PHP Ecommerce Solutions

Finding a good ecommerce solution company can be a big task. Since there are so many different companies out there, you really need to know what you are looking for in a company. This will really help you eliminate those that will not work for you. Knowing what you need will also help you save a lot of time. Many of the companies will offer similar services, so you will need to have a list of the top things that are most important. That way if you are looking at two different options you will be able to use this list to help you decide which one to go with.

Know Your Top Important Needs
Making the list of the most important needs that the ecommerce solution company should have will be a time saver. Being able to eliminate companies that do not fit your needs will keep you from spending hours reviewing companies that are just not compatible.
Write out the list of needs that way you are not tempted to change them. Once you have decided what is most important, you will want to stick with those. If you change them too much, then you are going to find yourself going back and forth trying to make a decision. The best thing to do is to make the list and stick with it.
Here are some typical questions that you might ask yourself about your site:
• What is the goal of your website?
• Who will be visiting your website the most?
• What do you want to spend on a solution company?

Make a List of Ecommerce Solution Companies
Once you have made a list of your needs that you expect from one of the companies then you need make a list of the companies that meet most of the requirements. This will help you review only the ones that meet at least 2/3 of your requirements. You may find a company that may not meet all of your requirements, but has an alternative option that will benefit you more.
The list that you have compiled of solution companies can be used to check out other customer reviews. This is a great way to learn how this company responds to customer service and technical support. You do not want company that has a slow response time.

The Best Company For You
Choosing the best company for you can be a little bit of a daunting task. Making a list of your needs and comparing them to the list of companies that offer these things may not give you many options or it can give too many options. The best thing you can do is to take the time to review each possible prospect. You do not want to end up with a company that really does not hold up to their end of the deal. Reading customer reviews is a great way to learn about a company, but another way is send them “test” question to see how they respond. This will give you a firsthand look on how they handle their customers. In the end, this option may help you decide which company is best for you.

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PHP Shopping Cart Software Integration

PHP shopping cart software integration is frequently something that is overlooked. People simply think that all shopping cart software is easily integrated into a design. However, many shopping carts are not designed in a way that makes it very easy at all, while others make it so easy that a novice programmer could do it without blinking an eye. You should definitely keep an eye out though when purchasing shopping cart software on how easy it will be to get it onto your website.

If you are truly concerned, I would start out by asking the developer to provide the documentation on how to integrate it. This will likely give you a good perspective on what to expect. If the developer will not give you access to that, this could be a red flag that perhaps there is not good documentation or that it could end up being far more difficult than one would hope for.

I have seen some shopping carts that it is just a matter of putting a single line of code into your website. It will show up, look great, and you will never have a problem. Others will require that you manipulate every page of the shopping cart from beginning to end. You will need to build your website around the shopping cart, change button colors, alter the css file, and make other various HTML changes. These are a pain, and should be avoided when possible if they do not have the proper documentation. A good shopping cart will make it easy to alter the size, structure, and layout of the shopping cart. They might even have different themes available that might help you to match your existing design. When all else fails and you have odd colors, you might even just have to change a little bit of CSS to really get it looking like you would want it to look. It starts with good documentation though from the developer.

The importance of having an integrated shopping cart often goes overlooked. I will even go on to say that it lacks professionalism when it is not done properly. Some companies feel that simply having their banner or logo on the page of the shopping cart is good enough. To be honest though, this is not the extent I consider integration to be. If the buttons and colors of the shopping cart do not match your website, then this is not true integration. This is just something that lacks professionalism in my opinion.

When people are in the ordering process, it is natural for people to frequently back out. They might just be checking the final price on one of your items. However, others will place something in their shopping cart and the ordering process gives them time to ponder. Do they really need the item? Is this the right company to buy from? Is this the cheapest available on the internet? These are all questions that will run through almost every buyers mind. Why do you want to give them a reason to doubt the professionalism of your company? This is something that will cross their mind if you have a poorly done job on integrating your shopping cart. You want to give them every reason to buy from you, not every reason to leave your site. In the end, with good integration you will find that you will be much more pleased with your conversion ratios when people visit your shopping cart if it is integrated properly and matches your website as closely as possible.

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Top PHP Ecommerce Software

It can be difficult to find good software for running your online business. There are so many shopping carts available that you may find it hard to limit the list of software. Since there are not many reviews available that are not based on biased opinions, it makes the task even more difficult. With that said, here are five steps that will help you find the best shopping cart software for your online business.

1. Narrow Down Your Choices
First of all, you will want to narrow down the list of possibilities. There is no way that you could possibly review hundreds of shopping cart options; most of which would be a waste of your time. You do not want to become overwhelmed by software that would not meet your requirements to begin with.
A good way to narrow down your list is to look at prices and features that the software offers. You can eliminate a lot by knowing the features you would require for your online store. This will save you a lot of time since this will eliminate a number of possibilities. Knowing your price range is also a great way to eliminate what you cannot afford. You don’t want to spend time reading reviews on software that you can afford to purchase.

