Shopping cart software 101: what a shopping cart is, types of shopping carts, and more
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Basic vs. advancend shopping carts, hosted vs. licensed carts, and more
Shopping cart software 101: what a shopping cartis, what types of shopping carts there are, etc.
If you are new to selling on the Internet, or are confused about where a shopping cart really fits into the overall picture, the following paragraphs may help you gain a better understanding of how it all works. If you're already an expert, go right to our section on how to review and compare shopping carts.
At the heart of any e-commerce Web site is a shopping cart program that allows customers to find and buy products and services. On this page we will try to explain in plain English what a shopping cart is, what types of shopping carts exist, and give you some tools to help you find the right shopping cart for your business.
- What is a shopping cart?
- How does a shopping cart work?
- Basic (e.g. PayPal, Google Checkout) vs. full-featured cart
- Hosted vs. licensed shopping cart
- Storefront vs. Administration
- Merging the shopping cart with your Web site
- How to review and compare shopping carts
- How to calculate the total cost of a shopping cart software solution vs. another
- Using an online shopping cart vs. a store that is managed via a desktop application
- Advantages of using an ASP shopping cart
What is a shopping cart?
A shopping cart is a software application that typically runs on the computer where your Web site is located (the Web server), and allows your customers to do things such as searching for a product in your store catalog, adding a selected product to a basket, and placing an order for it.
The shopping cart "integrates" with the rest of your Web site. In other words, there are typically links on your Web pages that customers can click on, and which allow them to perform some of the functions described above. For example, many ecommerce Web sites have a "search" link appearing on every Web page, as part of the navigation area. The link points to a feature (i.e. the search feature) provided by the shopping cart.
Shopping carts are written in a variety of different programming languages. Some of them provide full access to the "source code", thus allowing experienced programmers to make modifications to the system features, some others don't. Some shopping carts run on Windows Web servers, some on Unix, others on both. In most cases, you can place the shopping cart on your Web server simply by transferring its files there using any FTP software, where FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol.
For example, our shopping cart software - called ProductCart - is a collection of files written in a programming language called Classic ASP, and that you host on a Windows server. Experienced programmers can customize the system as they wish as the source code is included.
How does a shopping cart work?
Typically, all shopping carts share the following structure. A shopping cart normally includes:
- a database that stores information such as product details, customer data, order information, etc.
- a storefront that displays this information to store visitors (e.g. product detail pages, search pages, checkout pages, etc.)
- an administration area that allows you, the store administrator, to manage your store. For example, this is where you add products, set up shipping & payment options, process orders, etc.
Because most of the information is contained in a database, the shopping cart creates pages in "real time" when a customer visits an ecommerce store and requests a specific page. Unlike the static HTML pages that may make up some or all of your Web site, the shopping cart pages don't exist until a customer requests one. The page is dynamically generated by the Web server by retrieving data from the database.
So a store that has 4,000 products, does not actually store 4,000 product pages on the Web server. The pages are created on the fly when a customer visits the store and, for example, looks for a specific product.
ProductCart uses a technology called Active Server Pages to created the store pages from a database. Other shopping carts may use different technology, such as PHP, CGI, Ruby on Rails, or Cold Fusion. The process remains the same. Information is retrieved from a database, and displayed to the customer within the graphical interface that the store administrator has created for the store. Different shopping carts offer store administrators different levels of flexibility in setting up how these pages will eventually look to store visitors (e.g. how products and categories are displayed).
Basic (e.g. PayPal, Google Checkout) vs. full-featured shopping cart
When you're making a decision on how to allow customers that visit your Web site to purchase products or services from it, the first thing to decide is whether you want:
- A simple way for them to purchase a product/service
- A comprehensive e-commerce system that allows you to manage your catalog, discounts, process orders, etc.
Basic shopping carts
In the first scenario, what you need is a basic shopping cart, and there are several good, free options for you. Remember, these basic shopping carts simply allow you to place a link on your Web site that will let your customers purchase that product or service. Things like managing discounts, specials, promotions, product options, etc. will not be available. You will also have limited or no control on shipping options, making multiple payment options available, etc.
Among these basic shopping carts, there are the free ones provided by Google and PayPal.
For example, here is a simple graphic that shows how the Google Checkout shopping cart works.
Full-featured shopping carts
Most merchants need more than just an "add to cart" button. For them, there is a vast array of options in the market today. These advanced shopping carts are not just a "shopping cart", but rather full-featured ecommerce applications that handle everything from the storefront catalog to sophisticated store management tools.
As you will see in the next section, the first major decision to make is between a hosted and a licensed shopping cart: do you prefer subscribing to a service, or buying a one-time license and host the shopping cart software on your Web site? There are pros and cons to both approaches, and they are discussed below.
