Shopping Cart Software - an Ecommerce Essential
A Home Business Article Contributed by Sharon Hill
Let's Go Shopping - Via Ecommerce
What is an Ecommerce Shopping Cart?
If your ecommerce business is going to offer the immediacy of buying and selling online you will have to have a shopping cart.
A small online software application, the ecommerce shopping cart maintains the purchase choices of each online shopper and allows for ongoing changes and additions. Just as a Wal-Mart or Kroger's customer might travel to its brick and mortar locations and meander from one aisle to another pushing a shopping cart, placing each chosen purchase into the cart, until finally checking out, an ecommerce shopper places his online purchases in the ecommerce shopping cart.
She then indicates that her online purchase is complete, asks the shopping cart software to total her purchases, and indicates method of payment - credit card typically.
Features of Your Ecommerce Shopping Cart
When checking various shopping cart software vendors you need to look for several key features:
1. Your ecommerce shopping cart needs to hold an expansive number of purchased items - as close to unlimited as possible.
2. It should be able to recognize your customer, addressing her or him by name.
3. It should also have memory retention, recalling prior purchases upon a consumer's return to the cart; it should also revise the ecommerce purchase list each time an additional purchase is made.
There are actually two levels of ecommerce shopping carts you can purchase for your business web site. If you're into Internet and html do-it-yourself, and you don't anticipate high volume shopping, service ecommerce carts may be the way to go. The shopping cart vendor hosts your shopping cart software - you just pay per purchase or a flat fee each month. The vendor completes all upgrades for you, including continual technical support.
If you choose the go-it-alone type of shopping cart called software cart you will be simply purchasing the software and loading and managing it yourself. It will run on your system and you'll be responsible for an annual certificate payment - $100 minimum.
Ecommerce Shopping Cart Vendors
There are many companies that can help with your ecommerce shopping cart. Monstercommerce, for instance, asks for a set up free, and monthly fee, but does not charge a per transaction fee. It also promises a 30 day money back guarantee. WebGenie Professional's offer is nearly identical. In contrast, King Cart charges no set up or monthly fee, but charges up to 25 cents for each transaction. With few exceptions, software shopping cart vendors charge hefty one time set up fees with no monthly charge or per transaction fee.
When looking at the various ecommerce shopping cart vendors you will want to consider some variables that can effect your cost, and the time you spend on maintaining your shopping cart. You need to know if your own html expertise is required; if you can access technical support by e-mail and/or toll free phone number. Should tech support require a toll call the cost can be excessive if you have a problem that requires lengthy assistance.
You will want to be sure images are allowed - folks want to see what they're buying. Thumbnails will allow the consumer to zoom in on their potential purchases for a closer look. You'll want a cart that will allow for both billing and shipping addresses, so that folks can order for others - special occasion gifts, for instance. And, for repeat customers you will want an ecommerce shopping cart that will allow folks to retrieve their own information the next time they log on.
If you want them to "shop til they drop" at your online store, an ecommerce shopping cart is a must.
