Ecommerce For Beginners – Choosing Shopping Cart Software

By Pam Hogan

When you’re new to the world of ecommerce it can be tempting to want to go with whatever seems the easiest and fastest to get you up and going. This can include picking the first shopping cart that comes along. This might even mean using PayPal rather than setting up your own merchant account. It might also mean using quick website making programs without reading the fine print to make sure you own the site and not the company should you ever want to move it somewhere else. And it most definitely might mean using the free shopping cart that the website hosting companies bundle in their offers.

Have you ever asked yourself why it is that they offer carts for free? Take a close look at the kind of cart you get and you won’t have to wonder ever again.

Take a look at the features listed from GoDaddy, a popular hosting company, and some of the bullet points from their cart description:

* Over 800 design and color combinations, 10 Category page styles and 10 Product Detail page styles

* Personalize with your logo, brand and product images

* Simple catalog set up

* Specify product details, including SKU, description, pricing, options and inventory tracking

* Add and manage product images, including enlargements

* Accept all major credit cards

This is like a restaurant listing as its features: a clean table for you to dine at, water provided at no charge for each of your guests, fresh bread provided at no charge, menus for everyone to browse, 300 menu items to choose from.

Now, anyone who’s ever scanned a menu knows that 300 items is overkill just as 800 design combinations are, but it sounds impressive. In fact, it’s the first feature they list, which tells you that they’re counting on you not knowing what to look for, and to be impressed by this feature.

In truth, everything listed above are the bare-bone basics, which is what free tends to buy you. They, no doubt, count on the fact that this is your first website and you won’t be asking the right questions.

Don’t be lulled to sleep by your need to keep things simple. Simple sounds good when things are overwhelming. Likewise, one-stop-shops sound appealing when you don’t know where to turn. It makes you feel like one place is going to solve all of your needs, build your site, host your site, provide you with a shopping cart, process your orders through their merchant account. Now ask yourself, do you really want your dentist to be your auto mechanic and your dry cleaner, or do you want the best dentist out there, and a recommended list of places to take your car and clothes?

The more important questions to ask of the shopping cart system is can it process digital as well as physical products, can it offer recurring billing, does it offer autoresponders that send email marketing messages automatically for you, can you customize your thank you page and your check out page so that you can use that space wisely, can you use the cart on several websites or is it limited? A robust cart provides all of these features and then some.

No one is saying that in the beginning you won’t have more questions than answers, but now you know the questions you should be asking. Most people stay with their shopping cart for years, it’s not something you want to have to switch out. So, do the research, don’t just go for what seems simple and make an informed choice when you invest in your shopping cart system.

Now if you want to discover how a shopping cart can make you money visit http://www.TheRightCart.com

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