Need Trade Show Booth Registration / Purchase Form / Taking money

[purplemagpie]

Hi,

I'm working on a site for ComFish Alaska, which is the biggest commercial fisheries trade show in the state.

The Kodiak Chamber of Commerce sells about 80 booths and have previously used a Joomla site (http://comfishalaska.com/) that is being replaced by a WordPress site and I'm using the Agency Theme. You can't see the old form as that page is turned off on the old site, but you can see the old site at comfishalaska.com. The new site is still in my computer.

I've never dealt with anything to do with reservations, credit cards, PayPal, etc. and I need suggestions and help in picking a reservation/pay system.  Here's how the old one worked. There was a form that asked lots of questions including Credit Card info. Then the Joomla thing sent the Chamber an email saying someone (probably So-And-So) registered. Then they would manually run the CC info. The register thing also kept a long listing of all the people with all their info in a grid / database thing. It almost seems like a service that they subscribed to, but I'm not sure.

This year they'd also like to include an automatic "take the credit card and run it" system and say they have a commercial PayPal account and would be happy to run the whole ball of wax money collection through PayPal, though I doubt that every one of those fish businesses have PayPal, but maybe enough do that it'll work fine.

I'm totally out of my league and am afraid to mess up people's money and credit cards / Pay Pal accounts,  so I need a totally reliable system. I've worked really hard to convince them that Joomla is history and WordPress is the only way to go, so I need to come through on this.

I am willing to purchase another theme if you think a different e-commerce one would work better.

Got any suggestions? Thanks for the help.

[Redwood]

Can't help but ask - as a novice how did you get such a task  dropped into your lap?

Have a look at this as a starting point: http://www.organizedthemes.com/paypal-registration-forms/

You may also want to look at using Gravity Forms: http://www.gravityforms.com/

[sahdow]

Not certain I understand the concerns about businesses having PayPal (though I doubt that every one of those fish businesses have PayPal), but Gravity forms with PaPal is the way to go for quick and easy setup.

Registrations through PayPal will not require the end user to have a PayPal account; they can simply choose the CC option.

Also PayPal does offer a Merchant account that will denote The Chamber instead of PayPal - bussiness name on the purchasers bank statement.

Anyone with their own booth should be running their own payment system, so the above should fill the needs of the Chamber.

[purplemagpie]

Thanks Redwood and Sahdow,
I just purchased 1 year Professional Gravity Forms on your recommendations. And I got a 25% OFF by using a link from wpbeginner.com!

I will get back with you, Redwood on how I got the gig. But I must get outside before the darkness descends. Such short days this time of year in Alaska!

Thanks again to both of you!

Maggie

[sahdow]

For the PayPal stuff, I think you need to get the plugin (included free in your GF license), but once you play with Gravity Forms, you will ask yourself why you ever tried forms with WP any other way - one of the few times you will run across truth in advertising with point and click.

[AnitaC]

Have you heard of Eventbrite.com? You could set this up with Eventbrite - for registration and ticket sales, accept PayPal, Google Checkout, Checks or Pay at the Door options. They have bar codes and free readers. I've used it a lot. They charge a small fee, but it's smaller than most credit card companies. They have EMBED codes to embed the ticketing system right onto your website.

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