Chapter 10: Technology And your Small Business
Shopping Cart Software Helps You Sell Your Products Online
Shopping Cart Software Helps You Sell Your Products Online
 The shopping cart is one of the most important parts to having a smooth e-commerce transition since it is how your customers will ultimately purchase your products.
Your choice of shopping carts will depend on how many products you wish to sell, how you will accept payments, how you charge for shipping, and what options are needed for your products.
Shopping Cart Software Needed Features
A web based shopping cart is a way for customers to read a list of products and mark off the selections they want. Then, when they are finished, they can check out, finding their tax, shipping, and total order.
If you are looking for a shopping cart solution for your website, there are many choices available. Before you purchase software, you will want to be sure the one you buy has the following features:
- Secure ordering
- Multiple payment options
- Multiple pricing options
- Autoresponder – uses email to tell your customers about their order.
- Excellent customer service
If you are tech-savvy and feel comfortable setting up your own shopping cart, you will be able to take advantage of one of the many free carts out there. Otherwise, you will want to look at a purchased cart.
Finding Free Shopping Carts
osCommerce: osCommerce is the leading Open Source online shop e-commerce solution that is available for free under the GNU General Public License.
It features a rich set of out-of-the-box online shopping cart functionality that allows store owners to setup, run, and maintain online stores with minimum effort and with no costs, fees, or limitations involved.
ZenCart: The developers of ZenCart set out to make it easier to install and use for non-tech-types.
ZenCart lets you spotlight specific items in your store, making it very useful for product promotions. The three-step checkout process is easy to understand and use.
PhpShop: The program is full of features and is easy to install and maintain.
Buying Shopping Carts
Paypal: Offers shopping cart capability as part of their package.
The cart is free, but it requires that your buyers pay via PayPal which means you will owe PayPal a transaction fee.
 However, the fees are reasonable, and the cart is fairly easy to set up and use.
MonsterCommerce: Complete shopping cart solution. In addition to a full-featured shopping cart, you can also have MonsterCommerce host your website.
Monster Commerce costs $49.95 to $99.95 per month.
Microsoft Commerce Manager: Microsoft Commerce Manager has many features to create an online storefront.
You can also list products on the auction block and on shopping sites, as well as list them on your website.
You can also provide customers with an order status online. It costs $249 per year or $24.95 per month
Yahoo Merchant Solutions: Merchant Solutions offers single or multi-page checkout, automatic calculations for shipping and tax, support for downloadable products, custom design options, and even gift-wrapping options.
Yahoo Merchant Solutions costs $39.95 per month with a 1.5% transaction fee and a $50 set-up fee.
With the growth of Internet e-commerce, you may decide that selling your products online via your website will increase your business.
Just be sure that you purchase a shopping cart that offers the features you can use and will work most effectively for your customers.
What's Next
Next In This Guide
 Finding the Right Employees For Your Business - Overwhelmed and All Alone?
Determining If It Time to Hire Employees for Your Small Business. Previous business experience is always a big plus when starting your own business.
Previous In This guide
 Small Business Software You'll Probably Need - Without software, your computer won't do anything. There are two main types of software; systems software and applications software.
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 How To Start A Small Business Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Starting a Business But Were Afraid To Ask - Table of Contents
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