An integral component of any e-commerce site should be the shopping cart function. If it doesn't work properly or easily, transactions and profits could suffer. Some ECTalk members discuss key capabilities of a complete and effective shopping cart system.
U started the thread with some key points about what to look for:
"What are really considered the best features when selecting a shopping cart/shopping cart builder? The things I think of are:
- Price
- Ease-of-use
- Having many functions
- Scalability
- Upgradability
- Standard/platform/type
- Company support
- Client referrals
- Language
Can anyone help me to organize the list by priority or add any other features please?"
SK responds:
"Many are concerned first and foremost with ease of use, since customers will give up if checkout is a pain. So any money that was saved in the software purchase is lost if abandonment happens frequently enough."
EJ makes a recommendation about a storefront building program:
"You should look at an e-commerce plan with Miva Merchant. I am a big fan since we started using and selling their systems. Take a look at the features at www.miva.com. It is a totally Web-based system from start to finish. You log in as the store administrator and make changes and updates through Web pages, so you can access your system from anywhere you have Internet access.
I have never worked with a simpler, easier to use system that this."
U adds the suggestions to his list of shopping cart priorities:
"Thanks. I got two points from you:
- Ease-of-use at customer side
- Ease-of-use at administrator side
Anymore comments for other points please? Or what is the best price (for shopping cart/shopping cart builder) for a small business and a medium business?"
SD thinks of some features that should be included:
"I would add:
- Ability to accept multiple currencies
- Ability to accept credit card payments
- Customization capabilities"
TL has some ideas to add to the discussion:
"In addition to the excellent points already made on cart selection (ease-of-use for both customer and site administrator), I'd say another consideration would be basic functionality. A good shopping cart should:
- allow a customer to save the cart for a later purchase
- accurately calculate actual shipping charges and show them as part of the total BEFORE the customer authorizes payment
- offer a wide range of shipping options (from Ground to Overnight)
- allow the customer to ship the item to a different address from than the billing address
- have clear, concise (i.e. short and easy-to-understand) instructions for the customer on how to use ('click Empty Cart to remove items from your shopping cart,' etc.)
- provide the ability to show the customers cross-sell items after they add an item to their cart (cross-sells often shown on the product page, but often forgotten after the customer adds the item to their cart. I'd make this an optional requirement as it's not all that easy to do, especially for an outsourced or shrink-wrapped cart application)."
SK follows up her previous post:
"What is the 'best' price for shopping cart software? That depends ... the best price is not always the lowest up front. For example, if you get a cart that is free or very low cost, but then you must hire a programmer to do anything with it, then it is probably not the 'best' priced cart.
On the other hand, if you already have a programmer on staff, or have the skills yourself, then this may be the best option for you.
But if you want something that will enable you to offer shopping cart services to your customers, or just want a cart for yourself that is easy to use, then you will probably want to spend more up front to save much time and money later. An example of such a cart is at CheckItOutTM.
You can also get it in several additional languages at no extra charge."
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