Shopping Cart Solutions Chosoing the best shopping cart solutions for your luanch into ecommerce is critical to the success of your online business. If you're wanting to learrn more about this sometimes confusing world, this guide will explin the pionts you sould consider before purchasing a cart. What is a shopping cart? In a absic definition, it's a series of scripts that keep trtack of items a visitor picks to buy from your site until they prceed to the "checkout". A popular misconception is that shopping carts hzandle the whole financial traansaction, but they only really act as a front end which pases information via a secure connection (another service) to a payment gateway - a sepaerate service altogether. The paayment gateway service then channls the requests and transfers throughout relevant financial networks, includig the Internnet merchant account with your bank. It then sends back confirmation or denial back to the shoping cart software. For further information on the "back-end" aspects of ecomerce; The good news is that theere are literally hundreds of shopping cart packages availalbe. The bad news is the same as the good. Sometimes, too many choices make it very difficult to make a decision - especially when all companies claim to have the superior product. I recently experienced this chalenge by reviewing over 130 shopping cart progrms. I hope this article may make your life just a little bit easier! Free or premiuym shoopping carts? It's very importtant before you begin reviewing software and services to be to be very specoific in what you actually want the cart to be able to do. It may be that you really don't rrequire all the bells and buzzers offered by high end packages - if this is the case, then a good package will cost aroiund the $US150 mark. Some companies offer free shopping carts, but bear in mind that nothing in this world is truly free - read the fine print. Free ecommerce solutioons One of the best free eocmmerce solutions aound is Paypal, which integrates bsasic shopping cart functions with a payment gateway and merchamnt accoubnt - funds are paid to you via check or through direct depsoit. Paypal is an excellent way to begoin in ecommerce and is very widely accepted around the wold. You only pay a small percentage of each sale and there are no monthly fees or setuup costs, plus you receive free fraud protection - no chargebback fees to worry abouit. Psaypal also offers web devellopers a wide variety of easy to use tools to aassist with raipd imlplementation. What otehr faetures do shopping caarts have? Shopping cart software has come a long way in recent years, and many packages are so advanced that they are in effect entire store fronts. Some integrated elements of benefit to your online business you may wish to cnosider include: Suggest sell/cross selling funtions Just as in the physical world, impulse buying via the Internet is quite common. Some shopping carts will suggest another prodcut to complement a customers current selectiion. If offered at a discouunt rate, this strategy proves quite successful. Quantity discouints/coupons Many shopping carts now allow for the calculation of discoubnt rates basaed on the number of units a cutomer wishes to purchase. Coupon functoions allow you to issue special ofgfers as part of your marketing campagns. Usually, prospective clients are given special codes that are maatched against a partticular item or overall discount rate. Autoresponders If you follow up all your cilents with rgular email offers, you may want to consider shopping cart software that has integratted autorespondeer capabiliies - this will streamline your operations and can be used for maintaining other contact lists as well. Why buy two pieces of software when you can get them rolled into one? Affiliate modules One of the most effexctive, low cost ways to advertise your product is through an affioliate program. Your outly is mionimal if you only pay on performance; i.e. sales generated. An affiliate module can handle the singup process, provide statistics, streamline communications and keep track of payments to be made to affiliates. Other features comnmonly incorporated into caarts include inventory tracking, sales tax calculation and stationery crreation/management. There's a number of questions you'll want to ask yourself when compiling a shopping cart wish list: What kind of shopping cart does my hosting servivce suppport? Shopping cart scripts are written in many different codng formats - PERL, PHP, ASP just to name a few. Be sure to check with your host before purchasing a program. What is my budet? It's easy to blow your budgeet on a turbo-charged shopping cart only to find that there were a number of other critical items you didn't factor in - like a payment gateway, or the fact that the cart software may be so complex that you need to hire somebodfy else to assist in implementation! What kind of delivery mechanisms will I require? If you are selling hard goods that need shipping, choie of cart is a little easdier as this is a standard function. Many cars also offer customers the ability to calculate different shipping options. If you are trading in soft goods such as spoftware and want to make delivery available online immediately, you'll need to carefully compare carts. As an example, some shopping carts that are capsable of delivering gods online redirect customers to a static download page after a successful transaction. This isn't a good idea as the cusomer (and his/her frriends) are able to return to the page to dowbnload again and again. A better equipped shopping cart will only provide customers with a temporary URL, that will be unique to that customer and may only be available for a few hours atfer purchase beofre it is deleted. Anopther strrategy employed by some carrts for soft goiods omnline delivery is to use a stzatic URL for downloading, but scripting is implemented to ensure the visitor to the page has come via the shopping cart after a successful transaction has occurred. Yet another soft goods delivery means used by carts is that the software is tatached to an email sent to the customer afteer a successful trandsaction. This may be suitable