Hosted vs. licensed shopping cart
When you shop for a shopping cart, one of the first things to decide is whether you are looking for software that you wish to own (and possibly customize to better fit your needs) or rather a service that you want to subscribe to.
In a nutshell, the two options are:
- Hosted shopping cart
When you buy or subscribe to this kind of service (e.g. Yahoo! Stores, Volusion, BigCommerce, etc.), you are typically charged a combination of a setup fee, a monthly fee, and, in some cases, a commission on sales.
The advantages are typically that a lower initial cost and quicker start-up time. The disadvantages are higher medium and long-term costs, the fact that you are "locked-in" (you can't move the shopping cart elsewhere if you don't like their service), and often the inability to customize the shopping cart's source code, if you need to.
- Licensed shopping cart
A licensed shopping cart is software that you buy and host yourself, typically where your Web site is already hosted, or on a new Web hosting account. You normally pay for the software license fee, and, in some cases, for a yearly support & updates plan.
The advantages of using a licensed shopping cart are typically a lower medium- and long-term cost, the ability take the software with you (e.g. you decide to change Web hosting company), and the fact that you often have access to the software's source code, and can hire a developer to customize it, if you ever need to do so. The disadvantages are normally a higher initial cost, and longer start-up time (but the software vendor may be able to get everything up and running for you).
Interested in learning more about the differences in these two approaches? Practical eCommerce ran two interviews on this topic. Check out the articles:
Storefront vs. Administration
Most shopping carts include two components: the storefront, which is what your customers will see (the catalog, the search pages, the checkout pages, etc.), and the administration area, which is what you will use to manage the store. Although you find both components in virtually all ecommerce applications available on the market, the features that each of them offers vary substantially.
A good storefront should include at least the following features:
- A store catalog that is easy to browse and that presents product information is a way that is both useful and graphically pleasing.
- A search feature that allows customers to quickly locate a specific product. The more filters are available on the search page, the better (e.g. price, part number, description, etc.)
- A customer service area where existing customers can change their account information, view previous orders, etc. There should also be a way for customers to retrieve a lost password.
- Special pages where customers can easily find products that are on sale, featured products, products that belong to the same brand, etc.
- Sophisticated shopping cart systems like ProductCart include hundreds of other storefront features.
A good administration area should include at least the following features:
- A way to easily set general store settings such as the way products should be displayed (e.g. how many products will be shown on each catalog page), the currency and date format to be used, etc.
- A module to create and manage product categories, and order the way in which they are displayed on the storefront.
- A module to create and manage products, and assign them to categories. To improve productivity, there should be tools that allow you to change settings across multiple products at once (e.g. change the price for all products in the "tennis shoes" category).
- A way to assign options to products (e.g. color and size), with the ability to set price changes that are dependent on the selected option (e.g. if you select an XXL size shirt, then you pay an extra $5). To improve productivity, there should be tools that allow you to assign the same options to multiple products at once.
- Flexible ways to set multiple shipping (e.g. UPS Ground is free for order over $100), and payment options (e.g. real time credit card processing, COD, and NET 30, but the last one only for wholesale customers).
- A module to manage orders effectively (pending, processed, shipped, returned, etc.).
Note that the way the store is administered changes depending on whether or not files need to be installed on your local computer. Learn about the difference between an offline vs. online shopping cart.
See How to compare shopping carts for more information on what to look for when you are looking for a good shopping cart system for your business.
Merging the shopping cart with your Web site
How will your customers get to the product catalog? How can you make your home page link to the "Monthly Specials" page, created dynamically by the shopping cart? And how can you make the pages that the shopping cart creates look the same as your "About us" or "Contact us" page? The look and feel of your online store, and the way it merges with the rest of your Web site, are crucial elements of a successful ecommerce store.
Typically, you will be able to create HTML links that take a user for any HTML page that you may create for your Web site (e.g. the "about us" page), to a page generated dynamically by the shopping cart, which retrieves information in real time from the database that contains your store catalog and store settings. For example, the "About Us" page could contain a link to a page created by the shopping cart that shows products that are on sale in that particular month (assuming that the shopping cart does have the ability to do so).
How easy it is to place such links into your HTML pages varies however from application to application. Make sure to select a shopping cart that allows to do so quickly and easily.
As for the graphical interface used by the shopping cart to display the store page, some shopping carts limit you to using pre-formatted templates. Stay away from that kind of ecommerce software. Choose a shopping cart that does not use templates, but rather allows you to use your own Web site design as the graphical interface for the store pages.
For example, our shopping cart allows you to take the graphical interface that you have created for your Web site (or that you are planning to use for a new Web site) and seamlessly merge the shopping cart with it. Find out more about integrating ProductCart with your Web site.