HOW TO CHOOSE A SHOPPING CART
If you have opted to use a
shopping cart, you will find that there are several hundred to
choose from. Which cart you ultimately choose will depend on
the size of your business, your sales and marketing methods,
and the degree of programming and design expertise possessed
by you or your staff.
Before examining your choices, let's discuss exactly what a
shopping cart is and what one does.
What Is A Shopping Cart?
A shopping cart normally
consists of three major components:
The first component is a catalog area where visitors may view
your products. The catalog is often divided into categories.
The second component is a check-out area, where visitors
provide you with payment and shipping information for the
products they wish to purchase.
The third area is an Administrator area where you manage the
shopping cart.
When a visitor wishes to purchase a product from your catalog,
they add that product to their "cart" by clicking on a button
or link next to that product.
This adds the product to a "cart" - which is actually just a
running list of products the visitor wants to purchase.
The "cart" concept exists to help the visitor visualize a
shopping experience they would be familiar with in the real
world.
Once the visitor has selected all of the products they wish to
purchase - by adding them to the cart - they click on a "Check
Out" button or link, and are taken to the checkout area.
In the checkout area, the visitor selects his shipping method,
and provides a shipping address and payment information.
Once the visitor has entered all of the required information,
and finishes the checkout process, an order is generated.
Some carts will email the order to the cart administrator,
others make them available for viewing in the Administrators
Area.
Hosted Shopping Carts vs. Installable
Shopping Carts
There are, literally, hundreds
of shopping carts to choose from.
All carts, however, fall into two basic categories:
Hosted shopping carts and installable shopping carts.
Hosted shopping carts (or turnkey carts) are already
installed on a server. You pay a monthly fee and are provided
with a username and password to log into the administrators
area.
Inside of the admin area, you may configure the look and feel
of the cart, add products to your catalog, specify shipping
options and configure your payment options.
The advantages of a hosted shopping cart are ease of setup,
and the time savings in setting up your cart. Hosted shopping
carts will, often, allow you to use pre-designed templates -
which they provide - for your storefront.
An installable shopping cart is a piece of software
which must be installed on your own website. You must already
have a website hosted by a webhosting company in order to use
an installable shopping cart.
Some installable carts are very easy to install, while others
are quite treacherous. If you lack programming experience,
it's best to hire an experienced web developer for this task.
Free Shopping Carts vs. Licensed Shopping
Carts
If you are using an
installable cart, you have yet another choice to make. Will
you purchase a licensed cart or use a free (open source)
shopping cart?
A licensed cart usually has the advantage of having
technical support provided by the software vendor. Quality of
the support may vary from vendor to vendor, so do your
homework!
On the other hand - an open source cart may have a
large community of developers who may assist you, as well as a
wider variety of add-on components available.
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