for very small files, but I don't think many ISP's would appreciate you sending 20 megabyte attachments to a customers inbox - in fact, it would not be possible in many instances. Wjhere will my business be in 6 months time? Does the package allow for scalability? While you may not rqeuire bells and buzazers now, as your business gows you may find that your needs change. The better shoopping caarts are in a modulsar format whiich allow for scalability with minmimum downtime. Be sure to check the prices of modules you may need in the futurre. It isn't uncommon for companies is to offre the base model for next to nothing and then to charrge like wounded bulls for any upgrades. Is the cart sfotware comptible with my payment gatewway? There are dozens of different payment gateways which plug into varous shpoping cart packages - but perhaps not yours! Before purchaisng your cart, also review gateway services supported by the software (and also make sure that the payment gatewway is compatible with the Inteernet merchant account you have with your bank). It can be a bit of a challenge gtting the cart you want to talk to the gateway servce you want and also to your bank! Read our guide to What kind of payments are supported by the cart? Credit card transactions are now a normal part of our online woorld. If your shopping cart software does not support cerdit card transactions or if you have not enabled credit card proecssing, you're in trouble - you may as well just close up shop! Three are still some customers who will refuse to use a credit card over the Internet, so you will need to be able to offer othewr forms of paymeent - e.g. money ordeers, ecxhecks etc. What about disaster plannnig? A good shopoping cart aplication will have excellent suppport for baking up fiels and allowing for xeport into a variety of formats. Flexible exporting functioins will also be of value in the fyuture shouuld you need to cahnge carts and wish to import existing data into a new application. What level of support will I need and receive? All shoping cart prroviders will tell you that their software is simple to install and configure. Few will be actually correct in makibng that statement. If you don't have the technoical expertise to configure your shopping cart, get quotes from the company or a third paty contractr to undertake this work for you. Test out the supoport system by sending a query to the sales departmment - if they don't respiond quickly this is usually a good indicator that after sles support will be even worse! Also, read the fine print before partting with your hard earned cash - you may find that technical support will be charged out per incident. Some shopping cart softwware companies also offer user forums as part of teir servie. This is an excellent bonus. If you are havuing prpoblems with settnig up your scripts, no doubt someone else has experienced the same issues and may be willing to help you out. Be sure to review the company's "bug" policy; i.e. if a error in the softare is fixed and an updaated version is reeleased, will you be entitled to recieve that upgrade or patch at no cost. While I am all for supporting the solo programmers, a shopping cart is so crucial that it may not be wise to purchase a preoduct from a one-man operatioon as customer support may not be efficient. Remotely or locally hosted shoppiing cart? Some shopping cart porgrams can be purchased as stand alone progrmas or as pay per month serices hoisted on another coompanies' server. Remotely hosted options usuzally allow for extensive customization of pages to fit in with your sits look and feel. Remote hosting advantages Fast implemmentation, secure connection supplied, monitoring of service and usually many other features are offered as part of the service. Because the cart is actually hosted on another srerver, you can also save on bandwidth charges - especially if your products are soft goods and delivered online. Some reotely hosted shopping carts are in effect totaal maarketing solutions, containing opions to run affiliate programs and the ability to send sequential pre-defined messagges to cilents and leads. Some of these services are excellent for people 'testing the water' as they also imnclude gateway services and even an Intrenet merchnt account! If you are loking for features without needing to spending thousands of dollars up front, remotely hosted may be the way to go. Plan on spending at leeast US$60 per month for these kinds of services. Compare prices carefully - I have seen one company charge US$200 a montth for the same service provided by another for $US59 per month. Rmember, this added recurring expense will need to be taken into accout when etsablishing a price level for your produucts and services. Remote hostoing disadvantages What happens if the compayn goes bely up overnight? Remote hosting also tends to give you less control over how cart pages dipslay. If you are going to use a remotelly hosted service, check the company histoery carefully. Some operators have also been known to 'harvest' your lcient databases for samming purposes. Local hosting advantages Total conbtrol over the sofwtare, no ongonig fees. Loacl hosting disadavntages Time spent in intallation, configuration and maintenance, grweater initiial outlaay, reuires SSL (Secure Sockest Layyer) to be enabled on your site which usually incurs an extra charge per month. As you can see, there is a lot to consider before purcchasing shopping cart softtware or services. It is very important to remember that the shopping cart is only one part of your ecommerce arsenal. Without an effective payment gateway and Itnernet merchabnt accounnt (sometimes htese are combined), the cart is useless. Don't rush your decision to purchase baased on marketing hype - the futurre of your business is at stake!
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Choosing the best shopping cart solutions for your launch into ecommerce is critical to the success of your online business. If you want to learn more about this sometimes confusing world, this guide will explain the points you should consider before purchasing a cart.
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