, and its price. You can also display one or more images. The page also has a checkout feature that lets a buyer input a credit card or Paypal account. The site lets you configure your page design with pre-built templates. It also has a drag-and-drop page builder so you can customize the look of a page using page elements. You do not need to understand web program code to achieve a professional-looking design. Samcart is primarily used to sell digital information products (like PDFs, ebooks, videos or software) and also online courses.

However, you can use it to sell physical products. It has a setting that will collect shipping information from the buyer and can also collect a shipping fee you set.

Website: Samcart

Samcart’s strengths

  • Designed to sell information products and non-physical products
  • Month fees start at as low as USD $99/mo
  • Excellent upsell and cross sell features
  • Easy to set up
  • Drag and drop design interface
  • Free integrated course design software built in (added in 2021)
  • Pricing starts at $39/mo

Samcart’s weaknesses

  • Only uses four transaction processors (Paypal, Stripe, Easypal Direct and Braintree)
  • No shipping service (USPS, Fedex, UPS,Canada Post etc) integration for phsyical products.
  • No shopping cart for multi-product browsing. Single product focus with upsell features, although you can built as many product pages as you like
  • Does not provide website. It’s more for custom checkout page development. However could can use your own domain instead of the the samcart.com URL.

What is Paypal?

Paypal is an ecommerce company that provides payment services for e-commerce websites. While it has some basic functionality that allows you to send a customer directly to Paypal page to make a payment and checkout, it is not a primary feature and this process while quick is not an ideal e-commerce transaction as it primarily focuses on those that have a Paypal account with a secondary function of using a credit card to make payment.

Paypal is used by e-commerce site owners to connect to their e-commerce platform and handle payment transactions between a seller and buyer who both have a funded Paypal account. On a successful transaction, Paypal electronically tells the e-commerce platform that the purchase is approved, which in turn is displayed to the buyer.

Paypal also accesses funds from the buying account and transfers it (less a 2-3% fee) to the e-commerce site owner.

Paypal Strengths:

  • Easy transfer of funds from buyer to seller.
  • Buyer protection policy and decent and fair dispute resolution process.
  • Good fraud detection.
  • Free to apply for an account and easy to integrate if you know what you are doing.
  • Integrates will many shopping carts including Samcart.

Paypal Weakenesses:

  • Is not a standalone product. Relies on integration with other e-commerce products for best user experience.
  • Charges high fees (3.3% or more).
  • Website is difficult to navigate. Not always intuitive for a seller.

Now that you know what the core uses are for Samcart vs Paypal, let’s discuss how they can work together to make e-commerce possible.

Paypal integrates into Samcart and is vitally necessary to clear a Paypal transaction. A Samcart user (an e-commerce seller) must apply for a Paypal account and then enter that user account information into Samcart under an account holder’s settings so that Samcart can send transactions to Paypal to authorize a purchase on a buyer’s account.

Can Samcart be used without Paypal?

Samcart can be used without Paypal if it has also been configured with an e-commerce operator’s Stripe account (see related article Samcart vs Stripe).

In this Paypal-free scenario, Samcart submits a charge to Stripe, and the buyer’s credit card account is checked by Stripe, and if there are available funds they are debited and approval is returned to allow the transaction to go through. Stripe in turn pays the seller the funds less a processing charge of 2.7 to 3.5%. This fee is variable based on the kind of transaction. It may be more or less depending on the account holder’s agreement with Stripe.

To be able to run any transactions using Samcart, a seller much integrate either a Stripe account or a Paypal account. Optimally, both services are connected to Samcart so that the buyer has a choice to use either a credit card or a Paypal account when they make a purchase. Without either of these scenarios in place, Samcart cannot complete a transaction and is basically useless. It relies on an integration with one or the other, and preferably both.

Best practices

The best practice here is to get a Samcart account and integrate it with both Paypal and Samcart to offer your buyers two payment options.

Can Paypal be used alone without Samcart?

Paypal can be used to run a transaction directly through Paypal’s own website. However, this is not recommended and is not a shopping cart.

Paypal works best when used with a commercial e-commerce platform. It can be integrated with products like ThriveCart, GumRoad, and Shopify.

Ready to choose one of these ecommerce technologies:

Samcart vs Stripe: A product comparison

If you are in the market for an e-commerce platform so you can sell online then you may come across a technology product called Samcart, as well as another ecommerce product called Stripe, and may be wondering what the difference is. This post will explain the primary differences between the two products — Samcart vs Stripe — and what they are each used for and how their features compare.

What is SamCart?

Samcart is a commercial e-commerce technology product found at http://samcart.com. It is an e-commerce solution that lets a company to sell products or services online to customers that want to use either a credit card or their Paypal account.

