Company name
The name of the company producing the software. Some companies produce more
than one shopping cart and so might be listed twice.
Product name
The name of the shopping cart we have provided details of.
Version
The version of the shopping cart we have listed details about. If there is a
newer version of this cart, please let us know.
Homepage
The homepage of the company.
Sample customers
Some customers currently using the shopping cart. This gives you an
idea of what it looks like in action. Bear in mind most shopping carts are
highly configurable, so just because you don’t like a specific design or there
is a function missing doesn’t mean the shopping cart is faulty – it could just
be a bad design or the site owner has deliberately disabled that function.
Price
This is the minimum price for the product listed. The review allows for all
possible features, some of which might involve purchasing additional modules.
Reviews
These are reviews left by users of the site. You are encouraged to review any shopping cart you've had experience with.
Operating System
The operating system your web server will need to be running to run
this software. This is important if you have an existing web hosting contract.
For example, you might choose a shopping cart which only runs on a Windows
server, but your site is on a Linux server you’ll need to either move hosts,
even though you may have pre-paid, or change shopping carts. Note that many
carts written in ASP or PHP will say they work on both Linux and Windows. While
this is technically true, PHP is best on Linux and ASP works best on Windows.
Language
The language the software is written in. This might be important if
you or a developer you are working with is planning to modify the code.
Database
The database software the shopping cart uses.
Source code available
Source code gives you the ability to make tweaks and add extra
features relatively easily.
Reseller discounts
Many shopping carts offer discounts to developers and designers who
are reselling the software for them.
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. This is most common in hosted shopping carts
(ones which you rent monthly rather than buying outright) or in very cheap
shopping carts.
Multi-language
This gives you the ability to create your site in multiple languages
and allows your users to change language. Useful if you have an international
base of customers.
Gift certificates
A gift certificate will typically give the purchaser a code which they
can give as a gift which can be used towards purchases. Some shopping carts may
have an option to send the gift certificate directly to the recipient.
Loyalty/points program/rewards
This is some sort of program which offers a reward to customers who
make multiple or large purchases. For example, you may set it up so that
customers who purchase from you more than 5 times automatically get a 10%
discount on their 6th visit, or are sent a $20 gift certificate. There are many
different options, so if this is an important feature make sure the shopping
cart you are considering supports the variation of features you want.
Email sent to merchant on order
There is an option for the merchant to receive an email when an order
is placed.
Affiliates support
An affiliates program is supported. Affiliates are people who either
sell your goods from their site, or direct customers to your site, in exchange
for a percentage of a sale. For many businesses, it’s a great way to generate
new customers. Search The cart has its own search function, allowing customers
to search for a specific product for example.
Site Search
A feature to allow customers to search the site.
SEO tools
The cart has specific features that make it friendly to search engines
such as Google. For example, some search engines don’t like to look too deep
into shopping cart type sites for technical reasons. An automatically generated
site map can help overcome that. Just because a shopping cart doesn’t have
specific search engine features doesn’t mean it’s unfriendly, just that it
doesn't have specific features catering for this.
Product reviews
This allow your customers to review the products you are selling. It’s
common for product review features to allow you to moderate the reviews to
block obscene comments, etc.
Email newsletter
This allows you to send a bulk email to existing customers, or
customers that have specifically signed into a newsletter, allowing you to send
either one off or regular emails. This can be a powerful sales generator,
allowing you to announce new products, upgrades, etc.
Discount coupons
This allows the merchant to generate coupons for promotional purposes.
There is a wide range of features, such as percentage off discounts, fixed
amount discounts, discounts only applied to particular products, etc. It is
often done with a promotional code. If this is an important feature to you,
check the shopping cart has the specific features you want.
Customer registration
This allows customers to register so that when they do a return visit
their details are already stored. It may also allow them to manage a wish list,
look at their loyalty points, subscribe to newsletters, etc.
Wish list
This allows customers to create a wish list. It’s great for birthdays,
weddings, or just for fun. Typically a customer will send a wish list to their
friends of family, and in the process, generate free publicity for you.
Price/Weight range shipping options
This allows the merchant to set shipping costs based on the value or
weight of the items ordered. There’s many variations, so please investigate if
you have a specific requirement.
UPS/USPS/Fedex/Canada Post lookup
These shippers offer a live lookup service which allows you to
calculate shipping costs on the fly based on the customer order.
Tax by state
Allows you to calculate tax appropriate to the customers state.
Tax by country
Allows you to calculate tax appropriate to the customers country.
Payment gateways
Includes built in support for some of the following gateways:
Paypal, Authorize.net, Verisign, Worldpay, SecureTrading and Others. This allows
you to accept credit cards via these gateways with little to no additional work. Note
there are hundreds of payment gateways, we have just categorised the most popular ones.
Non-CC payment options
Offers support for other forms of payment. This could include manual payments (such as a money order
in the mail), or a credit card order on the phone, which the merchant then manually enters as an order.
Customer forum
There is a forum or discussion board where customers can discuss issues they
are having and share ideas. These forums are often monitored by the developers
of the cart and can act as a form of informal support.
Free company support
The ability to contact the developers directly and get support at no charge.
This may be limited to a time (e.g. the first 3 months), or number of support
requests, or may be unlimited.
Paid company support
The ability to get paid “premium” support. This general means higher quality,
faster support. If you are doing very critical work, such as selling tens of
thousands of dollars worth per day, you may want a guaranteed response time for
any issues, which will usually mean paid support.
Sales reports
Reports on sales are available. This could range from a simple orders list to
more sophisticated reports such as top selling items, etc.
Search reports
A report on what people are searching for on with the sites search function.
This can be valuable data as it can reveal opportunities you didn’t know
existed. For example, if you see people searching for a product you don’t sell,
there could be a demand for that product.
Low Stock reports
A report listing items which are low in stock. You would typically define what
you mean by low stock. For example, a top selling item, 20 items might be low
stock, but for a slower item, 1 item might be low stock. Check whether low
stock is defined site wide or per product if that’s important to you.
Inventory
Some shopping carts will manage your inventory for you, while some expect you
to manage it yourself. Having the shop manage the inventory may not be
desirable if you are also selling through a physical shop and your sales
systems are not integrated.