Shopping Carts For The Faint Of Heart

The chief criteria for judging an ecommerce shopping cart are the number of credit card processors and shipping services it supports, and the number of people that support *it*.

Why? Because credit card processors and shipping services mutate all the time. Your cart will require updating. Which service works today may go out of business tomorrow, and leave you with the orders piling up.

Other important criteria are how easy it is to set up, and add products, and how easy it is for the customer to use.

When you set up your shop test it using a wide variety of the oldest and buggiest browsers you can find. If your web store works under them you're home and dry.

Here are the cheapest, simplest, and most effective carts I've found:

1. Oscommerce (free) - http://www.oscommerce.com

A very good, full-featured, cart. Uses Php and MySQL. Not easy to set up for a 'newbie'. Cookies are used to track the order. If you have PhpMyAdmin installed in your web account, it's easier. Requires a customer to register before they can make a purchase. Supports a wide range of credit-card processors and shipping services.

Bad point: Technical support is limited to the Oscommerce forums, which are not helpful to newbies.

Also, it may be a while before an update is available to a payment module. These are done by unpaid enthusiasts.

Good point: Oscommerce is supported by thousands of unpaid enthusiasts; this means updates do eventually arrive, and it's less likely to go out of business, unlike a commercial cart.

2. X-Cart (commercial) - http://www.x-cart.com

Similar to Oscommerce. Requires a customer to register before they can make a purchase. Lots of features and add-ons. Supports a wide range of credit-card processors and shipping services. Has an affiliate program add-on, and lets others sell products though your cart.

3. Dansie Cart (commercial) - http://www.dansie.net

A well specified cart. Supports a wide range of credit-card processors and shipping services.

Bad point: Apparently the Perl code is obscured, to make it harder to copy, which is annoying if you want to customise it.

3. Interchange (free) - http://www.icdevgroup.org

A version of the old Akopia / Minivend carts. Complex product with lots of files and a lot of setting up to do. A complete solution, and includes the option of third party credit-card real-time order processing. Encrypts orders.

4. Agora (free) - http://www.agoracart.com

A Web-Store/Commerce.cgi hybrid.

5. The Commission Cart (commercial) - http://www.siteinteractive.com

A CGI-based shopping cart which also functions as an affiliate program. Other webmasters earn commissions by signing up and linking to your site.

6. ShopFactory (commercial) - http://www.shopfactory.Com

Has a nice little wizard-based set-up. If you have a lot of items in your shop, this is an option worth checking out.

This is a very valuable feature. A person who's set up CGI scripts before will get the most out of this. Supports a wide range of credit-card processors and shipping services.

Bad points: It's ugly, awkward, and uses JavaScript too much.

7. WebGenie Shopping Cart Pro (commercial) - http://www.webgenie.com

A simple, wizard-based option. Uses Javascript a bit, but the main work is done by CGI scripts. It saves the credit card information on your server.

It's for someone who hasn't set up a CGI script before. Expensive for what you get, but it works. Option to buy it on hire-purchase.

8. Actinic Catalog (commercial) - http://www.actinic.co.uk

Most suitable if you have lots of items in your store. It's a 'wizard'-based PC program; you type in your information, and the program sets up the store.

You should set up the default store as-is, then customise it later. Supports a wide range of credit-card processors and shipping services. A little complicated for an internet newbie; there's quite a lot in it.

9. Order Maven (commercial) - http://www.briggsoft.com

A clever little program. It's a standalone Windows executable, which the customer downloads. The customer starts it up, chooses the product, enters their details, and sends off their order like an email, with the credit card details encrypted. It costs $29.00 at the time of writing. No secure server or order page needed; it's all done on the customer's PC at their leisure.

You need to customise it. Make sure you write your mail server URL into the code. For the customer, the order module is a 160kb download.

NOTE: Try to avoid carts that use cookies and javascript only, or that tie you into only one secure server and credit-card processor. Also avoid web-based services that you lease only. They can go out of business, leaving you flat.

Having read the above you should have eliminated quite a few programs from your shopping list. They either won't work properly with all browsers, or they won't encrypt your order, or they want to tie you into their manufacturers' secure order system at $40+ per month.

Another option is to get a bespoke system set up for you by a specialist company. These cost thousands of dollars. Aren't you glad you read this far?

About the author: T. O' Donnell (http://www.tigertom.com/web-designer-london .shtml) is an ecommerce and web site design consultant in London, UK.

---

Ecommerce Comes from Customer Satisfaction

Online shopping is convenient, but many companies whose web sites... Read More

How To Eliminate Credit Card Refunds From Digital Thieves

Can you encounter the number of times where a Credit... Read More

12 Powerful Ways To Use Autoresponders That Will Take YOU To The Top

If only I had known that autoresponders are a necessity... Read More

Online Florists - Send Flowers Online When Youre In a Hurry

You did it again, didn't you? Forgot until the last... Read More

6 Steps to Attracting Black Customers Online

by Jamila White, "The E-Commerce Diva"In the rush to keep... Read More

Say Something Worth Talking About

I recently published a short e-book called 'One Thing I... Read More

Grow Your Business Using B2B Emarketplace - Part I

If you are a small to medium size company and... Read More

How to Receive Payments for Your Online Sales

Once you decide which products you are planning to sell... Read More

Beginner Ecommerce Mistakes

This is a short article because in the constraints of... Read More

Outsourcing Your Ecommerce Order Fulfillment

When your eCommerce business grows to the point where you... Read More

How to Get Free Internet Merchant Accounts

This article will show small businesses how to get free... Read More

The Ecommerce Business Plan

Simply put, business plans can make or break your business.... Read More

Accept Credit Cards Online Without A Merchant Account

It is often assumed if you want to accept credit... Read More

The Internet and Customer Care: Aid or Anarchy?

It was reported in 'Marketing' magazine this month, that Britain... Read More

5 Powerful Ways to Make Money Online with a Website

There are many ways to make money online and the... Read More

Selecting The Right Shopping Cart For Your Website

Shopping Cart Installation And SetupShopping cart technology has evolved to... Read More

Intranet Portal ? Business Case ROI

The days of easy money are overIn these post-dot-com days... Read More

Shopping Online: What You Should Know

For some people, shopping online is as normal as driving... Read More

7 Questions to Ask A Potential Internet Merchant Account Provider

Recently I went looking for an online merchant account, with... Read More

How to Gain Your Visitors Trust

If you are serious about selling on the world wide... Read More

Online Payments Make It Easy For Your Customers To Buy

In the last column we discussed the process of credit... Read More

Your Readers are Publishers Too

Too often we charge ahead and treat the web as... Read More

10 Reasons To Survey Your Visitors, Subscribers And Customers

1. To find out what type of content visitors want... Read More

Alternative E-Commerce Solutions

Over the past several years, the Internet has emerged as... Read More

Start doing online business using B2B Portals in Six Steps

I registered with a B2B site but what's next?This is... Read More