In Search Of The Best Shopping Cart

If you do any online shopping, and many of us do, when you are ready to pay you will see a little shopping cart symbol that tells you it is time to start the payment process. But although the symbol makes it easy for us to know what's happening, the shopping cart icon hides a sophisticated process that you will need to understand if you are going to put online shopping facilities on your website. Here's what you need to know about shopping carts and a round up of some of the major players.

What Is A Shopping Cart And How Does It Work?

The shopping cart that you see is really a piece of software that runs a series of scripts to allow people to pay for goods and services. The shopping cart is only the start of the process, allowing people to add items and get a total, but when they are ready to buy, the shopping cart will pass them on to a secure payment gateway, which is where the money is actually collected.

In a speedy online process, the payment gateway takes the card details that you have entered, communicates with your card issuer or bank to verify that it's ok to take the funds, processes the payment and then returns you to the point specified by the retailer. So your shopping cart is both a front end and a back end for the payment process. This seamless experience is what you need to recreate for visitors to your site, but it's not as easy as it seems. There are hundreds of shopping cart packages out there and it can be difficult to decide which one is right for you.

Shopping Cart Compatibility

Shopping cart software comes in free and paid versions. Some shopping cart software has to be hosted on your own domain, while other programs are hosted by the providers. If you host the software on your own domain you have total control, but having the software hosted by a provider can help you test the waters if you're creating your first online store. However, you will have to pay a monthly fee which can be upwards of $80 and you may have to pay a set up fee as well.. Be warned, though, shopping cart providers can go out of business so be sure to make regular backups of all your customer and sales data. And there may be less opportunity to customize your shop than if you host it yourself.

Most web hosts offer a couple of free shopping cart programs, and you can be sure that those will be compatible with your hosting package. However, if you plan to purchase shopping cart software, then you need to be more careful. Shopping cart scripting can be in Perl, ASP, CGI, PHP, Javascript and other scripting languages so make sure the program you plan to buy is compatible with your web host. (PHP open source; ASP Microsoft integration)

It is also important to make sure that the shopping cart program you select is also compatible with one of the dozens of payment gateways that are available. (PayPal, Google Checkout, 2checkout, YourPay, NOCHEX, E-Gold, Protx and WorldPay are just a few of the options.) The payment gateway also needs to play nicely with the internet merchant account you have set up with your bank. Once you have established which shopping cart programs meet these specifications, it's time to look into the specific features that shopping cart programs have.

Standard Shopping Cart Features

All shopping cart software includes some form of customer and product management, modules to handle payment and shipping, the ability to email customers when an order has been received and the ability to use SSL for security during the ordering process. All shopping carts accept a variety of payment methods too. But that's only the start of what you can expect with a comprehensive shopping cart program.

There are a number of features to consider with shopping cart software. To start with, you may wish to think about the design. It is important to have an easy to use front end so your customers will feel comfortable with the site and the shopping experience. Many shopping cart programs allow you to create or customize templates (whether you know HTML or not) so that you can make your shopping cart fit with the rest of your website. Some even include content management functions so you can upload additional content easily.

Other Shopping Cart Features To Consider

For your customers, a key feature will be the ability to pay for products in the way that best suits them. Some shopping cart programs allow you to accept payment in any currency and to accept payments by credit card, Paypal, Echecks, money orders, checks or even accept cash on delivery. The more convenient it is for customers, the more likely they are to buy. Customers may also want to keep a note of their order history and track their current orders, so software that integrates with Fedex, DHL, UPS and other shippers will be an advantage.

Another issue is product delivery. Most shopping cart programs can deal with products that have to be shipped, but if you are going for online (downloadable) delivery, then you may need to check that the program supports it. It is important to find a shopping cart software program that lets you change the download delivery URL so that people cannot continue to download the product for free.

Another important feature of any product sales website is customer support. Many shopping cart software programs allow you to create FAQs, get feedback through online forms, create a knowledgebase to help your customers and some even integrate support through live chat.

There are also other functions that improve the customer experience, though not every shopping cart program will include them. Advanced search features, the ability to customize the order in which products are sorted, the provision of customer ratings and a product comparison engine will also enhance the shopping experience.

Back Office Shopping Cart Functions

You may be more interested in the back office functions, such as the ability to upload products in bulk, especially if you are taking an existing catalog online. Some shopping cart programs limit the number of products you can list, but most offer unlimited products and categories, including management functions for your product catalog. You may need a program that incorporates stock control and accounting functions and that can deal with orders that are only partially shipped.

Ideally, your shopping cart software should make it as easy as possible for you to create and modify product descriptions, to put items on sale, to change prices for wholesalers and resellers and to accept coupons and discount codes. You will also need a program that calculates tax and shipping for different source and destination countries.

The reason that you want a shopping cart is to maximize your sales and one way to do this is to encourage your customers to impulse buy. Many shopping cart programs make it easy to identify related products which will tempt your customers to make an additional purchase. At the same time, you can set up an affiliate program, promote affiliate products and keep in touch with customers through an autoresponder that will make it easy for you to lure them back to the site.

Inventory, accounting and other reporting functions are also built into many shopping cart software programs, and some of them integrate with Google Analytics to allow you to have a clear picture of your metrics. You many be able to enable or disable particular products as they are available or sold out.

Popular Shopping Cart Programs

There are several popular shopping cart programs. OsCommerce is an open source shopping cart software program. It is often available as a Fantastico install on many web hosts. OsCommerce allows multiple products, discounts and promotions, special categories and many other standard shopping cart features. Prices may be set in different categories and the software works with credit cards, Paypal and cheques. CreLoaded is built on OsCommerce and comes in free and paid versions, with additional features, including better templating, the ability to use coupon codes, an affiliate program manager and the ability to use separate pricing levels. ZenCart is a free, open source shopping cart program based on OS Commerce. It includes an easy templating system, an HTML editor and many features for product customization and display.

XCart is a stable commercial package with many of the desired features already installed. Unlike the free programs, it is unlikely to be buggy. It supports a wide range of payment gateways and installation services are available. LiteCommerce is from the same maker, and is suitable for website owners on a budget. However, the program still has a wide range of features.

Commercial Shopping Cart Programs

If you are going to pay for a shopping cart program, then there is quite a lot of choice. Three programs which have scored well in reviews are Shop Site Pro, Merchandizer Pro and Monster Commerce Pro. All of these programs can be hosted by the provider as well as on your own site and are search engine friendly. They allow customization through templates too. They feature a wide range of back office functions for inventory, catalog and accounting control, though Shop Site Pro does not handle partial shipments. All the programs can handle hard and soft goods, cross selling, coupons, order tracking and email order confirmations and are compatible with a wide range of payment processors. However, Merchandizer Pro does not integrate with Paypal. SSL, cookies and data backups are standard with these providers, and both Monster Commerce and Shop Site Pro also include fraud protection.

There is no end to the range of functions you can have with shopping cart software. The best way to approach your choice is to decide which features are essential and select the program that provides the best match of features and pricing.