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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