shopping cart - Do you know what to look for regarding shopping cart features? What features do you really need?
When you own an online business one of the most important decisions you will make is which shopping cart software to use. There are 3 key things you need out of your shopping cart: ease of use, useful features, and good customer support.
When you are evaluating shopping cart software you want to look at the following areas:
The features - You want to choose a shopping cart that has the features that you will use at a cost that fits your budget.
Ease of use - A good shopping cart program will be easy to use and contain Wizards that will help you to integrate your shopping cart with your Web page and your storefront. There should be menus and a help format that is easy to assess when you need them and the help format and menus should be presented in a logical manner so that it is easy to find what you are looking for.
Setup - The setup procedures should allow the software install to go quickly and without errors. The administration of the shopping cart should be accessible online, and easy to get to and to use.
Customer Service and technical support should be included in the shopping cart software package. You should have several means of getting support such as by phone, email, regular mail and online chat.
Choose your features so that you won't go out of your shopping cart too soon. Look towards the future and what your business, products and customers will need in a shopping cart.
Some popular shopping cart features that you want to look for in your shopping cart software:
You want to see if hosting for your shopping cart is included, you want to look at Website design to be sure it is search engine friendly, has templates for storefront creation and that the store setup is flexible and customizable, and that there is a integrated store search, available thumbnails and large image views. In the back office you want to see if there is a data import wizard that will allow bulk upload. You want to know if there are any limits on how many products, how many categories, if there is a catalog manager, and what the inventory control consists of. Are there backorder or partial ship capabilities and is accounting integration available?
What are the shopping cart capabilities regarding product type? Can the shopping cart software handle physical products, downloadable products and does it have up-sell or cross-sell modules? Can the shopping cart handle coupons, certificates or discounts? Is there a customer address book available to store customer addresses? Can your customers view order history?
Other features that you should look for are the ability to have merchant account or gateway integration, is it Paypal Payment compatibility. Is there real-time credit card processing and payment acceptance in any currency? Can you accept checks, phone orders, COD, or e-checks if you purchase the software?
Do you have the capability of customizing your own checkout and shipping pages? Is there an affiliate program setup capabilities. What reports come standard with the shopping cart software?
Are there real-time interfaces with UPS or FedEx? Can the shopping cart incorporate handling charges? Are you going to be able to have the ability to restrict shipping by location is you so chose to be able to?
What kind of security does the shopping cart software come with? Check for SSL Secure Socket Layer, Cookies, Backups and Restores, and fraud protection.
What type of technical customer support does the shopping cart software come with? Is their telephone, online chat, email support? Are there online forms to fill out when you need support? Is there a knowledge base or FAQs that you can turn to anytime for quick, common questions?
What server types does the shopping cart support, does it include Linux Intel servers, Sparc Servers, Unix Servers, Sun Servers, SGI Servers, or Microsoft Windows Servers? - shopping cart
When you own an online business one of the most important decisions you will make is which shopping cart software to use. There are 3 key things you need out of your shopping cart: ease of use, useful features, and good customer support.
When you are evaluating shopping cart software you want to look at the following areas:
The features - You want to choose a shopping cart that has the features that you will use at a cost that fits your budget.
Ease of use - A good shopping cart program will be easy to use and contain Wizards that will help you to integrate your shopping cart with your Web page and your storefront. There should be menus and a help format that is easy to assess when you need them and the help format and menus should be presented in a logical manner so that it is easy to find what you are looking for.
Setup - The setup procedures should allow the software install to go quickly and without errors. The administration of the shopping cart should be accessible online, and easy to get to and to use.
Customer Service and technical support should be included in the shopping cart software package. You should have several means of getting support such as by phone, email, regular mail and online chat.
Choose your features so that you won't go out of your shopping cart too soon. Look towards the future and what your business, products and customers will need in a shopping cart.
Some popular shopping cart features that you want to look for in your shopping cart software:
You want to see if hosting for your shopping cart is included, you want to look at Website design to be sure it is search engine friendly, has templates for storefront creation and that the store setup is flexible and customizable, and that there is a integrated store search, available thumbnails and large image views. In the back office you want to see if there is a data import wizard that will allow bulk upload. You want to know if there are any limits on how many products, how many categories, if there is a catalog manager, and what the inventory control consists of. Are there backorder or partial ship capabilities and is accounting integration available?
What are the shopping cart capabilities regarding product type? Can the shopping cart software handle physical products, downloadable products and does it have up-sell or cross-sell modules? Can the shopping cart handle coupons, certificates or discounts? Is there a customer address book available to store customer addresses? Can your customers view order history?
Other features that you should look for are the ability to have merchant account or gateway integration, is it Paypal Payment compatibility. Is there real-time credit card processing and payment acceptance in any currency? Can you accept checks, phone orders, COD, or e-checks if you purchase the software?
Do you have the capability of customizing your own checkout and shipping pages? Is there an affiliate program setup capabilities. What reports come standard with the shopping cart software?
Are there real-time interfaces with UPS or FedEx? Can the shopping cart incorporate handling charges? Are you going to be able to have the ability to restrict shipping by location is you so chose to be able to?
What kind of security does the shopping cart software come with? Check for SSL Secure Socket Layer, Cookies, Backups and Restores, and fraud protection.
What type of technical customer support does the shopping cart software come with? Is their telephone, online chat, email support? Are there online forms to fill out when you need support? Is there a knowledge base or FAQs that you can turn to anytime for quick, common questions?
What server types does the shopping cart support, does it include Linux Intel servers, Sparc Servers, Unix Servers, Sun Servers, SGI Servers, or Microsoft Windows Servers? - shopping cart
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