Platforms & Apps

Our coverage of platforms and apps includes innovations and updates to shopping carts, content management systems, mobile shopping, digital-product selling, headless commerce, social media, and much more.

Platforms & Apps
What Do You Dislike About Your Shopping Cart?

April 18, 2007 • PEC Staff

Readers weigh in on what they would like to see improved with their carts. 1ShoppingCart "We offer live UPS shipping rates, but for some reason 1ShoppingCart is only set up for commercial rates. It should default to residential rates. I would guess there are five residential buyers ...
Platforms & Apps
Shopping Cart Checklist

September 1, 2006 • PEC Staff

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 pr...
Platforms & Apps
Hosted Shopping Cart Solutions

September 1, 2006 • PEC Staff

PeC: How would you describe the merits of a hosted solution compared to various software solutions that are in the marketplace? Krakovsky: I think it starts with the fundamental premise that people start businesses to sell products and services to customers, not necessarily deal wit...
Platforms & Apps
Getting to the Heart of the Cart

September 1, 2006 • PEC Staff

If you came to this article hoping we’d tell you exactly which shopping cart you should choose for your business, you will be disappointed. We don’t know. However, thanks to the expertise of a pair of industry veterans, the process of choosing a shopping cart is about to get easier for...
Platforms & Apps
Shopping Cart Software Solutions

September 1, 2006 • PEC Staff

PeC: What are some distinctive characteristics of shopping carts that you might share with a new ecommerce business? Randolph: I’d say everything has a place. Yahoo! Stores has over 150,000 merchants now so, without a doubt, the hosted solution has a place in the marketplace. There a...
Platforms & Apps
Shopping Carts: Features to Consider

April 1, 2006 • Brian Getting

A shopping cart system should be able to accommodate a business’ needs, rather than requiring the business to adjust goals and strategies to match the capabilities of the shopping cart. We've put together a template of sorts that you can use to help decide on a shopping cart system base...
Platforms & Apps
osCommerce Founder: Open Source Encourages Collaboration

January 1, 2006 • Brian Getting

Harald Ponce de Leon had an idea to create an online shopping cart system that would serve as a guide to other ecommerce developers. That was in 2000. In order to attract interest, he released his cart, then called the Exchange Project, under a free, open-source license. Nearly six year...
Platforms & Apps
Stephanie Leffler, CEO of MonsterCommerce

November 1, 2005 • Michael A. Cox

Stephanie Leffler says anybody who thinks a successful ecommerce business is about putting up a website in five minutes and counting the money in their pajamas is in for a rude awakening. To her, ecommerce is a real business that requires every bit the investment of time, energy and mon...
Platforms & Apps
Blog Platforms: Choose One that Fits Your Need

October 1, 2005 • Paul Chaney

You have bitten the bullet and decided to add a blog to your ecommerce site and make it a part of your marketing mix. You made the strategic decision of why you want to blog, determined what your core message will be and the audience you wish to target. Now, you have to make some tactic...
Platforms & Apps
How To Choose A Shopping Cart

September 1, 2005 • Michael A. Cox

Mark Baartse has identified 137 different shopping carts. Baartse tries to identify which are the best for the myriad applications required in the ecommerce industry.
Platforms & Apps
How Does Shopping Cart Software Work?

January 15, 2004 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

Just what is a shopping cart? It's a term that has come to mean either an online ordering system (separate from your regular website). Usually these supply HTML code for "order buttons" that you can paste into pages on your regular website.