Let’s be honest; Most companies today need to have a presence on the Internet. The problem is that most small business owners are genuinely scared of the work it will take to get their business online. I can fully relate to this because as a small business owner, I’ve been there before. My experience with Internet sales began in the early 90’s. Shopping carts were very clunky and complicated. Domain names cost hundreds of dollars compared to just a few dollars now and SEO hadn’t been invented yet.
We have come a long way since those days. Now your options are too many to count. As a small business owner, you basically have a couple of options to make. First, you may decide to hire someone to build and manage your website and shopping cart. After all, not all small business owners have the experience necessary to create an online business. Your second option is to do it yourself. While this sounds impossible, if you have the right eCommerce system or shopping cart, it’s actually not that difficult. With a little help and time, you can easily get your business online. So if you’re not comfortable building your own site, then hire a professional, but if you want to try it yourself, I’ve got 10 things to look for in a shopping cart that will make it easy for you to set it up. lift and manage So here we go:
- Easy to use. Ok, I know this sounds obvious, but let’s be honest, if you have to read a War and Peace manual to get your business online, then it’s not worth it. You’re not likely to try to set it up yourself and end up frustrated. You want a shopping cart program that is easy to use and set up. It should contain easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions for setting up your site.
- Web-based control panel. You want to make sure your shopping cart system has a user-friendly web-based control panel. It must be secure, but most importantly, it must be designed and easy to manage. Your inventory, website design, company information, and customer database should be easily accessible from your control panel.
- Easily integrates with a wide range of payment processors. For the newbie, a payment processor is the gateway where you can accept credit cards or other forms of payment. The one that most people easily recognize is PayPal. Your shopping cart system should integrate with a variety of checkout carts so it doesn’t limit your ability to use a processor that you’re comfortable with and that gives you the best deal.
- Real-time shipping rates. Your eCommerce system should easily integrate with the most common shipping programs, UPS, FedEx, and UPS at a minimum, because these are your most common shippers. Your shopping cart program should allow you to get real-time shipping rates so you can make sure you’re earning your shipping dollars and that your customers get the best shipping rates possible. More shipping systems give your customers more options on how quickly they receive their products and the cost.
- Secure and reliable website hosting. You must trust the host of your shopping cart to keep your information safe and secure. You also want to make sure you stay online 24/7. After all, when your website is down, you don’t make any sales, so reliability is a powerful selling point. You should look for a company that has fast servers, security systems to detect hackers, and redundant backups so you never have to worry about your shopping cart and website going down. Your store should always be ready to accept orders and instill confidence in your customers that their private information is safe.
- Easy to use templates and layouts, already built. To get your shopping cart and website up and running as quickly as possible, you want to have a wide variety of store layouts and templates that you can use. With pre-built templates, you can simply add your store information, products, photos, and start selling faster. If your shopping cart has multiple layouts available, you’ll have a better chance of finding a layout that matches your company’s colors and products.
- Possibility to change the design and templates without hiring a programmer. Your shopping cart system should allow you to easily make changes to its layout and design without having to hire a programmer. Shopping carts that use WYSIWYG, which stands for “What You See Is What You Get,” allow users to type in information in real time and see what it will look like when they enter it. If your shopping cart allows you to move blocks around so you can organize how your pages look and feel, it gives you even more creative power.
- Flexible and easy to upgrade product options. The reason you get a shopping cart program is because you want to sell products online. You want to make the product entry process as easy as possible. You also want options when entering products. Your shopping cart should have options to display multiple product views and allow you to place as many photos as you need to really display your products. The ability to zoom in and out also allows customers to get a good look at what they are buying, helping to reduce returns and customer dissatisfaction. Your eCommerce system should also allow you to easily use video or YouTube to give your customers even more ways to view your products online.
- Simple and effective marketing and promotion tools. Your shopping cart system should have various options to enable you to successfully market your business. The ability to add coupons or discount codes is the bare minimum you need. It should also have Google AdWords integration, Google Base product support, and the ability to share products on Twitter and Facebook. Your customers should be able to set up their RSS feeds to always get your newest products and updates. RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. You may be familiar with using RSS feeds to stay on top of your favorite blogs or news outlets. The best shopping carts will allow you to interact and set up a web store directly on your Facebook page. Your eCommerce system should offer as many options as possible to market your business and get your products in front of potential customers.
- Unlimited support and lifetime updates. Finally, your shopping cart system should have unlimited support and updates. There will always be times when you just can’t figure something out. If your shopping cart provider has a good FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions), then you’ll probably be able to get answers to most of your questions hands-free, however, when you have a question you can’t resolve, you’ll want the ability to call or email. email technical support for a quick solution to your dilemma. You should also expect updates to your software while you are using the system. The Internet is an ever-changing platform that requires shopping cart providers to make constant changes to their software to align with advancing technology. You want a shopping cart system that does this for you so you don’t have to do anything.
Those are my top 10 requirements for a good shopping cart, eCommerce system. Do your research and be sure to check out what others are saying about the eCommerce system you’re reviewing. I recommend that you look for shopping cart programs that offer a free trial. The longer the trial, the better chance you have to review the program and make sure it’s right for you. My last piece of advice is that your eCommerce system should be scalable, meaning it should be able to grow with you. If you only have ten products right now, you don’t want to pay for a system that hosts a thousand items if you don’t need to. Get a program that can grow with you.