Therefore, buying the right product which fits into your goals can save a lot of time and effort, while a mistake may turn into extra costs, additional months of work or even cause starting the whole project from scratch.

There are a number of key factors which should be considered while picking the right e-commerce solution. Here is an outline of the most important steps that definitely should not be missed. The strategy described below may be varied according to your goals, however, following this advice will be useful in the decision-making process as a whole.

 

 

In our opinion, the first thing you should ask is the role you are going to play in the online e-commerce store functioning process. The key factor of this role (at least for small and medium e-commerce businesses) is the level of your technical knowledge.

In most cases, technology is an issue for e-commerce store owners, managers and administrators. Since each store needs its own unique design and functionality along with the initial setup and hosting administration, you should clearly understand how these services could be purchased and what the solution has to offer. Another important issue for you is the ease of administration and usage of basic functions.

Another group of users are web developers and designers who are technically skilled and usually maintain the store by themselves or develop e-commerce solutions for their clients (which usually involves complex code changes and development of extra functionality). For these people, the most important factors are: the quality of code, the ease of customization and add-ons implementation and flexibility of storefront design.

 

 

All e-commerce shopping cart solutions can be divided into two large groups: hosted and distributed.

Hosted e-commerce carts are usually provided in the same manner as hosting services, which means that a customer has several predefined plans/packages (varying in number of products, monthly bandwidth, number of features, etc) to choose from. The pricing structure is also based on regular (monthly or yearly) fees. A hosting platform is provided directly from the supplier and the cart is usually activated without any actions needed from a client.

Hosted e-commerce shopping carts are managed through the administration area which provides the interface to manage product catalog (add, remove items and edit their properties), define and change prices and so on. The storefront design can usually be altered by modifying templates, however, the access to the source code for hosted solutions is usually limited and it’s not always possible to modify the functionality.

Distributed e-commerce solutions are sold at a fixed price (one-time fee for a lifetime license) as a software package which should be installed on any compatible server/computer chosen by a customer. After the initial setup, the e-commerce store can also be managed using the administration area.

Usually such products come with source code and thus can be modified or extended to suit your needs. However, such modifications require good technical and programming knowledge.

Overall, hosted e-commerce carts are often preferable for store owners as more easy to use and administer while web programmers, designers and developers mostly choose distributed solutions due to their flexibility.

 

 

While most shopping cart features can often be used right out of the box, it’s important to note that in most cases online stores require some additional professional services.

For example, e-commerce software may come with a number of pre-installed design templates, but a serious store owner would usually have its own unique store look or integrating it’s existing design into the storefront. Also, since it’s impossible for an e-commerce product containing each and every possible feature or working the way which is totally suitable for everyone, a shopping cart manufacturer providing custom programming service is a good option in case you’re planning to implement some extended functionality.

Another option worth checking is whether it’s possible to get a fully-compatible hosting solution (since e-commerce shopping carts usually have significant server-side requirements due to their complexity) and technical support (in case you need consultations or assistance in problem resolution).

 

 

E-commerce software should not be treated as a standalone product, but rather as a solid ground for interaction between various components.

Not all operations are performed within the shopping cart engine. Most often, external services are used for payment processing, real-time shipping rates calculation, order processing systems, affiliate and statistics software, product directories and so on. Thus, the richness of integration allows store owners to have a wider choice of services for their online business.

 

 

Responsive technical support is another key factor which ensures that you’re not left alone with your problems and, in case the assistance is needed, you can be sure to receive a thoughtful response or a solution in a reasonable amount of time.

Support schemes from different companies may vary in type and costs. For shopping cart vendors, technical support is often on a pay-per-incident basis, or yearly/monthly flat-fee contract. Free technical support for e-commerce solutions is quite rare and may not always be effective or timely.

Forum activity is also a good indicator since it can be a good, free source of knowledge and assistance from experience software users.

 

 

 

Choosing e-commerce shopping cart software may not seem easy since it involves significant effort from a serious customer. However, the rewards for the effort is clear: you get a solution which fits into your goals and allows you to concentrate on sales and marketing without worrying about the technical side.