Manage Subscriptions · Subscribe Now · F.A.Q.'s
HOME · Sunday, May 11, 2008
Shopping Carts & Online Payments
Shopping Cart Checklist
Key features to consider when choosing or switching carts
We’ve assembled a checklist to help you narrow your shopping cart requirements. The checklist is divided into six areas: function, shipping issues, payment processing, support, technical considerations and report generation.
Function
- Is there a limit to the number of categories or products?
- Does the shopping cart support inventory tracking?
- Does the shopping cart have an affiliate program?
- Does the shopping cart have gift-certificate or discount-coupon options?
- Is the cart search-engine friendly, and can it be improved and modified?
- Is there a quick-buy feature or do customers need to register?
Shipping Issues
- Do you need to determine shipping based on weight or by price range?
- Does the cart have UPS/USPS/FedEx integration?
Payment Processing
- What kinds of payment gateways are supported?
- Can the cart support non credit-card and offline-payment options?
- How does the cart determine sales taxes?
Support
- Does the cart supplier provide a customersupport forum on its website?
- What are your options for getting support if you need it?
Technical Considerations
- What is the operating system choice that you need (Linux, Windows)?
- What programming language (PHP, ASP, etc.) is required by you or your developer?
- What are the database software requirements (MySQL, Access, etc.)?
- Is the shopping-cart solution a hosted one or a licensed one?
Report Generation
- Does the cart produce the types of management and accounting reports that you need when you need them?
Blinklist | Del.icio.us | Furl | Ma.gnolia | Newsvine | Spurl | Reddit | Technorati
Published on Thursday, August 31, 2006
Comments:
As with many authors, they confuse a "cart" with a back-end order processing system.... A cart is a cart. Simply put, it should collect items to enable a buyer to purchase and then facilitate the transaction for purchase. This includes letting the buyer choose what merchant account vendor(s) to use, whether to auth/capture or just auth during the purchase. And provide real-time quotes for major shipping carriers.
A cart should not attempt to manage inventory, track orders after the sale or have any knowledge whatsoever about inventory status. It should simply service the purchase request and itemize items supplied to it.
Products advertised as "carts" now days span the gambit from managing the presentation to the buyer of the entire site, down to including back-end order and inventory management. However, these are 'stores', not 'carts'.
Merchants are best served by using speciality providers for website design, cart service and back-end fulfillment processing.
Tony Birnseth
http://www.ez-order-manager.com
Posted by: Tony Birnseth
Thursday, July 05, 2007
I couldn't agree more with Tony. There as so few true shopping carts. I wish there were more. I don't want to have to tweak and codle and modify what most compaines call a shopping cart to look like a website. Just give me a cart! I'll provide the website.
Posted by: Jim
Thursday, July 05, 2007
I've used just about every PHP cart, and written quite a few custom carts for clients. In most cases there is no "one size cart fits all".
Here's a simple question Jim, do your products have different sizes, colors, weights, personalization (such as engraving), categories/subcategories? Do you want to display pictures of the items/related items in the cart during the checkout process?
Ryan has some very valid questions above, and these are reasons why I normally have to create a custom solution for many of my clients.
http://www.steelesoftconsulting.com/
Posted by: John Steele
Friday, July 20, 2007
I agree with all the above and the article.
With our most recent store host, I was disappointed to find out the "integrated shopping cart" was really a programmed portion of the store and not so easy to adjust to our product needs! I'm having to learn PHP (I already knew HTML very well or would have run screaming from the room the first hour), and ask for a load of help from the administrators. The cart function works fine because a cart is simply a holding place for choices. Adding the shipping rates has been a nightmare, and not straight-forward as it should be. I've had to make fake weights for things we don't ship by weight, just to get the right shipping cost options to appear for customers. I had hoped to be open a couple weeks ago, but am still working on shipping issues, as well as the slow uploading of products.
I too wish there was a very basic cart that I could have tried to integrate myself... but apparently, I need to be a programmer as well as e-commerce owner! ; ) I'll get there, but it is going a lot slower than hoped.
Thanks for the informative article, and great comments, Tony.
http://www.thekatyworkshop.com
Posted by: Beth M.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
WOW! What a mess of websites...
Posted by: TKing
Monday, November 19, 2007
Ecommerce Articles
- Browse All Articles
- Browse our complete archive of ecommerce articles.
- Accounting, Management & Legal
- Ecommerce articles related to managing a small business including ecommerce accounting, business strategy and legal considerations.
- Conversion & Usability
- Online business articles about converting web site visitors into customers and how to gauge and improve your business website's usability.
- Development & Programming
- Articles to help designers, developers and programmers create successful, search engine friendly ecommerce websites and improve existing ones.
- Hosting, Infrastructure & Software
- Articles for ecommerce businesses about ecommerce web hosting, business infrastructure, business strategy and helpful ecommerce & small business software.
- Interviews & Profiles
- Interviews with prominent ecommerce business personalities and profiles of successful online businesses.
- Inventory & Shipping
- Ecommerce articles about inventory management, ecommerce order fulfillment and product shipping considerations.
- Marketing & Revenue Growth
- Articles relating to online marketing, email marketing and using the Internet to growing your business.
- Search Engine Optimization
- Search engine optimization articles for ecommerce business owners, strategists, marketers and developers.
- Shopping Carts & Online Payments
- Articles covering ecommerce shopping cart platforms and options for choosing an online payment gateway.
- Training & Education
- Tutorials and articles providing training and education for ecommerce business owners and developers of ecommerce websites.
Search Articles
Ecommerce Community
- Ecommerce Blogs
- Read our blogs about ecommerce topics written by industry professionals.
- Community Forum
- Connect with other ecommerce professionals to trade advice and answers in our community forum.
- Podcasts
- Check out our ecommerce podcasts covering topics ranging from interviews to tutorials.
- RSS Content Feeds
- Subscribe to our RSS feeds and have fresh ecommerce content delivered to you.
Ecommerce Resources
- Free Email Newsletter
- Sign up for Ecommerce Notes, our free email newsletter for ecommerce business owners and developers.
- Ecommerce Directory
- Browse our directory of ecommerce products and services, or submit your own listing in our directory.
- Ecommerce Glossary
- Familiarize yourself with terminology or submit terms to help others with our Ecommerce Glossary.
- Events Calendar
- Find out about upcoming ecommerce events or invite other ecommerce professionals by posting your own event.
- Press Releases
- Browse ecommerce related press releases and post your own press release for distribution.
- Ecommerce Store & Back Issues
- Pick up back issues of Practical eCommerce magazine along with other merchandise from Practical Ecommerce
About Practical eCommerce
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Look at frequently asked questions regarded using our website, subscribing to our magazine and more.
- Advertising Information
- Information about advertising in Practical eCommerce magazine, on our website, or in our email newsletters.
- Editorial Sharing
- Learn about options for sharing our content with your visitors, customers or employees.
- About Us
- Learn more about Practical Ecommerce magazine and meet our staff.
- Contact Us
- Contact Practical Ecommerce at any time for more information. We'd love to hear from you.
Copyright 2007 Confluence Distribution, Inc. and Practical eCommerce.
All Rights Reserved.
Can you recommend a good shopping cart which has all the above features...
Posted by: Irfan
Thursday, July 05, 2007