Searching
for the best ecommerce shopping cart solution for your online
store can be frustrating. Sorting through confusing articles that
different ecommerce builders post could make you feel like you’re
going to lose it. I know, I faced this when I was looking for a
suitable ecommerce solution myself. The more I searched the more
options I uncovered. So which solution did I opt for? I wanted a
solution that was reliable and guaranteed to worked, so I kept
reading about each feature, and ultimately was lost.
Today,
ecommerce retailers face more challenges than they would have a few
years ago. On one hand, consumers keep demanding for faster and
engaging shopping experiences on their desktop, tablet or mobile
devices. While on the other, internal stakeholders want a solution
that can keep up with the functionality of competitors. Everyone out
there is searching for a platform that can manage inventory,
promotion, merchandising and order management with ease. However,
with time we find that a shopping cart solution that was great a few
years ago isn’t so suitable today. Here are key decisions you may
need to think about before embarking on finding the eCommerce Shopping CartSolution for you business.
Hosting
your own cart versus using a SaaS solution
Making
this decision isn’t very easy. The choice would depend on your team
(is your staff capable of handling your own hosting?), budget, cart
requirements and plans for the future.
SaaS
Based Cart
Although
SaaS carts come with more conveniences, they certainly have their
fair share of shortcomings. Here are some fundamental elements you
may want to consider:
Its
billing model – will the ecommerce shopping cart solution
you choose to use, charge you by revenue share, the number of
products listed, order volume, access to features, data usage or a
combination of some of these factors? Be sure to consider your costs
during the year and your peak times like during holidays.
Design
– most SaaS-based carts tend to limit their users to certain
templates. To get a customized template, you have to pay more. Other
carts will also need you to upgrade the subscription plan so you can
access and customize your CSS, HTML or PHP.
Ecosystem
– Choosing to use a SaaS-based cart has the potential to accelerate
the development of your website because such carts come bundled with
certified applications, partners or developers. Ensure that you
investigate the apps and its developer communities of the SaaS cart
you choose. Make sure you will not lose the key features relevant to
your business. Also, factor in all additional costs for third party
add-ons.
Self-Hosted
Cart
Many
shopping carts offer retailers installed solutions to host their
cart. They let the retailer host it on their web server, and to
customize it to fit their needs. The key elements to look out for
include:
The
performance of the server – the biggest challenge customers
face with this solution is server maintenance. In case, you don’t
have adequate bandwidth and server performance, the pages on your
website load slowly, and conversion rates drop. It is necessary for
you to have accessible, accurate site logging so that you can
diagnose potential server problems. Customers don’t like slow
loading websites. Google’s indexing can also rank you below your
competitors because of your page loading speeds.
Design
– most installed solutions come with editable templates. To make a
cart solution work for you, consider familiarizing yourself with
design languages like CSS, HTML, and PHP. If you don’t, you will
have to hire a consultant, and that means an increase of your costs.
SSL
Certificates – you will definitely need one. The certificate
allows your clients to checkout securely on your store.
Regardless
of the type of cart, you opt for there are other topics you may have
to consider as well. These are:
Analytics
Google
analytics can be your best friend. Just make sure that you track the
current key metrics like time on site, conversion rates, site speed,
and bounce rates. If you had another platform before, be sure to
compare the results.
Managing
SEO strategy
If you
are moving from one cart solution to another, you are trying to move
years of Google index from one platform to the other. Failing to
have a great plan ahead of time means, you will set yourself up for a
possible drop in SEO traffic.
Combination
vs. all-in-one
When
looking for a cart, you need to look for a mix of the best-bred
solutions versus a platform that does everything. Some solutions can
be integrated into your cart to deal with order management, shipping,
email marketing or any other needs unique to your operation.
Nevertheless, remember, the primary functionality is to make
merchandising easy while providing the best possible shopping
experience.
Don’t
forget to make a list of functionality that is crucial to your
business. Circulate the list to all your departments, get their
feedback and use the list as a basis for searching for the besteCommerce shopping cart solutions.
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