Top Shopping Cart Software Features

Looking for the right shopping cart software for you can be a daunting task. There are so many ones available out there, finding a good one that meets your needs is difficult. Worse though, some of the companies out there will frequently have issues that need to be addressed for most ecommerce business owners. Below are some things to ensure that is included in the features of your shopping cart. If not mentioned one way or the other, ask the shopping cart company / seller to verify that these features are included with the purchase you might be making.

Easy Product Management

Some shopping carts on the market look great from the front. They seem to have the appearance that you want your business to have in its product listing, and it works exactly how you want it to. The problem is though, adding products is hard and you may find that instead of having a shopping cart that will work for your 100+ products, its intended use was for a business that only had a handful of products they were selling. This is frustrating and can rack up several unwarranted man hours in adding products to the website. Make sure that Easy Product Management is always available within any shopping cart software.

Easy Payment

Some people neglect the thought about how they are going to be accepting payments. Others, may have it in mind, but never make sure that that option is available in their shopping cart software. For example, not all shopping cart software will work with all the merchant accounts on the market. As well, not all shopping carts will work with PayPal. You should make sure that the payment option you have in mind works with the shopping cart you will be purchasing. If it is not listed, you should ask the company selling the shopping cart software to either add the capability of using your payment method before purchasing.

No Limitations on How Many Items You Can Have

Unfortunately, I have seen some shopping cart software, particularly those that you would host with them, that would limit you on how many products you can have. This is really outrageous and simply a good way for them to make a few extra dollars by having you as a customer. Chances are, if you are successful in your business, you will want to build your product database up over time. You should not be limited to how many products you can offer in any circumstance.

Existing and Customizable Themes

There are a few shopping carts on the market that are notoriously difficult to modify and customize to the look you want. Others may not even have a decent looking theme at all. You should be sure that whichever one you choose, it should be fairly close to what you have in mind for the appearance of your own shopping cart. Without that, you may find yourself spending a lot of money in modifying the look to get it like you want. Obviously, not everyone will want the same appearance, so the best shopping carts out there on the market are typically fairly easy to modify the colors and those types of things.

Grow by leaps and bounds with software to skyrocket your business: ecommerce shopping cart software, content management system software, and email marketing software by Interspire.

Ecommerce Software: Single Page Checkout

There are many benefits to having your checkout system being a single page, and without question one of the biggest benefits is that it will be easier to use. Having a difficult checkout process will certainly hurt your business. With the society we live in, we want things to be as easy as possible. We have check cards which almost everyone uses right now. When we go to large retail stores, we have people that place items in bags for us, multiple lines, it is quick and it is easy. The online ecommerce checkout system must be similar as well.

One of the biggest problems that you will face online when you do not have a single page checkout system is that you will quickly find that you are losing traffic. Regardless of how beautiful your pages are, I have never seen a page which did not lose some elements of traffic. This is referred to as a bounce rate. For example, if a page has a bounce rate of 0%, then means that 0% of the people who visit this page are leaving the website while on the page. 100% would mean that everyone who visits that page is leaving to go to another website when they go to it. Any page with a lot of traffic going to it will never have a 0% bounce rate. With a lengthy checkout process, you are losing more traffic with each page they have to go through to buy your product. On a single page checkout, you might have a 60% bounce rate, but on a multiple page checkout system, you may only get a fraction of the 60% who may have purchased your item.

There are a few reasons why this may happen. One of the biggest reasons is that people begin second guessing themselves about the purchase. Especially if it is an expensive item, people will contemplate whether they really need that item just before they put in their credit card. The lengthier the checkout process, the more time you give them to decide they no longer really need or want the product. The quicker you can get them interested and through the checkout, the more likely you will avoid this problem.

Another problem is that more and more people are using the internet to buy things. Many people may be buying from you who have never bought anything online before. This may be a strange thought to you, but particularly in ecommerce, this is always a good possibility. Since this is the case, they are used to having people help them during checkout processes. After a few pages of going through a checkout, they may quickly decide that they are not sure that they are doing things properly and just go elsewhere. Again, you are losing a valuable customer simply because your checkout process is too long and too difficult to complete.

Lastly, the vast majority of multiple page checkouts look very unprofessional in comparison to single page checkouts. Often times they are simply used because they came with some type of ecommerce software. You really do not need users to create accounts for any particular reason, or you may not need some information that is requested. Most people will quickly call you out on these types of things and may leave all together if they feel that they are being asked questions that do not need to be asked for their purchase. I would encourage you to get rid of parts of a checkout form that you know you will not need. Developers are capable of doing this very inexpensively so that you can be sure to get the most of those who are contemplating buying your products.

Grow your online business with software web designers love: ecommerce shopping cart software, content management system software, and email marketing software by Interspire.

Understanding the E-commerce Software: Single Page Checkout

Today, E-commerce technology has transformed the way customers shop online. While online shopping used to be such a taxing and intimidating experience, it has turned into a friendly and easy experience for people. As a result, the number of shoppers has significantly increased. With the convenience and simplicity it offers, it is inevitable that people would prefer it over traditional shopping.

Over the years, many customers complain and clamored for a faster, better way to shop online. In an attempt to resolve this problem, a breakthrough in E-commerce technology was made. With the development of the single page checkout system, the ease and convenience is taken to a whole new level for every customer. We will no longer have to worry about waiting for at least a couple of minutes just to pay for a certain product or service. We only need to fill out payment information in a single page, without the hassles of having to click pages, which is typical of the 3-step payment process.

A single page checkout, also called one-page, single-step or single-screen checkout, is an internet checkout portal that is one can find in a single page. Just like any online checkout, customers will be able to pay by logging into an account or a guest account if the customer is not a member. A single page checkout allows a customer to information pertaining to billing, shipping and payment. It can be used in various applications such as Flash and the regular HTML.

Here are some simple guidelines you can use when you decide to get a single page checkout for your online shop.

1. The single page checkout should be simple and precise. If the checkout still takes a long time to fill out due to so many extensions, it will just be like the traditional checkout system. Remember, the more time a customer spends to pay for a product, the higher the chances of losing the customer along the way.

2. Sections should be clearly set apart from other sections. Regardless of what type of application you will use, you should make the checkout sections distinguishable from others. For example, the billing should be placed in one area and shipping should be placed in another. Delineation should be clear to avoid confusion.

3. Offer the traditional checkout system to your customers just in case. Although the single page is obviously better than the older one, some customers just feel more comfortable with it so you should offer this option in order to give customers flexibility.

When online shops provide simple, no hassle checkouts, more and more people will be likely to buy their product or service. This amazing technology not only makes payment a one-step process, it also provides other great features. For one, it offers accessibility, which makes it easier to log into the account anytime, anywhere. Next, it accepts all kinds of payment options available online such as payments through credit and debit cards. Third, it accepts credit and debit card payments which allow wider options for customers. Fourth, it provides real-time shipping information such as price quotes from major couriers. Fifth, it can accept coupons and gift certificate codes so you can conveniently use these if you have them. While not applicable to all, some shops even offer payments in multiple currencies.

Grow your web business with ecommerce shopping cart software, content management system software, and email marketing software by Interspire.