2. Know What Is Important
Knowing what your online store would require is the key to finding the best software. If you know the top 3 important requirements then you will less likely be bombarded with too much information. Once you know what you are really looking for you can start to eliminate the software choices that do not fit your needs.
Once you have narrowed down your choice, you may want to contact the vendor about how their software would support the different applications. Many times vendors can lead you to demos that will you show you exactly how the different applications will work for your site.This will save you a lot time.

3. Learn About The Customer Service
It is important to know the quality of their customer service. A good way to test this out is to send an email with a few questions about sales. You will want to pay attention to how quickly your questions were answered as well as what kind of format did they use to answer your questions. For example, did they just use some kind of programmed response instead listening to what you actually needed?
You will also want to check out the technical support that is offered. This is a major component in running an ecommerce business.

4. Find Reviews Written By Users
Reading the reviews of actual users is a great way to learn about shopping cart software. Users will often outline the pros and cons of the product for you. This will help you eliminate software that has a lot of negative reviews without wasting much of your time. This is also a great way to find software is highly ranked among users.

Using these four tips for finding shopping cart software for your online store; you will greatly increase the odds of finding the perfect software quickly. These tips will keep you from spending hours researching software that will not work for you business.

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Best Ecommerce Shopping Cart Selection

Making the right selection of an ecommerce shopping cart is about giving you the best opportunity to succeed in online business. A shopping cart that simply does not work as intended can not only be a headache for you, but also for those who are attempting to buy from you. Those who are having trouble may opt to leave and buy from someone else. This lowers your profit or could diminish it all together depending on how severe your problems are. It is very important to have a shopping cart that works and does what you need it to do. Below are some things to look for in making the best commerce shopping selection possible.

Maintenance is Made Easy

You may be thinking at this point that you will only be selling a few products on your site. However, countless people have become successful online and they want to offer new brands of their products or simply offer other items all together. Therefore, I always encourage people to find a shopping cart that will allow them to easily maintain their products. If it does not, then it really does leave you at a disability of expanding your business in the future.

The Shopping Cart Meets Your Needs

Unless there is simply no way to get around it, always try to find a shopping cart that meets your needs perfectly. Although PHP developers are plentiful, they do not always like to work on pre-existing code that they are not familiar with. It takes them more time to learn the code before they can actually make changes to it. Since this is the case, it will often pay off in the long run to pay a little bit more for a shopping cart that is already in perfectly working condition for you upon its initial setup on your website. Not only this, but the developer is also responsible for maintaining this portion of the script instead of you forking over money to get it updated as well after each time the shopping cart is upgraded to a newer version.

Trim the Fat!

Many people make the mistake of getting a shopping cart that has a ton of features. They feel that more features means much more value. However, this is really a misconception. More features frequently means that it will be more confusing for you to update. As well, it could cause your ordering process to be more complex, which is something you want to avoid in the world of ecommerce. In theory, you ideally want to get the information from clients as quickly as possible to not allow them the time to change their mind. Therefore, asking unnecessary questions, having a 10 step order process, or anything as should be avoided when possible. Finding a shopping cart that simply meets your needs is more ideal than one with too many features.

Customer Service is Important

Even though the script looks professional in the demo, it does not always mean that the documentation you receive when you make the purchase is going to be of the same quality. Undoubtedly, the best of developers may need help from the company in getting it setup properly. The unfortunate part is that not all companies do a good job of helping their customers. This means that this is something you should check before you make the purchase. It can simply be done by contacting them with a few questions about the script. Typically the timeframe that it takes for them to respond as well as the quality of their response is something you can expect as well if you have other questions after the purchase. It pays off in the end to check all your bases possible before buying any shopping cart software.

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Choosing a PHP Shopping Cart

I could sit here and tell you everything that I look for a shopping cart. It would probably be a laundry list of things. However, that is for my own website, and may not fit yours. Since you are selling different items more than likely, you may have a demand for different things. This is why there are also so many shopping carts on the market. Several of them have good customer service, they all run well, but it’s the little things that make their products unique. For this reason, several different shopping carts do sell well online because they are tailored towards different types of business needs. Below though, I have created a few things that should be true for all people who are looking for a good PHP shopping cart. I hope it helps you narrow down your choices.

