Picking a shopping cart system is a very serious decision that you will likely have to live with for some time. It is simply too important a decision to make without knowing the right questions to ask.
So many systems are frustrating to install and once installed are incomprehensible and extremely difficult to use which means lost sales for you. If your customer is sitting in front of their computer with an open wallet, you better not make it hard for them to buy or they will be gone in a flash.
You really want to automate every part of the system so it’s less work for you and extremely easy for your customer. Today’s smart shopping system technology can make this happen at a price that any small business can afford.
In addition, smart shopping systems will dramatically increase sales because they manage the entire shopping process including upselling the customer, making special offers, handling special sales and discounts and completely managing your extremely valuable database of prospects and actual customers.
There are thousands of simple shopping carts on the market either for free or for a low price. Basically they just take the order like the cashier at a grocery store. They do nothing to help you sell in the first place.
Custom Carts
You will have webmasters all the time trying to sell you a custom shopping cart that can cost you anywhere from a few hundred
How to Pick a Shopping Cart System that Makes You Money dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. They tell you that what you want to do with your site will require lots of expensive programming and custom adaptations. There are very few small business people (and I’ve coached hundreds) that need anything so sophisticated. Keep your wallet in your pocket when you get around these people.
You may already have a ton of money invested in your shopping system and you may not have the sales you think you should. It might be time to consider scraping the old system in favor of a new less expensive system that has sales tools built in. Sticking with an antiquated system just because you have lots of money invested makes no sense and it will continue to hurt your sales in the future . . . what’s that saying about pound foolish and penny wise?
What is a shopping cart?
A “shopping cart” is actually a piece of
software. The metaphor is, . . . you
guessed it, . . . shopping. You push
your cart through the “cyber store.”
When you see something you want to
buy, you put it in your cart by clicking
on it. Then when you are ready to leave, you “check out” of the store. This is where the shopping cart totals up your purchases and adds the tax and shipping for you.
At any time along the way you can take an item out of your cart. It's just like at a real store when you see a toaster in the men's clothing section. . . . Someone decided they didn't want it and just left it wherever they happened to be in the store. In cyberspace you don't have to feel bad about throwing something out of your cart. At this point you’re only moving electrons around.
How to Pick a Shopping Cart System that Makes You Money You then fill in your name, address, phone and shipping info along with your credit card and expiration date. Most carts still give you a chance to make changes, or back out of the deal altogether. Once you hit the final submit button, all the mechanisms kick into gear to send that money hurtling toward your checking account . . . minus the credit card company percentage, of course.
Real Time Credit Card Processing
The credit card processing is not
actually done by the shopping cart. Many people don’t realize this. You still have to have a credit card merchant account to process credit cards. If you don’t have the real time processing capability, your shopping cart will simply email you notice of the sale. You log in to your cart to get the credit card number for manual processing later.
When you do have “real time credit card processing” capability (which you must if you want to totally automate your system) the customer puts their credit card in your shopping cart and about 15 to 20 seconds later gets a notification that the sale went through. Sometime later that day the money is deposited in your bank account automatically.
The credit card number is encrypted as it flies through cyberspace so no bad boys and girls can intercept it along the way. This is a process called PGP, or Pretty Good Privacy. Hahaha That term always cracks me up. I think I'd rather have Darn Good Privacy, or Invincible Privacy, but PGP is all we have at our level and it has shown to be Darn Good Enough.
After the transaction is complete, in sometimes as little as five seconds, you either get an email regarding shipping the product, or the customer gets a link to download the product directly. And
How to Pick a Shopping Cart System that Makes You Money that's all there is to it. I've simplified it considerably, but believe me, you don't want to know all the details. You just want it to work!
AGAIN I WANT TO EMPHASIZE -- Your shopping cart system is separate from your merchant account and from your real time processing mechanism. The shopping cart must connect to the credit card system, but it is a separate system. If you need a merchant account I will tell you later how to get one in about ten minutes for $99.00