It is primarily used as a landing page product. That means you create a single page with Samcart that features a specific product, its description, its features, and its price. You can also display one or more images. The page also has a checkout feature that lets a buyer input a credit card or Paypal account. The site lets you configure your page design with pre-built templates. It also has a drag-and-drop page builder so you can customize the look of a page using page elements. You do not need to understand web program code to achieve a professional-looking design. Samcart is primarily used to sell digital information products (like PDFs, ebooks, videos or software) and also online courses.

However, you can use it to sell physical products. It has a setting that will collect shipping information from the buyer and can also collect a shipping fee you set.

Website: Samcart

Samcart’s strengths

  • Designed to sell information products and non-physical products
  • Month fees start at as low as USD $99/mo
  • Excellent upsell and cross sell features
  • Easy to set up
  • Drag and drop design interface
  • Free integrated course design software built in (added in 2021)
  • Pricing starts at $39/mo

Samcart’s weaknesses

  • Only uses four transaction processors (Paypal, Stripe, Easypal Direct and Braintree)
  • No shipping service (USPS, Fedex, UPS,Canada Post etc) integration for phsyical products.
  • No shopping cart for multi-product browsing. Single product focus with upsell features, although you can built as many product pages as you like
  • Does not provide website. It’s more for custom checkout page development. However could can use your own domain instead of the the samcart.com URL.

What is Stripe?

Stripe is a company that provides credit card clearing services for e-commerce websites. While it has some basic functionality that allows you to send a customer directly to a Stripe page to pay and checkout, it is not it primary feature. Stripe is used by e-commerce site owners to connect to their e-commerce platform and handle credit card transactions. Stripe is the intermediary between the buyer and the credit card companies such as Mastercard and Visa and the banks that use those brands to submit buyer’s credit card information for obtaining an authorization from the bank to submit a charge so that it allows the cardholder to make a purchase. On success, Stripe electronically tells the e-commerce platform that the purchase is approved, which in turn is displayed to the buyer. Stripe also accesses funds from the authorizing bank and transfers them to the e-commerce site owner. The bank in turn applies that charge to the credit card holder’s account for future payment.

Stripe Strengths:

  • Clears credit cards – Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover – by integrating with a shopping cart or ecommerce platform.
  • Fraud detection.
  • Easy to apply for an account and easy to integrate if you know what you are doing.
  • Has many partners it can integrate with.

Stripe Weakenesses:

  • Is not a standalone product. Relies on integration with other e-commerce products for best user experience.
  • Charges high fees (3.3% or more).
  • Design for technical users, not everyday user friendly.
  • Website is difficutlt to navigate.

Now that you know what the core uses are for Samcart vs Stripe, let’s discuss how they can work together to make e-commerce possible.

Stripe integrates into Samcart and is vitally necessary to clear a credit card transaction. A Samcart user (an e-commerce seller) must apply for a Stripe account and then enter that user account information into Samcart under an account holder’s settings so that Samcart can send transactions to Stripe to authorize a purchase on a buyer’s credit card.

Can Samcart be used without Stripe?

Samcart can be used without Stripe if it has also been configured with an e-commerce operator’s Paypal account. In this scenario, Samcart submits a charge to Paypal, and the buyer’s Paypal account is checked, and if there are available funds they are debited and approval is returned to allow the transaction go through. Paypal in turn pays the seller the funds less a processing charge of 2.7 to 3.5%. This fee is variable based on the kind of transaction. It may be more or less depending on the account holder’s agreement with Paypal.

To be able to run any transactions using Samcart, a seller much integrate either a Stripe account or a Paypal account. Optimally, both services are connected to Samcart so that the buyer has a choice to use either a credit card or a Paypal account when they make a purchase. Without either of these scenarios in place, Samcart cannot complete a transaction.

Can Stripe be used alone without Samcart?

Stripe can be used to run a transaction directly through Stripe’s own website. However this is not recommended and is not particularly user-friendly. Stripe works best when used with a commercial e-commerce platform. Stripe can be integrated with products like ThriveCart, GumRoad, Shopify (using “Shopify Payments). Here is a list of e-commerce platforms that Stripe integrates with.

Ready to choose one of these ecommerce technologies:

How to get an Infusionsoft free trial – now rebranded as Keap

If you are looking for an Infusionsoft free trial, the link below will help The company has been rebranded Keap. They still offer free trials. So now what is available is a Keap free trial.

Click here to sign up for the 14-day Keap Pro free trial.
It is the Infusionsoft free trial but rebranded and updated.

Infusionsoft is now keap

Need more info on this amazing marketing product? Ok here we go.

What is Keap? Is it Infusionsoft?

Keap (formerly Infusionsfot) is a digital marketing tool that helps you track your customers (its a CRM product) but is also lets you create complex email funnels with drag and drop capability to help with the design. It also has a sales management tool to keep track of your sales leads and track them all the way to a completed sale, again using a drag and drop tool.

Infusionsoft was the original company name that was also the name of the product.

In 2020 the company rebranded itself under the name Keap.

So what’s the difference? In this post I will show you three things.

1- The difference between Keap and Infusionsoft as products.