Must Be Easy to Update Your Website

The most frustrating thing that can happen to anyone is to get their website up and running. The developer helped you get the products added to the website, you go live, and a few weeks later you realize that there are some missing items. You should be aware of how to update your website, because it is only going to be a matter of time before you have a desire to do so. You will want to tweak wording and change things to hopefully help you improve your sales. Believe it or not, there are some shopping carts on the market that make this process near impossible for anyone who is not familiar with HTML or PHP Programming. With that said, if I were you, I would make sure that before you purchase a PHP shopping cart that you understand how to update your products and those types of things. It will save you a headache in the end.

Must Have Good Support from Developers

It is simply natural that anyone who purchases a script is going to have some questions. They will want to know how to work a specific feature, how to set something up, or if there can be a feature added in a future release. Unfortunately, not all shopping carts are supported well. You essentially buy them “as is” and the minute you make your payment you are left on your own to figure things out or fix problems that might be in the script. The tip I offer to anyone who wants to see how good support is, is to simply ask a few questions to their customer service. Generally, in small businesses the people helping in sales / customer service will be the same people answer technical questions after you purchase the script. You will get a good idea of how helpful they will be, how clear their emails are, and how quick you might get a response. It is safe to say that no response probably means you will not get a response when you purchase the script and ask a question then either.

The Shopping Cart Meets But Does Not Surpass Your Needs

This is a tough line to follow because the first priority is to ensure that the script contains all of the features you might need. However, having one with too many can be almost an equally bad thing. Shopping carts with too many features can quickly become so complex that you will find it hard to manage your website. As well, those shopping carts that will virtually work for any website may have a very complex ordering form. This is not something you want if you really do not need it. The idea with ordering forms online is to have exactly what you need and nothing more. Therefore, even a script with too many features may need to be heavily modified just as if one you purchase that maybe does not have all the features you need. Therefore, both are going to cost you money. It is better to find a shopping cart as close to what you need as possible. It will save you money in the long run.

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PHP Shopping Cart Software Benefits

Are you looking for a shopping cart right now? Are you having trouble deciding between two shopping carts even though you know that they may be done in different languages? This is a common problem. As there are so many shopping carts on the market right now, it can be really difficult making the decision which shopping cart would just so happen to be right for you. If you are trying to make the choice between PHP or any other language, let me just be blunt on this issue: go with the PHP shopping cart. I do not think that you will regret your decision in the long run.

It is Easy to Find Developers

I can not tell you how many times I have purchased a script, wanted to change something small, and found a developer to make the change for me. While I almost always try to find scripts that do not need altering, there have been several times where it was simply unavoidable. This being the case, PHP is a language that has many developers. Some of these other languages have a very limited amount of programmers to choose from. Since this is the case, they almost always charge a lot more for any work they do. I have seen upwards of 5 or 6 times more the rates that they charge. If you go to the right place, some foreign PHP programmers will charge around $10 to $20 per hour. That is roughly the going rate for a good PHP programmer to do work on your scripts.

Most Web Hosting Does Support It

If you do not know a lot about what you are doing when you purchase web hosting, you most likely have purchased some type that supports PHP. The vast majority on the market do. However, there are other languages that your web hosting may not support. For example, if you are looking at a shopping cart that is coded with the language of asp, you will almost always need to find web hosting that supports that. In fact, most do not and that is why it can cost you more in the future as well. PHP is simply a language that is popular enough that most web hosting companies realize they must offer support for it to be competitive in their field.

PHP is Very Secure

When you are working ecommerce, there is no doubt that security is a big concern. You do not want to accidentally have your website hacked. This not only looks bad on you, but could cost you a lot of money in the end if you are found guilty of not properly protecting clients’ information. However, hacking is not as big of a concern if the programming is done properly when it comes to PHP. PHP is actually just a language that tells the server to do something. Therefore, everything that it does is always unseen by the average user. This is not to say that if you use PHP that your site can not be hacked. It is simply saying that processing client information with PHP is frequently done and not a security risk.

Easy Integration

Since PHP is really built to drive websites, scripts are frequently done in a way that makes integration of the script extremely easy. Therefore, many shopping carts that you feel would work right out of the box you may be able to setup yourself. Even if you do not know much about programming a little guidance from forums and reading the installation instructions could save you a lot of money. This way, you are not hiring someone else to do it for you. Not all PHP scripts are done in a way that makes it easy, but many are so it is hit and miss one which ones you can do yourself and which ones you cannot if you not familiar with PHP programming.

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Why PHP Shopping Cart Software?

By this point, you are probably already looking around at various shopping carts. You probably already have a rough idea of which ones you are looking at. However, like many people, you may have found ones that were built with different languages. The purpose of this article is to tell you which one I prefer, and I will tell you why. To put it simply, I try to stick with PHP whenever I can. Unless it might save me money to go with the other, but I always try to keep the long-term point of view in perspective when purchasing scripts. PHP is simply the better long-term choice.

