When you decide to go out and change website vendors so that you can take advantage of a free shopping cart package, there are some caveats that can make a difference in the site that you are able to create.
In the first place, it is important to know your workflows. If you are the only person or team in your company that is allowed to update the website, you may be able to get by on one license. On the other hand, if you work with one person doing content from a remote location and another doing SEO from a separate location, and so on, it is a good idea to prioritize finding a package that includes many licenses.
1shoppingcart.com is a good example of a website host that offers free shopping cart software packages that contain 1 or 5 licenses depending upon the level of features that you need.
Here are some other features that can make a difference as you expand your e-commerce presence:
Digital downloads
When the internet was young, many firms offered either goods or services through their shopping cart software. It soon became apparent, however, that with more products moving online like music and movies, having the capability to pay for and then download digital goods would be something important. And then, of course, the next wave of digital e-commerce included links to online locations and private keys or passwords to access the content.
Today, when you look at digital downloads, ensure that you can put all the products and services that you need to in this category before you buy. For example, if you want to allow clients to purchase and download an extended warranty for the product that they buy, it would be nice to have a place for the standard warranty itself to be downloaded. That feature is provided with most digital download-enabled shopping carts. At the same time, it would be even nicer if the customized contract that you are agreeing to with the customer could be emailed out to them in customized form based upon the information that the customer provided you with. In some shopping cart programs, they make it easy to modify the email that gets sent out so that you can automate it.
Integrated Upsells
Another feature to look for is the capability to offer the customer another type of product that has complementary features. At a minimum, you should look for the capability to allow your customers to continue shopping when their cart is full and they are looking at it. In an ideal situation, as they check out, your shopping cart will provide them with the details and images for related products. In many situations, the addition of an additional extra products step as checkout is completed adds to your e-commerce site’s revenue.
One question that people often ask is how their shopping cart actually relates products to other products. This can be handled in different ways, but the most common way to take care of it is to allow you to organize products in categories in a very granular way. As you are organizing your products, some shopping cart programs offer you the option to choose products that the product that you are categorizing is related to. An advanced feature with some programs is the capability of importing this data from a spreadsheet or text file, making your work that much faster.
Deciding which features will help your e-commerce site move forward is one of the most important parts of the website vendor selection process. if you can ensure that you have the latest check out and download processes, you should grow your revenue while saving time and money working on your business.