Magento

Select the right e-commerce software with a shopping cart

In order to sell products on your Web site, you have a few options. You can hire someone to develop custom online storefront functionality. However, most small businesses that are looking for more cost effective solutions purchase e-commerce Web site shopping cart software. This allows your customers to select products from your Web site, put them into the shopping cart on your site, and then checkout using their choice of various payment methods.
Here is a rundown of the many features you’ll want from the e-commerce solution provider you select:
1.  Near 100 percent up-time: You’ll need your site to be live 24 hours a day to process orders.
2.  Email accounts: Your email should match your site’s domain name for branding purposes.
3.  Simplicity: If you do not know Web site coding language such as HTML, make sure the shopping cart software you choose is easy to use so that you won’t lose nights of sleep trying to learn HTML.
4.  Flexible site design: You want your site to represent your business, so make sure you have the ability to customize elements like colors, logos and fonts to meet your needs.
5.  Limit on Products/Categories: Some shopping carts place a limit on how many products or categories you can use. For example, you may only list 100 products, and you’ll need to pay more to list more products. You should choose software which does not have any limits in order to have a scalable solution.
6.  Shipping and tax: Most e-commerce platforms can automatically calculate the appropriate shipping and tax for you. Since shipping costs are a key part of e-commerce, make sure your platform gives you flexibility (e.g., free shipping, flat rate, pass along rates from logistics companies etc.).
7.  Discounts and promotions: Discounts are a great way to drive sales for your business. Choose a shopping cart solution that makes it easy to offer discount pricing and coupon codes to help you drive sales.
8.  Technical support: Imagine running an online shopping site for the first time without technical help. You should be able to find an ecommerce company that offers free phone, email and online chat support.
Once you select an e-commerce provider, plan to spend time uploading images of your products and writing descriptions and other content for your site that will give your customers the information they need in order to make a purchase. Writing content for your Web site can be time consuming as well, but it is critical. If you do not consider yourself a writer, look into hiring someone to write the content for you. The information that you write for your Web site is what the major search engines will look at to determine where your site should show up in search results for your products. Also, an informed visitor who can get as many details about your products as possible from your site is more likely to buy.