Businesses frequently approach e-commerce website designers with the question, “Which e-commerce shopping cart is the best one out there?” We get this question all the time from current and potential customers at VisFire. However, if you find ourself looking into e-commerce, the questions you really need to be asking are, “What are my goals for ecommerce?” and “What features do I need in my shopping cart?” This will help determine what cart is appropriate for your needs.
Ignoring your needs and goals for e-commerce could lead to an overpriced and underutilized cart or a cart that you will outgrow too quickly.
After you have answered, “What are my goals for ecommerce?” and “What features do I need in my shopping cart?” you can begin to explore the different types of e-commerce platforms available. Specifically, these refer to platforms such as, light add-on, hosted or SaaS, self-hosted, or a custom e-commerce shopping cart. It is important to understand the type of platform you need before actually choosing a shopping cart.
Types of E-Commerce Platforms:
Light Add-On Carts:
We define light add-on carts as any cart that integrates into your existing website or content management system (CMS), such as WordPress. These carts are best if you are only selling a hand full of products and cannot justify an investment of several thousand dollars.
PROS:
Inexpensive
Effective solution for a limited amount of items
Requires little to no custom development
CONS:
Limited design features
Little to no customer service management features
Not easily flexible for custom items
Examples:
Cart66
Shopp
PayPal Standard Buttons – Easiest of them all
Woo Commerce
Hosted or SaaS Carts:
This is any cart where you cannot place the code on your own server. Hosted carts typically provide more features for inventory management and customer service than an add-on cart. These are great for start-up businesses with limited resources and a few dozen or more products. The initial cost is typically low, but there are usually monthly hosting fees, feature add-on fees, product limit fees, and/or selling fees.
We usually warn customers not to use a hosted solution if they have custom design needs or are looking for any type of custom data integration. Designing custom layouts for hosted shopping cart solutions can be as costly as using a self-hosted open-source or licensed/purchased cart.
This is a great solution for those looking for a maintenance free e-commerce website. If you don’t have any custom website design or feature needs, be sure to seriously consider a hosted solution.
PROS:
Low startup costs
Quick to setup
Available support
No software maintenance
CONS:
Limited design freedom on some solutions
Limited customization of data formatting or feeds
Fees, Fees, Fees
Some hosted carts can appear unprofessional or novice
Examples:
3D Cart
Bigcommerce
ChannelAdvisor
eBay ProStores
Miva Merchant
NS Commerce Space
Shopify
UltraCart
Volusion
Self-Hosted Open-Source or Licensed/Purchased Cart
All carts you can place on your own server or web hosting service fall into this category. This is the type of cart we usually recommend for our custom website designs. E-Commerce shopping carts in this category can be downloaded, placed on your server, and modified to your heart’s delight. These are ideal if you are looking for a custom design, have special data needs, custom formatted products, a special checkout procedure, want a cart that integrates with the rest of your website, or have a large amount of products.
Like any type of cart, these have their drawbacks as well. Most notably, the initial cost is high in order to design and develop these shopping carts. Although the design cost is higher than a hosted e-commerce cart, it is only marginally higher. If you want something professional with loads of features, this is the way to go.
PROS:
Design limitations are minimal
Custom data formatting
Custom product formatting
Custom checkout procedures
Only marginally more to design than a hosted cart
Knowledgeable user communities
CONS:
High initial cost
Requires a hosting environment
Less robust support than a hosted cart
Self-service maintenance and potentially high upgrade costs
Examples:
AspDotNetStoreFront
CS-Cart
Magento
nopCommerce
OpenCart
osCommerce
Znode
Custom E-Commerce Shopping Cart
This is the choice of many companies who already have a complex backend infrastructure (CRM or ERP). This option will allow for the full integration of existing systems to your e-commerce shopping cart. Custom shopping carts are typically best for enterprise companies or those with very special backend integration needs.
PROS:
Allows for streamlined integrations to complex backend or legacy systems
No design or feature limitations
CONS:
Extremely costly
Little to no third party or community support
Long development times
Necessitates a dedicated development team
If you now have a good grasp on the type of cart you need, it is time to test. Most shopping carts have trial versions or demo accounts you can use. Make use of these and see which you like. Lastly, talk to your e-commerce designer and developer about your top 2-3 picks.