TomatoCart is a complete shopping cart application which offers solutions ranging from product listing to search engine optimization. This review on it is made based on the investigation into the using experience of hundreds of TomatoCart users to take a deep look into the eCommerce feature, advantages, as well as the negative comments.
Just like OpenCart, PrestaShop and osCommerce, TomatoCart is an open source solution developed with PHP and backed by MySQL initially. In the process of development, it is integrated with a large number of advanced technologies like RIAs and Piwik, and many content management features.
Below are the main advantages of using TomatoCart to build and manage eCommerce sites which enable it to be a leading option for online shop owners.
RIAs-Based Admin Panel with Multi-Window Operation
Leveraging the power of RIAs (Rich Internet applications), TomatoCart offers a graphic user interface for backend admin, which makes it easy to interact with web interfaces. With the use of Ajax technology, the interactions can even be much faster.
In addition, the application gives full support to multi-window operation, which means that you are able to work on several separate parts of your store such as reports, orders and articles at the same time without being troubled by frequent window switching. This improves the user experience much.
Easy Order, Payment & Shipping Management
TomatoCart is packed with tons of easy-to-use features for managing orders, payment and shipping with ease. It allows adding orders in the admin panel, printing invoices, setting up credits, browsing the abandoned carts, and tracking orders for the current status.
As for payment, there are 17 methods integrated by default, which include Google Checkout, Amazon IPN, PayPal, SafePay and Authorize.NET. And 7 shipping options are available for you to meet the demands of different customers on free shipping, flat rate, USPS, self pickup, and more.
Rich-Featured Email System
Supporting IMAP and POP3 protocol, TomatoCart offers an email system from where you can send, receive, forward or delete emails as you need in a way that is similar to your daily email management on laptop. Also, you can move emails from other mailboxes to the system to make life much easier.
Besides, the support for newsletter allows you to send emails to your subscribers to inform them of new products or services. As a result, sales increase largely. As email is more than important for modern business, the email system of the software helps a lot once you have realized its importance, indeed.
Powerful Reports & Statistics
For website statistics and eCommerce reports, TomatoCart utilizes Piwik, an open source web analytics application that equal Google Analytics. Integrated in the dashboard, Piwik tracks visits and presents detailed information about visitors to assist the site owner in analyzing the traffic to adjust marketing strategy.
In the admin panel, you can browse and learn about the overall visitor statistics, which countries the visitors are from, what languages they use, the pages they have read, the keywords they have used in search engines, order status, last visits, and so on.
Effective Search Engine Optimization
Search engine ranking is a significant factor that impacts the success of eCommerce because most online traffic comes from search engines instead of direct visit. In this case, TomatoCart has done a good job in helping users to gain good rankings and better sales.
Using the software, you can take advantage of static URLs to get Google indexing your pages fast, use Rich Keyword URL for product, review and category, and add meta keyword and meta description for homepage and article. Besides, TomatoCart supports URL rewrite, which means that it's your freedom to customize product URLs to be more search engine friendly.
Negative Comments About TomatoCart
Despite the large number of advantages coming with the shopping cart, there are still some complaints and negative comments about it. After searching over the Internet, we find that most of the complaints are not commonly-met problems, while the most serious one is the lack of templates and modules.
TomatoCart has a lot of built-in features, but you may need some more to extend the functionality or change the design to your own needs. Unlike some other popular applications, TomatoCart does not come with many choices for further customization.
Conclusion – Is the Software Right for You?
TomatoCart is good for people running a small or medium sized online store with demand on easy management and SEO. If you do not have high requirements on website templates, the software can meet all your needs.
Before starting a new business, you should get a server for the software to reside on. Here we have the following recommendation of web hosting providers which offer shared, VPS and dedicated server at a reasonable price.
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Company
Highlights
Price
1
BlueHost
Support for hosting unlimited domains on 1 account
PHP 5, MySQL 5, PostgreSQL, Shared SSL & SSH
1-click software installation using SimpleScripts
$200 advertising credits for Google, Twitter & Facebook
$3.95/mo
Visit
2
JustHost
A free domain for 1 year & $200 advertising voucher
Unlimited disk space, bandwidth & email accounts
30 days full refund & anytime prorated refund
24x7 technical support through phone, email & live chat
$2.25/mo
Visit
3
A2Hosting
Unlimited hosted domains & email accounts
SwiftServer platform & CloudFlare CDN
No hidden fees & 30 days money back guarantee
99.9% uptime guarantee & quadruple redundant network
$3.92/mo
Visit