2- How to get an Infusionsoft free trial for Keap Pro.

3 – How to get the original Infusionsoft product, now called Keap Max.

All set? Great.

First let’s discuss the names: Keap vs. Infusionsoft.

Infusionsoft was the name of the CRM cloud services company that launched almost a decade ago in Arizona.

Its product was aimed at small to mid-sized businesses. It was an email marketing product mixed with custom relationship management (CRM) features that let you automate sales and marketing processes. That included sales funnel management like you would find in products like Salesforce, but simpler and easier to use with a drag and drop interface.

The product was complex and lead to people calling it Confusionsoft.

In 2020 Infusionsoft the company renamed itself Keap. And it created new entry-level products.

Infusonsoft’s new Keap product line-up.

So today the company Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) has four products.

1. Keap Lite

Keap Grow is the sales funnel version of the product. If you want to track your sales process and manage customers in a database then this product is for you.

2. Keap Pro

This is what most small businesses will want to start with as it has email automation, as well as a CRM and sales, funnel tracking and e-commerce inetrgation.

3. Keap Max

This is the full product for advanced users used to the original Infusionsoft product. It has a new user interface that is streamlined like keap but offers the original hardcore features for experienced Infusionsoft users.

Contact us if you have questions: andy@cyberwalker.com or sign up for a Keap free 14-day trial today. Click here to sign up for the 14-day Keap Pro free trial.

Request a free call with our certified Keap consultants

Our digital marketing agency provides companies with email marketing strategies and sales automation support including integrations with ecommerce systems.

Get a free call with us to ask questions, request a special rate for Keap, or find out more about how we can help your company use Keap to automate sales and marketing processes. Fill out the form below.

Introducing Samcart courses

So let’s talk about Samcart Courses. We have worked with a lot of online course platforms over the years including Kajabi, Teachable, Kartra, Podia and several others in the sector. But the one we have been really impressed with is an online product called Samcart Courses.

The platform was developed by Scott and Brian Moran who are the brains behind online shopping cart software that was founded in 2013. They built the online payments tool called yep, Samcart, which we use in our businesses and sell more than USD $10K per month via the platform.

Learn about the Samcart Courses platform (webinar).

How much time and money should you spend on marketing your startup?

When you are starting your own business, it can often be tricky to know how to divide your time and your budget most effectively to deal with each of the different aspects of successfully running a company. One of the most important aspects to consider is marketing.

How much of your time to invest in marketing

When you are first starting your business and have not yet built brand awareness, marketing is one of the most essential ways to spend your time. When you start out, you are likely to have significantly more time than you have money to spend, especially if you have not yet built a customer/client base. During these early stages, you may even be able to spend the majority of your time on marketing (as long as you do not neglect other vital aspects of running a business).

This time can be taken to try out different marketing techniques and channels, choose your brand personality, and generally work out what works best for you. Once you have set up reliable marketing channels, the time needed to spend on marketing can decrease, but you will still need to regularly update and monitor channels such as social media accounts. As you gain more business, time spent on marketing can likely be reduced, usually to somewhere between 10% and 20% of your total weekly working hours. As time spent is reduced, financial investment in things like paid ads can likely increase.

How much of your budget to invest in marketing

There are many expenses associated with starting your own business. For example, if you are starting a business in the state of Florida, you are legally required by the government to have workers compensation insurance if you employ four or more members of staff, and/or if your business is in the construction sector.

Deciding what percentage of your business’ budget to invest in marketing can depend on what sector your business is a part of. Not only do certain sectors have fewer expenses than others, but taking an active approach to marketing is also more essential in some sectors than in others (although some marketing is vital in all sectors). Businesses in sectors such as banking, transportation, and energy have on average some of the lowest percentages of their budgets spent on marketing (usually less than 10%), whereas consumer goods providers spend around a quarter of their budget on marketing.

If you are not sure how much of your budget to allocate, a good general rule-of-thumb recommended by business experts is to aim for approximately 10% if you are looking to grow your business, although this can be reduced to around 5% if you just want to simply maintain your current level of brand visibility. When starting out and aiming to get clients/customers, marketing will be more important and worth more funding than later on when you have a consistent client/customer base. Of course, the specific percentage of your budget will also depend on your sector and overheads.

How data analytics can help you

Using data analytics can help you to identify the most profitable marketing channels for your business, which can make your time and your financial investments more efficient in future.

Being adaptable to changing circumstances and regularly revising your marketing budget, strategy, and timetable can help you to create improved ROIs on your marketing activities.

How much time and money should you spend on marketing your startup?

Introducing Samcart courses

So let’s talk about Samcart Courses. We have worked with a lot of online course platforms over the years including Kajabi, Teachable, Kartra, Podia and several others in the sector. But the one we have been really impressed with is an online product called Samcart Courses. The platform was developed by Scott and Brian Moran who …

Continue reading “Introducing Samcart courses”

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