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?