E-Commerce and Shopping Carts

Before jumping into e-commerce, it’s a good idea to have a basic understanding of what it is and isn’t. E-Commerce simply means that you are selling a product or service over the internet. You can reach a larger audience, faster and with less overhead. It’s a great way to sell whatever you have without having to invest a lot of money.

When selling something online, you will most likely need some sort of shopping cart software to take care of the transaction. Many web-hosting companies and web developers have their own shopping cart systems that they can install on a website quickly and at a reasonable cost. For smaller companies, or those just starting out on the web, this is good way to get online quickly without spending a lot of money. The developer is the expert and takes care of getting the shopping cart up and running. Once you have your site going, you can monitor what’s going on and make any changes and adjustments necessary to keep it running at its best.

Shopping cart programs have a number of steps and ways to use them, and it’s a good idea to know the whole process. Many programs require shoppers to register, which can be annoying and drive people away. Often times, shopping carts are cumbersome. When you add an item, you have to start your search all over again – you can’t just go back to where you were. It is important to use the program before investing in any one solution. You need to know that it is something that you can work with.

Because the program will be hosted at a developer or hosting company, you also need to understand how orders will be processes and shipped. Most programs integrate with credit card processing software, but not all banks’ programs can work with shopping carts. Once the order is processed, you can get an email telling you what it is, or you can simply go online and view orders as you see fit. That part is up to you.

There are off-the-rack shopping cart programs that you can buy and install on your site in addition to the programs that hosts and developers use. Depending on your needs, these may also be a good solution. For companies with thousands of items, or lots of different variations on their products, these pre-packaged software programs may work well. They don’t have the limits that hosting companies programs often have. If you want to use a packaged e-commerce solution, check with us and make sure it works with our servers before investing in it. Many times we can offer you a comparable solution that costs less and requires less work on your part.

For those who have really big shopping cart needs, then a custom designed solution is probably the way to go. Most of the major retailers online use custom solutions to fit their exact needs. When you get to this point, then you know you’ve hit the big time.