Business OnRamp » Shopping Carts http://www.businessonramp.com Start your business! Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:17:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 How to Choose Reliable Shopping Cart Software for your Business http://www.businessonramp.com/how-to-choose-reliable-shopping-cart-software-for-your-business/ http://www.businessonramp.com/how-to-choose-reliable-shopping-cart-software-for-your-business/#comments Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:15:45 +0000 jashall http://www.businessonramp.com/?p=85 Whether you are just beginning to formulate your startup business model or are ready to implement transactions on your site, the right shopping cart can help you meet conversion goals. Even if e-Commerce is only a portion of your overall business plan, reliable shopping cart software can improve the presentation and process for purchases on your site. Many web-based startups implement a cart only to realize it doesn’t fully meet their needs, and this guide helps walk you through the ...]]> Whether you are just beginning to formulate your startup business model or are ready to implement transactions on your site, the right shopping cart can help you meet conversion goals. Even if e-Commerce is only a portion of your overall business plan, reliable shopping cart software can improve the presentation and process for purchases on your site. Many web-based startups implement a cart only to realize it doesn’t fully meet their needs, and this guide helps walk you through the most important factors which should contribute to your decision.

Suppose you are starting an apparel business online. In this case, the shopping cart will be a core part of your development process to facilitate online sales. Even if you’re a reseller you can use the site to take advanced orders, making the sales process much easier from beginning to end. Having multiple revenue sources for your business is a core way of limiting risks and opening up new business opportunities. When planning out the strategy for your business, you’ll want to make sure the execution of the idea follows through. Having a reliable shopping cart on your site can encourage transactions, improve data security and save you money.

There is a variety of shopping cart options on the market today ranging from open source solutions to fully hosted options. Let’s suppose you want to launch your apparel business through an e-Commerce cart. Here is an analysis of the features you want to look for in a hosted versus an installed shopping cart:

Hosted Shopping Carts

There are popular options, such as Volusion, which offer a fully integrated, hosted approach to shopping carts. With these solutions you can build out your apparel store on their servers, including customizable templates, integrated SSL certificates (for secure checkout), a merchant account to manage credit transactions, your own domain name as well as hosted software which allows you to manage your inventory and content. This solution is ideal for those who want their IT infrastructure taken care of so you can focus on building your business. There are a variety of hosted end-to-end solutions on the market, although there are often fixed monthly plus data transfer fees associated with these carts. You can get your apparel store up and running in a matter of days with an integrated approach, but expect to pay a couple hundred dollars a month for the complete services.

Self-Installed Shopping Carts

If you’re looking for more customization options, then a self installed shopping cart can provide an ideal solution. Popular open carts such as Magento feature an open structure where you can modify templates, modules (add-on features) as well as integrating add-on merchant, SSL and other services with a structured process. You’ll have to host your apparel store on an external server and compare vendors for your SSL, merchant account and design, so this may require a bit more research on your part. By spending extra time and resources, however, you’ll be able to broadly customize the cart to meet your ecommerce store needs.

]]> http://www.businessonramp.com/how-to-choose-reliable-shopping-cart-software-for-your-business/feed/ 0 Shopping Cart Software http://www.businessonramp.com/67/ http://www.businessonramp.com/67/#comments Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:40:00 +0000 jashall http://www.businessonramp.com/67/ 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 ...]]> 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.

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