Tips to Choosing The Right Shopping Cart Software the First Time

One of the most important, and most common, questions that many people ask when starting an online store is how to choose their shopping cart software. Unfortunately, there isn't an easy answer to this question. To get a better idea of what this question really entails, take a moment and answer this question. How do you choose what house to buy? Buying a house is really a process of elimination. You decide what you are looking for and as you get closer to finding the right house, you ask more questions. What is the neighborhood like? What school district is it in? What are the monthly bills? What are the yearly taxes? Square Footage? Number of bed/bath rooms? And so on.

Choosing the right shopping cart software is the same type of process. You first need to decide what you are looking for in the perfect shopping cart, then prioritize, and finally make a decision.

Remember, getting people to your website doesn't mean anything if you shopping cart software turns people away. In fact, on average 60% of people that add something to their shopping cart never actually buy anything. Did they get confused? Change their mind? Do they need more convincing?

Here is a quick look at some of the questions that you need to answer in order to choose the right shopping cart software for your website.

1. What application server are you going to be using?

It is possible to mix server code, but as a general rule internet server providers (ISPs) do not recommend it, and some even do not allow it. For example, if you are using a Linux server then don't waste your time looking at a shopping cart that is ASP.NET. Additionally, if you are proficient in a particular scripting language, it is a good idea to find a shopping cart that uses the same language. That way you can make any changes that need to be made yourself.

2. How much do you want to do yourself?

Some shopping carts are the full package and you will need to do very little, however others are simply the basic tools and you will need to assemble it yourself. If you cannot or do not want to do a lot of this independently, then it is a good idea to look for a shopping cart that is more of a complete package. On the other hand, if you can or are willing to learn how to make alterations on your own, it may be better to use shopping cart software that has server behavior models. The greater flexibility that this allows can lead to big payoffs in the long run. Answering this question will also have a big impact on the level of support that you should look for by the developer of the shopping cart. While great support is always ideal, it isn't always a reality. As a general rule, the more popular the shopping cart is the better chance you have to finding an answer to your question from somewhere, FAQ page, forum, or elsewhere online.

3. What is your budget?

While this question is fundamentally about how much you are willing to spend when purchasing your shopping cart, there are several variables that need to be taken into consideration as well. Along with the price of the software, you need to figure in how much time you are will to put into getting it running (including modification and personalization) and how much time it will cost you once it is running. When looking at the price of the shopping cart software, think about the future. Does the price include the ability to create multiple carts or do you have to pay a licensing fee for additional websites. Do you have the tools required to run the shopping cart, especially regarding administration and other back-end aspects? Are there additional modules that you would need to purchase in order to meet your needs?

4. What delivery mechanism are you using?

Different shopping carts are designed to excel at different things. Some shopping carts are designed for either physical products, electronic products, or both. To ensure that your shopping cart does not confuse your customers and creates a simple, streamlined process, it is important to make sure your shopping cart fits your products. There is no reason to have your customers fill out their shipping information if you are selling an electronic product.

5. Where is your customer base located?

A large amount of the shopping cart software is designed in the United States for United State clients. If you are doing business in another country or have an international clientèle, you will need to make sure that the shopping cart software can accept the currency that you work with, have a currency converter, or can work with multiple currencies simultaneously.

Additionally, if you are primarily shipping physical goods, you will need to make sure that the shopping cart has the ability to meet your needs. If you customers are all based in a country outside of the United States then there are a number of standard formats that need to be either modified or deleted. These options include: list of states, phone number, zip code and many more.

6. What payment gateway will you be using?

There are literally dozens of payment gateway options, which means that some shopping cart software may not be compatible with the one you use. You also need to make sure that you payment gateway is compatible with your bank. This could include accepting credit card payments, PayPal payments, echeck payments and many more.

7. Do you want to host it yourself?

There is a strong balance of self-hosted and 3rd party hosted shopping cart software available to you online. There are advantages and disadvantages to both so take some time to choose the option that best suits your needs. Self hosted shopping cart software often requires more personal attention in order to keep it running efficiently whereas 3rd party hosted shopping carts are comparatively hands-free. The fundamental trade-off is between flexibility and amount of attention that the software needs.

These are just a few of the questions that you need to answer before choosing the right shopping cart software that best fits your needs. Once you have a general idea of what you want, it is time to look at some of the specific features that you may want your shopping cart software to support. Even the most basic shopping cart software has become more complex over the past few years, which means that you have more features to choose from. Here is a quick look at some of the most popular features that are available.

1. Affiliate management

Many companies take advantage of affiliate marketers as means for driving traffic to their website. A strong affiliate management module can take care of the entire affiliate management process. This includes affiliate sign-up, providing real-time affiliate statistics, track affiliate sales, and even automatically make payments to the affiliates.

2. Newsletter sign-up and autoresponder functions

Newsletters have proven to be an excellent way keep in contact with previous customers and promote repeat customers and improve customer loyalty. With this ability built into the shopping cart, you can avoid needing an additional piece of software that would mean twice the maintenance, twice the effort, and eliminate the chance that the two pieces of software would not be compatible.

3. Cross-selling and discounts/coupons

Some of the best ways to promote your products is through cross selling and the use of online coupons/discounts. It is much easier to use these tools if they are already built into your shopping cart software. This is especially true if the discounts are only for a certain group of people such as first-time customers.

The important issue here is making sure that the shopping cart you choose either has the features you want already built in or that it is compatible with the additional software that you will use to manage these features.

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