If you are starting a e-tail or e-service business, you are probably overwhelmed with all the possible e-commerce shopping carts available. It’s critical that you choose the right one for your online business.  There is no “one size fits all.”  First, you need some basics on shopping carts in general.

A shopping cart allows customers to use a variety of features in order to find, learn about, order and purchase your products or service.  The cart is integrated into your Web site through links that customers can click to access the services required.  For example, many e-commerce Web sites have a “search” link that gives users the ability to find their items of interest with your online business.

In most cases, you want to get the best online shopping cart at the most reasonable cost. You do not want to spend thousands of dollars to have programmers reinvent the wheel. There are numerous turn-key e-commerce shopping cart solutions already created, so you do not have to build one from the foundation up.  These services offer a variety of designs, security measure, and support services at a range of prices.  In addition, most web hosting services provide their own shopping cart packages included in or added on to your monthly fee.  

The shopping cart software programs makes purchasing easier and safer for  customers and helps you manage the store’s product from purchasing to shipping of goods.  The “storefront” is a Web page where visitors see the products offered.  The shopping cart “administration” is what you used to manage your online business store.  Here you can regularly update the Web page.  

Two Types of Shopping Cart Software

“Licensed software” is downloaded and installed on the Web server. It usually has a one-time fee, along with other free or additional price products available.  You can host it on any Web server, and you have the flexibility to change this system as your business needs’ change. 

“Hosted software”  is provided by the Web host service and cannot be downloaded or changed. You will pay for this service monthly, quarterly or annually.  This type of software is ideal for new online businesses that are just starting to sell a product or brick-and-mortar businesses that want an e-commerce site to connect to their store. It is not for a large organization that use programmers and need sophisticated IT technology.  

Features to Consider When Comparing Shopping Carts

1) When you start an online business, you want a software that has completely secure transactions, 24/7 phone (chat), support, free upgrades, and easy-t0-use features for both your customers and your own maintenance.  

3) Flexibility in pricing features is essential in a shopping cart software. This lets you establish several different pricing options for promotions, wholesale or retail, affiliates, coupons, larger quantity buying and other discounts.

4) Your customers want to be able to compare products and get input from other users.  Product reviews can be a very powerful tool for business Internet marketing online.  It is O.K. to show neutral, negative and positive. In fact, that is better than no product reviews at all.  Provide an easy way for customers to post their reviews.

5) If you have a lot of products in your catalog and want to start your online business quickly, you want flexible cataloguing features with bulk import/export, product duplication for catalog additions, broad inventory management features for setting minimum quantities and highlighting back-ordered items.

6) Your customers will want to have several different shipping options, such as  USPS, UPS and Fedex. Your shopping cart also needs to be able to mark up the shipping rates by percentage/flat amount in order to add handling fees.

7) When customers come to your site, you want to leverage their buying in every way possible. Through up-selling, you can offer a product that is of greater value than the one they presently have in their cart. Through cross-selling, you provide recommendations of other items that are similar to the one they are buying.  

8  ) The catalog copy, headlines, product reviews and other information should all be search engine optimized. You need to be able to add your own title tags, meta descriptions and keywords. 

9)  Every online business needs to have a search function, and the more options available the better, for example, through specific categories or prices.  Make it easy to to spot the search button.

10) Many sites ask for customers to register before filling their shopping carts.  Online buyers do not have a lot of patience. Once deciding on an item to buy, they will fill out the needed information about themselves and the buying method.  You don’t want them to leave the site before they even consider buying a product.  If you want to add to enhance your business  Internet  marketing online through building a list, then offer a downloadable e-report or newsletter for free with an opt in.  

11) A number of e-commerce sites will not show the customers the price until they actually are at the last stages of buying.  You need to openly display your product prices and shipping costs as early as possible. Savvy shoppers want to compare product costs from one site to another.  Once they being to buy, they also want to know how much they are spending after each item is added.

12) Analytics are an important way to follow your customers’ buying habits, such as how they got to your site, what else they have purchased, how long they stay on your site and what interests them. The more you know about your customers, the better you can service them.