Choosing a Shopping Cart

Copyright © 2005 NRG Saver Supply

You now have a web site and have decided in order to sell your products you need a shopping cart.

What you will need to run a Shopping Cart.

• A shopping cart program.
• An e-commerce account.
• A SSL certificate.

Before you begin to shop for a cart there a few things you need to know and some decisions to make before you purchase, lease or install a cart on your site.

The first piece of information you must have is what type of a web host you are using. Does your web host use a Linux-based server or a NT or Windows type server Shopping carts run on either one type of server or both, so you will need to know which system your host is using. This information can usually be found by going to your web host site. They will say which they use on the opening page. You will either see words like Unix, Apache, Linux for the Unix-type server or Windows, Microsoft, NT for the Windows-type server. Some hosts offer both types of servers but it would necessitate moving you if you bought the wrong cart and might incur an additional fee to do so. So know what type of server you are on. This is your starting point for choosing a cart.

Should I buy a Shopping Cart or use a free cart?

There are advantages and disadvantages to each choice. However, what you live with from this point forward will rest on this decision. Setting up your cart is going to take time either way. Since time is money.... take your time to decide.

Buying A Cart: Advantages and Disadvantages

The advantage of buying a cart is that it belongs to you. You can change your web host if you want and the cart goes with you, as long as the server is the same. You have control over the cart pages and how they look. You can choose a cart that offers the options that you need such as, taxes, shipping rates, check out information gathered, e-commerce options, security, affiliates and shipping options. You can choose a cart that is search-engine friendly and allow you to use static pages that can be optimized. And once it is set up there is very little maintenance and no on-going monthly fees. Your cart can be client-based not server-based. That means you are in control.

Usually, when you purchase a shopping cart it will come with free tech support or a trial for a specified time period. This is usually more than adequate for the learning curve.

The disadvantages are the learning curve to set up your cart and the purchase cost. The purchase price can be handled somewhat by using a credit card and paying it off monthly, but there is no short-cut to the learning curve. Some carts have shorter learning curves than others. It depends on what you are requiring from your cart. The more flexibility you demand from your cart the more you are going to have to learn.

You will also have to secure your own SSL certificate and have your host install it on your site. The cost on the certificate can run from 19.95 a year to 600.00 a year depending on what you want.

Free Shopping Carts: Advantages and Disadvantages

There are many good free carts available. Of course, the biggest advantage, especially to a new web site owner is the "freeness". Many web hosts offer a free cart with web hosting. Many e-commerce providers offer a free shopping cart. Some of these carts are very good and not especially hard to learn. Others can be "open source" carts with a very high learning curve and little or no help support. In either event, rest assured, your host will NOT offer any tech support for the shopping cart....ever. Their techs are trained on their server and hosting, not shopping carts. So it pays to investigate the cart thoroughly before asking to have it set up.

The disadvantages that exist to "free carting" can be as varied as the carts themselves. But, the main disadvantage that they all have in common is that you don't own them.

If you are using a web host-offered cart and want to change web hosts, you have a problem. What do you do about the cart? It is part of the reason they offer them. To keep you there. Moving to a new host can be difficult enough without also adding the shopping cart dilemma to the mix.

Beyond the above mentioned, the other disadvantages generally with free carts are in flexibility. There may be some things such as shipping or taxes that you just "must" have that they are not flexible enough to accommodate. Often it is difficult to tell whether you will have the flexibility you need until you start to set it up.

A big disadvantage to free carts is that many of them send your information to a "shared secure server". Shared secure servers have a tendency to slow down the load time of your cart pages, therefore increasing the opportunity for abandoned carts. If you experience skipped "order numbers" you will know some customers are leaving because of load time.

The main disadvantage to the shared secure server is that you cannot guarantee to your customers that no one has access to their credit card information. You do not have control over that, unless you buy a cart with an online order management system so that you, and only you, receive that information.

In many cases, depending on what free cart you use, you will also be sharing a SSL certificate which does not inspire trust and confidence in your customers. If you are on a shared secure server, you are sharing a certificate.

The Process in Choosing:

1. Know the type of server you are using.
    
2. Decide how you want to process your credit card. Swipe, manual, virtual, phone, gateway, real-time?
    
3. Choose the e-commerce card provider that will supply what you need at the best rates.
    
4. Decide what functions your cart "must" have for your business.
    
5. Decide whether you can afford to buy a cart or must wait and use a free cart.
    
6. Talk to others who have carts. Look at their sites and see how they are using them. Will it work for you in your situation? Ask what they like and don't like about their cart. If you buy something on the internet and like the cart, email them and ask what cart they use.
    
7. Choose a cart that will give you what you need to process your orders in the easiest fashion possible. One that is user friendly and client friendly.
    
8. If you decide to use a free cart to start, begin to look at "for purchase" carts, so that when you see how successful you can be with a cart, you will know which cart to purchase for your needs and pocketbook.

Keep in mind that cheap is not necessarily cheap. Time is money and set up time equates to money. Expensive is not always "best" if it doesn't suit your needs. There are so many shopping carts available, that you CAN find just the right one for your needs that you can easily afford. You just have to kiss a lot of frogs to find the prince.

Shopping Cart Reviews With Pricing

• Programs and Scripts: Perl: Shopping Carts

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