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.
