What is a shopping cart?
An online shopping cart is simply software that allows your customer to browse and shop on your website. It allows your customers to add and remove items and facilitate the payment process. You have many options when choose shopping cart software including CMS E-commerce platforms and online shopping cart providers (paypal.com).
CMS E-commerce Platforms
CMS stands for content management system. This software will allow users with minimum web developing skills to create robust sites with little effort. The e-commerce CMS platforms have backdoor options with allow the administrator of the site to add and edit merchandise with ease. You will need to also have a merchant center to process the payments with a CMS site. This software will act as a storefront for your website but not a purchase center that process will need to be handled through a third party.
Online Shopping Cart Providers
These providers will allow you to have a storefront through their site. It will function as a procession center as well. The most used and one of the best providers of these services is PayPal. One of the easiest ways to start an online store is to set up a PayPal account and link it to your website.
How to set up a paypal.com account
PayPal profits from your store by applying a small service charge on the purchase price of your products. It is automatically deducted from the payment. If your monthly sales through PayPal are more than $3,000, you have to set up a merchant account, which will allow the rates you pay to drop the more you sell.
Step 1: Set up an account with PayPal. This requires you to have an email mail account. It is suggested to use one that is associated with your custom URL but not a requirement.
Step 2: Get your products organized. Start a spreadsheet with the items name, price, number of items.
Step 3: Input your merchandise into PayPal by using the information on your spreadsheet.
Step 4: Create a shopping cart button in PayPal will be added to your site. If you don’t want to take a few minutes to create this button, you can use the standard buy now button. The buy now button is not as secure as the custom made one. PayPal will provide you with the html code that you will need to add to your website.
Step 5: Now, you will need to add the html code into your site. You will need to purchase a website creation program to complete this step, if you are not familiar with html coding. However, if you are experience in coding, you can use note pad to edit the code.
What to consider
There are many solutions available for your shopping cart needs including CMS e-commerce platforms and PayPal. It would be a good idea to use a CMS site if you have a little experience with the web. However, the most used and respected solutions is PayPal. PayPal is set up for beginners to e-commerce. With a PayPal account, you will be able to start selling through your web store in no time at all.
