Much like web hosts, Shopping Carts come in various different shapes and forms. Some carts allow you to manage your stock levels and update pictures, while other carts integrate complete Content Management System (CMS) facilities, which allow you to modify how your site looks, manage categories for products, adjust postage levels, set your own payment options and much more. A Shopping Cart can usually also be configured as a complete website, including the sections outlined above, or it can simply be used as an additional 'plug-in' to your existing site.
Shopping Carts basically provide you with the means to setup a complete online shop, with minimal effort or programming knowledge.
Since every Shopping Cart is different, here are some points you should consider when choosing the right Shopping Cart for your business.
Products
The more options you are given for your product, the better. You need to ensure that the software will provide you with the features you need. Such features to consider are Inventory Control, Stock-On-Hand (SOH) Warnings, Sales Reports and ease of use.
If were to adopt a Shopping Cart and then find that it's missing a core ingredient, such as SOH Warnings, you may be missing out on key elements, which are crucial to the automated stock-management environment. It's all about making your life easier.
Images
Pictures of products are one of the most important aspects when trying to sell online. Pictures re-assure customers and give them confidence in knowing exactly what they are paying for.
Shopping Carts should all incorporate images with their products. Desirable features of Image Management in Shopping Carts include (but may not be limited to):
Multiple images per product
- The option of using the same image for multiple products (as opposed to having to upload additional images every time).
- Automatic Image-Resizing will save you time in having to adjust images manually, before uploading them to your website.
- Straight-forward Image Management.
Postage
Every Shopping Cart tends to have a different method for calculating Postage Rates. Some opt to provide a per-product flat rate, while others give you the option of adding a percentage or flat rate across the board. Some Shopping Carts provide you with fields for product dimensions and calculate the postage "on-the-fly", based on rates from an online source (such as Australia Post). Other Shopping Carts have different methods and some prefer to give you free reign on how you would like to apply postage fees to your products. You should decide what would work best for you before choosing a Shopping Cart for your business.
Payment Gateways
Some Shopping Carts only provide Credit Card processing through one particular Payment Gateway. Others will give you multiple options at setup time. You need to compare prices and features before making a decision on this topic. See Section 5 (Real-Time Payments) for more information on Payment Gateways.
Most shopping carts will also provide the option to accept payments by methods other than credit card, such as payment in invoice. If you choose to accept this method, you should be aware that payments are not necessarily in real-time, and to be wary of shipping goods, before payment is received.
Security
Any reputable Shopping Cart should have adequate security measures in place, or information on how best to secure your website if they do not.
If you have an SSL Certificate in place, or if the Shopping Cart provides one, you should check the characteristics of the certificate and make sure it has adequate encryption. You should also ensure that the certificate has not expired. See Section 6 (Secure Sockets Layer Certificates) for more information.
Marketing Tools
Marketing from a Shopping Cart can be of great benefit to your company. Marketing tools can differ greatly in functionality depending on the Shopping Cart you choose.
Tracking customers via Customer Accounts and Newsletters can be extremely useful and will assist in keeping your customers happy. It also helps to remind them that you are still operating. Furthermore, recording useful information from customers allows you target particular audiences (eg. Customers within ACT only; or Customers over the age of 40; etc) and will greatly improve your control over customers' interest in special deals, offers and products.
You should also consider whether or not your chosen Shopping Cart will allow you to add advertising banners and/or AdSense-type advertising on your site - these will assist your income and is explored in more detail in Section 7 (Marketing).
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