Shopping Cart Checklist

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?