For years I have searched for a good embeddable ecommerce solution. But, I have yet to find anything great. I don't want a templated storefront and content management system--just something that can be implemented on an existing or separately designed website. Do you have any suggestions? This is what I have found so far.
PayPal www.paypal.com
Allows for "add to cart" buttons to be placed anywhere and can control inventory and options. This is great, but the popup/new-window cart and checkout are not ideal or integrated with the website. Fees are around 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for the "Standard" plan.
WePay www.wepay.com
Also allows for "add to cart" buttons that can be placed anywhere and can control inventory and options (although it doesn't appear to have different inventory entries for each option, so you may have to create a new button for each option in order to control inventory) and the cart and checkout are embedded as an on-site popup, so the customer never leaves your page. More stylish than PayPal, and better integrated, but seems to produce some weird behaviour. For example, if a customer tries to enter a new quantity for an item while viewing the cart and then hits enter it redirects to the WePay website--same thing if a customer hits checkout on the cart when no items are present. Fees are about the same as PayPal Standard, around 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
Cashie Commerce www.cashiecommerce.com
Probably the best as far as embeddable ecommerce. Not a popup, so you need to be able to create cart and checkout pages, but the "add to cart" buttons can be placed anywhere and control inventory and options. The cart and checkout are embedded with Javascript on the pages (of any design) created for them. Buttons, cart, and checkout are fully style-able with CSS. The only real drawback is the price, the basic plan is $5 per month plus 2.5% transaction fee. Cashie Commerce uses PayPal, so you also have the 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction fee from PayPal, and $5 per month if you want PayPal "Advanced" so that customers can pay on your website. So, it quickly adds up for a small shop.
Helium www.gethelium.com
Looks very promising, but is still very new and so not yet full-featured. No ability to add multiple items to the cart or track inventory--although both features are planned. "Buy" buttons can be placed anywhere and the cart/checkout embeds as a popup on your website, so no redirection. Helium charges a 2% fee per transaction and uses Stripe www.stripe.com as the payment processor. Stripe charges a 2.9% + $0.30 fee per transaction. Could be the best option when it is more capable.
Space Box www.spacebox.io
Another promising looking option. Not a cart really, it creates a separate payment page for each "space" that you create. "One-Time Payment" spaces can be used to sell products. No inventory support yet, but it is a planned feature, to be able set inventory for each space. Could be used to create an alternate kind of store. Uses Stripe payment processing. The basic plan is 1% fee per transaction on top of Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30.
Cartloom www.cartloom.com
Offers buttons that can be placed anywhere and an embedded popup cart. Looks pretty nice, but payment is on a separate Cartloom-hosted page. Also, not a lot of information about the company on their website--a bit more information might make someone feel more comfortable signing up for their $9.95 per month plan. Uses Stripe at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction or the option of a few other payment processors.
Those are the main one's I have been looking at. I have also seen E-Junkie, FoxyCart, and Mal's E-commerce, but E-Junkie is not the slickest looking solution and payment is still on a separate E-Junkie-hosted page, and FoxyCart and Mal's do not track inventory. ShopLocket and Goodsie are both interesting-looking, but do not seem able to integrate enough for a "professional shop".
So, are there any others I am missing? Some great find/suggestion? As many options as have been popping up in this category, there really doesn't seem to be one with a great experience yet. Seems like a good potential area for a web application creator/programmer. I would really like it to have:
-"Add to cart" buttons that can be placed anywhere
-Inventory tracking on a per option basis or at least on a per product basis
-Shipping and tax rules
-Emeddable cart and checkout, either in pages or as popups on the site page
-Buttons, cart, and checkout style-able with CSS
-Use Stripe or Braintree payments
