Platforms & Apps

Cart of the Week: GoEmerchant

There are more than 350 online shopping carts. And each week we feature one, interviewing both the cart’s developer and a customer. “Cart of the Week” is not a review or an evaluation, but rather an opportunity to learn about a shopping cart from the people who build it and use it.

This week, we’ll hear from Ray Kenney, director of reseller operations and marketing for GoEmerchant, a Cherry Hill, N.J.-based shopping cart provider with more than 20,000 cart users.

We’ll also hear the views of Nick Vacco, founder and president of Detail King, a GoEmerchant cart user.

PeC: Please provide some general background on the cart.

Ray Kenney

Ray Kenney

Kenney: “GoEmerchant has been providing shopping cart solutions since 1995. The GoEmerchant cart offers merchants a complete one source turnkey solution to successfully operate an online business. GoEmerchant has been awarded Top Ten Review’s Gold Award as the Number One eCommerce solution for five consecutive years, and [the company is] accredited by the Better Business Bureau with its highest rating of A+.”

PeC: Is the cart hosted, licensed, or both?

Kenney: “Hosted.”

PeC: How much does the cart cost?

Kenney: “Fees range from $14.95 to $49.95 per month.”

PeC: What are the cart’s biggest strengths?

Kenney: “No programming experience is necessary, so it is easy for merchants to get started. GoEmerchant provides free, unlimited, U.S.-based service and support including toll-free phone, chat and email support, product tutorials, a knowledge base and ticketing system.

“[Other strengths include] hundreds of design templates, unlimited products, real-time credit card processing, virtual terminal, fraud protection tools and security, category management, integrated site search and browsing, custom shipping options, and automated order confirmation. It also has automatic tax and shipping calculations, including rates by country, state, and zip.

“The cart is search engine-friendly and optimized down to the product level. It is PCI-compliant and CISP-certified [Visa’s cardholder information security program], and it has128-bit SSL certification, [giving] merchants the peace of mind to process credit card orders on the Internet.”

PeC: What are some of its weaknesses?

Kenney: “[Lack of] wholesale capabilities.”

PeC: What plans do you have for future cart development?

Kenney: “We plan to add wholesale features including a login function with unique customer level discounts.”

PeC: How would your cart help an ecommerce merchant, versus the cart he or she is using now?

Kenney: “We give the merchant the ability to sell an unlimited quantity of products. [The cart has] all the tools and services required to sell online, including the payment gateway, SSL certificate and merchant account. It also includes advanced fraud screening and robust reporting.”

PeC: Any other thoughts for our readers, who are mainly ecommerce merchants?

Kenney: “Choose a shopping cart vendor that provides a full in-house suite of solutions and services. It makes it easier for the merchant to concentrate on building his or her business when one source provides all the tools to sell online.”

A Customer’s View

Nick Vacco is the founder and president of Detail King, a Pittsburgh, Pa.-based online store that sells auto detailing products and equipment. Detail King grosses approximately $500,000 annually via the GoEmerchant shopping cart. Vacco offers his opinions on the cart below.

PeC: How long has your company been using the GoEmerchant cart?

Nick Vacco

Nick Vacco

Vacco: “Eight years.”

PeC: What are the cart’s biggest strengths?

Vacco: “Adding new products, making quick changes, the ability to show a slide show of products, and customized shipping options.”

PeC: How could the cart improve?

Vacco: “Being able to easily link similar items on the the item description page of a like item.”

PeC: How would this cart improve another merchant’s business?

Vacco: “By giving them the ability to easily upload products and code the pages and products for search engines to easily spider them.”

PeC: Do you plan on continuing to use the cart?

Vacco: “Yes.”

PeC: Any other thoughts for our readers concerning the cart?

Vacco: “The monthly cost is very reasonable, they give many choices for credit card processing, and the support is very good.”

Other GoEmerchant Sites

Kate Monteith
Kate Monteith
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