It’s not just a site! An eCommerce store is something beyond that. It’s the place where you turn your business big by customers making considerable purchases every now and then. Hence, it has become more and more vital for any eCommerce site to fix upon a shopping cart software that is immensely great. A few hundreds of shopping cart softwares have been released on the market so far and the notable thing is, most of these shopping carts look identical. This happens to be the major reason why most of the eCommerce store owners stuck up at the midst of choosing a shopping cart software for their site. Plenty of stuffs are there to look about while comparing a shopping cart software with others.
If you are relying on an open source shopping cart
Open source carts, in other words, free shopping carts are the best to rely with, if and all you have a developer assistance on your side. If there is someone to build your website efficient with open source shopping cart, then without any doubt you can get with one.
If you are relying on premium carts
Premium kind of carts can be the apt, if you wish to have a ready-made solution for your site needs. It might be hesitating to hire a developer and get the whole process done complete. Instead, spending few bucks for a ready-made solution can be wiser to many.
Let it specifically match your needs
As mentioned earlier, there are a plethora of shopping carts available, among which can be the best rated ones and least rated ones. Never mind about the popularity based carts that are commonly used by other stores. Let it be a least used cart, check whether it purely matches your needs. You know what is important to your business and measure with the cart whether it enfolds your basic requirements. It is better to filter up your most basic needs first and then step into the hunt for an appropriate shopping cart.
Get the list shortened
I know you’ll be having a hundred more shopping carts on your list to choose among, which is wholly impossible. Filter your list based on the shopping cart offering companies which upgrade their softwares and products very often. While on this basis itself, a majority of low quality carts will be driven out away.
User Reviews
Reviews are greatly valued with any kind of purchase. Hearing about from people who have already purchased and used the carts which you are having on your top list, will definitely allow you to rely on the best one.
Check with live stores
This can be one great way to get you the apt one. You can have a look at the live stores which are running on the shopping carts you wish to purchase. This not only get you with the exact user experience of the cart but also brings you the feel on how the cart works in real world.
While the above are few basic things to look upon, here is a list of vital things that needs to be noted down individually on open source shopping carts :
E-commerce hosting
An outstanding shopping cart software needs to be brilliant about e-commerce hosting. Look whether it features a hosted storefront and secure cart. The number of products allowed to add on the cart, storage space, data transfer, personalized domain, SSL security and unique email boxes are certain things to look up on while choosing a shopping cart software.
Design & Customization
The design of the cart needs to be greatly convincing. Ensure whether it comes with an option for web design software integration. It’s also better if it enfolds customized basic design settings. Most of the promising shopping cart softwares comes with a theme builder and HTML design editor.
Marketing tools
Any shopping cart, if encrypted with efficient marketing tools, is definitely going to shine out. Search engine friendly carts have much to do with the success of your business.
Promotions
While it is for cart, it needs to comprise features to run promotions. The carts, if integrated with in-built options like coupon codes, member promotions, gift certificates, built-in sale price, quantity discounting and merchant programs can blindly be looked upon.
Support
Make sure the cart software you are opting for, has an excellent compatibility for supporting over checklist, online tools & help, priority email tech, 24X7 toll free phone tech, training videos and much more.
Customer Management
An efficient shopping cart comes with an excellent customer management system. Check whether it carries options for services, subscriptions and memberships. Also look for features like multiple buyer groups, customer accounts, email notifications, view order history, recurring orders, customer access and few others.
Payment Processing
If it’s with a cart, what matters greatly is the payment processing options that get along. Check whether the cart offers multiple payment methods, merchant account integration, credit card processing, invoice management, recurring billing, paypal processing, batch order processing, security code support and similar other things.
Conclusion
Comparing shopping cart software is never an easy thing. The success of your online store entirely lies on the shopping cart you choose for it. And bare in mind, shopping carts have got everything to do with your online business. Hence, just not simply click on the first search result displayed on Google. Compare, analyze and make a move that is absolute!
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September 26, 2012
October 10, 2012
hi this is tonymark thanks for giving comparision information on ecommerce software
Shopping cart is now used throughout the world as more and more people are joining the bandwagon of ecommerce websites. The platform makes the setup and maintenance of the shopping cart as easy as possible.