The Amazing Online Shopping Cart

So you are searching for the single most amazing online shopping cart ever? Let me tell you, I could probably give you a name of the one I prefer. However, you may take a look at it and realize that it simply would not work for you. That is why there are so many shopping carts on the market right now. Many have the same basic function of allowing people to order products. However, some are tailored to those actually mailing items. Others are tailored towards people who are offering a product for download online. There are so many differences in people’s needs that it has increased the demand for a wider variety of shopping carts. For this reason, I can not simply give you a name and you go buy it. You will have to continue to do your own research. The one thing I can do though is give you some things to look for. Below is my list.

Easy to Integrate into an Existing Website

There is nothing more frustrating than to purchase a script but find out it was nearly impossible to get installed on your website and have it look good. This is a good question to ask the developers of the ecommerce shopping cart so that you can see how easy it will be to get it installed. You might even ask for the documentation that comes with the script before you make the purchase. This way you can look it over and see how complex it is.

Very Customizable

Even though the script is easy to integrate into a design, this does not mean that the script is going to be customizable. The colors may not match at all. You will want to ensure that you can change the color, font, and widths of the shopping cart so that you can get it as close to looking like it is a custom one as possible. Generally, this is not a huge problem for anyone who is familiar with CSS and HTML. However, it is nice if they have it setup in a way that will make it even easier for you by changing just a few variables or something along those lines.

Easy to Update

When most people think of the term “shopping cart” they simply think of a way for people to order their products. However, something that goes unnoticed frequently is the ability to add new products or manage existing ones. Part of being in internet marketing is that you will want to test things out. You may want to change the wording on the description of a product, change the name a little bit, or maybe even change the picture of the product. If this is not easy to alter, then you will be spending a lot of unnecessary time making changes. Ensure that products are easy to update.

Good Customer Service from the Developers

It does not matter how savvy of a person you are with programming or websites in general, you will almost always have to ask a question or two. Unfortunately, not all shopping carts have great support from the developer side. What I always try to encourage people to do before buying anything online is to contact the company and just ask them a couple of questions. Even if you already know the answer, it is a good way to see how quick they respond and what kind of quality of response you might get. If all they do is send you to their documentation or give you a short one sentence answer, then you might decide to look elsewhere. Especially if it took you several days to receive any type of response, I would not buy from such a company. Worst yet, if you did not receive a response, do not buy from them!

Grow by leaps and bounds with software to skyrocket your business (and without hiring your own software development team): email marketing software, content management system software, and ecommerce shopping cart software by Interspire.

Web Shopping Cart Features to Consider

It can be hard to find the right shopping cart for your needs. However, there are some features that you should be aware of that you might need. It is not safe to assume that all shopping carts include all of the features listed below. When in doubt, ask them! It never hurts, if anything, it helps, to talk with the developers about what features you need. You can see if they really want you as a client of theirs or not when you tell them you need specific features and see what their response is. They may or may not add the features you need, however, below are some of the basic ones that you might keep an eye out for.

Shipping Prices

Lucky for us, USPS, UPS, and FedEx are all businesses that people commonly use for shipping certain items. To top it off, they actually have systems in place so that web developers can calculate shipping expenses right from their own website. Therefore, many of the shopping carts on the market right now will automatically figure out the expense and add it to the total price for you. This is something to consider if you are going to be shipping products that are bought from your ecommerce store.

Electronic Software Delivery (ESD)

If you are not going to have a demand for shipping products, you are most likely going to be providing some type of software or files of some kind. For example, if you sell an ebook, you will not be mailing this on a CD to a house. Instead, you might send them a link to download it via email or send the file as an attachment in an email. If this is the case, you will need an ESD feature, or Electronic Software Delivery feature, to help get the software and/or files quickly to those who make a purchase.

Taxes

Unfortunately, many states are beginning to regulate the internet sales. They see that more and more people are selling and buying items online. They just want a piece of the pie. However, it has always been mandated that you apply tax to items sold to other people in your state. In a nutshell, this feature will apply taxes for your state to the total price when it is deemed necessary. This way, you stay legal in your online business and it does not require a lot of effort from your end.

Discounts and Promotions

Apparently some shopping cart developers have assumed that once you have an ecommerce site you will never offer a single promotion or discount on any of your products. This is annoying and typically something you will want to change later on down the road in any shopping cart software you have. Many shopping carts though offer this feature upfront and it is something you should keep an eye out for.

Variety of Payment Methods

The unfortunate side of online business is that not everyone uses the same type of payment method. Some prefer to send a check, others will want to pay with a credit card, and still others will have some type of service like PayPal that they will prefer to use. The fortunate part is that you can accept all these types of payments if you use a shopping cart that will support all of them. It will pay off in the end to accept a wide variety of payments that way you are not limiting which visitors to your website can actually buy from you.

Grow by leaps and bounds with software to skyrocket your business (and without hiring your own software development team): email marketing software, content management system software, and ecommerce shopping cart software by Interspire.