It is Easy to Make Changes

PHP is actually not a difficult language. With a couple of books, you will be well on your way to modifying and perhaps even creating fairly advanced scripts. PHP may appear confusing at initial glance, but if you take the process one step at a time, I have seen people learn the language in mere hours. I am not going to say that you will for certainty be able to make changes. However, other developers can if you are unable to do so. With this being the case, it drives the price down because the vast majority of changes you might be seeking are rarely complex.

Many Developer to Choose From

Unfortunately with many languages that are less popular, there are far less developers in the marketplace. This proposes two significant problems. First, you are looking at far more expensive rates. Just like anything else, if there are very few people in the field, you can typically charge more. Programmers are no different. They know that if you are asking for a request that only a few people can do then they can charge more to complete the task. Secondly, when you do find a developer, you will almost always be stuck with them for quite a while. Just like any other profession, you find some good ones and some bad ones. They might be extremely slow in getting your tasks completed. Unfortunately, where as with PHP you can quickly change developers, other languages you may not be able to do that with.

Information Will Be Secure

In the world of ecommerce, people are already skeptical about buying things online. They are concerned about their information and you know that you will be handling a lot of private information that should never get leaked out to the public. Credit card information, full names, and addresses are just a few things that people want to keep private. Therefore, security of that information is a huge part of having a successful business. Luckily, PHP is always server side scripting. This simply means that PHP handles information away from where others can see it. This is not to say that PHP websites can not be compromised by hackers. However, it is far less common if the programming side of things is done properly.

PHP is Almost Always Supported

PHP is an extremely popular language. For this reason, almost any web hosting company supports it in at least one of their packages. I have yet to see a web hosting company that charges extra or requires you to buy an expensive package for access to use PHP scripts on your website. Unlike other languages, such as asp, you will be limited to not only which packages you can use, but even companies. Most web hosting companies, in fact, do not even support that language. However, you may find shopping carts on the market that are built in this language. Generally speaking, I think PHP is simply the better choice.

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Ecommerce Site Design – The Functionality

There are a lot of things that people look at when they start developing an ecommerce website. Unfortunately though, so many people want to break the simple rules to produce something that is extremely unique. I do not have a problem with unique websites, but many times they go so far against the rules of Ecommerce Site Design that they end up hurting themselves more than they help. Below I have several rules that you should consider when developing your website. If you feel that you break any of these rules, you should really contemplate whether what you are doing is productive to your goal in an ecommerce business.

Rule #1: Place your best selling products at the forefront.

In several of the articles you may have already read, I have been stressing the fact that you have to test what is working. Checking how many sales you are making on specific products is no different. It works similar for almost all companies. Generally, they have one product or service that they are well known for. Others are side items that are generally purchased along with your main product. Therefore, if you are going to sell laptops, you do not want your customers to have to sift through hundred of laptops bags before they ever come across one. Your specials and hottest items should be directly on the front page where they are easily visible and enticing to the buyers.

Rule #2: Make it easy for your visitors to search for products.

This is especially the case if you have a website that will have a lot of products on it. You should break down your products into relevant categories, have those categories easily visible. If all else fails, you may want to have a search feature to. There are numerous ecommerce sites where I have used their search feature before. It is frustrating though when it does not work. So if you have a search option, make sure it is functional. Overall though, if your visitors can not find the products they are looking for, they will leave as quickly as they came.

Rule #3: Make the order process easy to complete.

The hardest part to get people to convert in many websites cases is the transition from adding the product to the shopping cart to actually completing the order. However, many companies make it so difficult that they probably lose a good portion of their business before they ever get the opportunity to charge a credit card. I am going to go ahead and pick on GoDaddy here. It is without a doubt one of the best domain registrar companies in the world. But their ordering process is terrible. I have told friends who are not very computer savvy to order from there and probably most than half of the time I have to spend time walking them through so that they do not get other products that they do not need. Many turned away from GoDaddy until I was able to help them. For those that might have registered there but did not have anyone to help them with the process, they probably lost them as a customer before the ordering process was completed. Do not do this! The order process should be easy, you should be straight-forward and it should be able to be completed within a few minutes after basic information has been input.

Rule #4: Make it easy for website visitors to contact you.

You will find when you look at many ecommerce stores that there are numerous ways to contact the business. There is good reason for this. You do not want to lose out on what people call “leads”. Essentially, anyone who contacts you for information about your product is considered a high quality “lead”. In fact, it is stated in some places that as many as 30% of those who contact you about your product will end up buying from you. However, it is safe to assume that if they are unable to contact you or you do not respond that you are losing out on a lot of business. For this reason, I would encourage you to allow people email you, use a web form, submit a support ticket, or give you a phone call. Perhaps, you should also have several avenues to make it easier. These forms of contact should be extremely visible and easy to access. For example, if you have a phone number for your ecommerce business, this should be directly on the front page.

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