Shopping Cart Software Reviews

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  Shopify

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  If you're researched setting up an online store for more than about 30 seconds, you've probably encountered Shopify. You've likely already learned that Shopify is a fully-hosted ecommerce platform specializing in ease of use. Reasonably priced, with a solid feature set and round-the-clock customer service, Shopify is one of the best shopping carts on the market today, as many independent Shopify reviews can attest.

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  Square Online

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  Square’s free online store is a great tool for existing Square merchants who want to sell online, but if you want a full-fledged ecommerce store at the center of your empire, you might want to check out some other shopping cart software. Read on to find out how Square’s online store stacks up.

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  BigCommerce

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  Cloud-based and user-friendly, this cart software helps merchants from all levels of experience and revenue sell their products online. While BigCommerce may not have enough advanced features or customizability for some larger companies, we still believe that BigCommerce is an excellent platform for most merchants.

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  BigCommerce Enterprise

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  Made to serve large businesses that are drowning in sales and need help managing their online platforms, BigCommerce Enterprise is a premium-level website hosting service that combines everything we like about BigCommerce with the extra features and service you need to manage huge traffic flows and facilitate high conversion rates.

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  LemonStand

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  Lemonstand is closing June 5th, 2019 and is no longer accepting new merchants. Please visit our shopping cart comparison page for suggested alternatives. When life gives you lemons, launch an ecommerce platform! In 2010, a Canadian startup followed this sage advice and launched LemonStand for growing ecommerce sellers. Originally released as downloadable software built with PHP, LemonStand now provides fully-hosted ecommerce sites to over 2,000 merchants, all while offering excellent customer service and a continually expanding feature set.

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  PrestaShop

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  Launched in 2007, PrestaShop is an international shopping cart solution. The company's headquarters is located in Paris with offices around the world, and PrestaShop's 100+ employees operate in many different languages. With over 270,000 stores worldwide, they have to.

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  Shopify Plus

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  If you're involved in eCommerce, you're probably familiar with Shopify. How about its big brother, Shopify Plus? If you're heading up a large online sales operation, with more than $500k in annual sales, you might want to consider joining the 7,000+ merchants who have made their home online with Shopify Plus. And if you're just starting your research, this Shopify Plus review can help you learn what the platform has to offer and if it can deliver what your business needs.

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  Volusion

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  Volusion is a cloud-based eCommerce software. Using this tool, online sellers can build an online store, add products and payment details, and begin selling on their website. However, Volusion's limited features and integrations make the software less scalable than is ideal.

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  PinnacleCart

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  Created by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, PinnacleCart's goal is simple: to provide an all-in-one ecommerce platform that allows merchants with little or no technical skill to start promoting and selling their products. PinnacleCart gives merchants the power to quickly add and edit products, manage orders, create promotions, and customize their websites. It is a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform, so you don't have to worry about maintaining web hosting and site security. That's all done for you for a monthly fee.

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  Shift4Shop

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  3dcart is a feature-rich eCommerce platform that serves merchants large and small. With a wide range of pricing options and loads of features right out-of-the-box, 3dcart is an appealing option for those looking for an affordable, fully-hosted selling solution.

What is Shopping Cart Software?

Shopping cart software (which you may hear referred to as an eCommerce solution or platform) is a software service that allows merchants to sell products online. Shopping cart software essentially allows you to build an online store.

eCommmerce platforms take a variety of forms. Typically, they either allow you to build an entire website from the ground up, or they let you add a “Store” tab to your pre-existing site.

Either way, basic functions work more or less the same. You can add product information, images, prices, and shipping and tax information to your admin panel. Every product you add will appear in your storefront.

Customers will then to able to browse your website, select the products they like, and complete checkout without ever leaving your domain.

SaaS VS Open Source

As you look for the software you’ll use to build your online store, you will likely run into two terms: SaaS and open source. These terms refer to the way software is distributed and tend to have a direct correlation with the difficulty of operating a software.

SaaS

The term “SaaS” stands for “Software as a Service.” SaaS solutions are all-in-one software solutions that are typically billed as monthly subscriptions. Signing up for an SaaS eCommerce solution will give you access to technical support, reliable web hosting, site maintenance and security, and web design tools, in addition to the shopping cart software itself.

SaaS solutions are typically easy to use and are geared toward merchants that don’t have much technical expertise. 

Open Source

While many merchants love SaaS solutions (and we tend to prefer them), some merchants may resent the monthly billing model and the limited customizability associated with SaaS solutions.

These merchants should look into open source solutions.

Open source solutions are downloadable software programs that are free to implement and use. Sellers are responsible for finding their own hosting, paying for site security, and getting everything online and working smoothly. If this is your very first time building a website — and you don’t want to hire a designer — open source is probably not the best solution for you. Support is all self-help, and without any previous experience, just getting your software up and running can be tricky.

However, if you want a fully-customizable site, open source is the best way to go. Take a look at Magento and WooCommerce, two of our top-rated open source eCommerce solutions.

Common Features to Look For In An eCommerce Platform

It can be a challenge to determine which features you’ll need from your eCommerce solution before you really begin selling. Every shopping cart comes with a different feature set, but they tend to be similar in the categories of features they offer.

Here are a few things you should look for as you seek out an eCommerce platform:

• Ease of Use: The world’s best software is useless if you don’t know how to use it. Sign up for free trials of each platform you’re considering and test it out to make sure the admin panel makes sense to you.
• Unlimited Products, Bandwidth, and Storage: Not every platform will offer unlimited everything, but it sure is nice to not have to worry about exceeding your plan’s limits.
• Complex Discount Features: Look for software that lets you create flat rate and percentage discounts. You should be able to apply those discounts to your whole store or a specific category or product. Also look for software that lets you place limits on the number of times customers can use your coupon.
• Email Marketing Features: Most platforms let you create and send emails from your admin panel. You’ll likely need to integrate with a CRM (Customer Relation Management) software like MailChimp or Constant Contact to create more complex email campaigns.
• Inventory Management Features: Nothing disappoints a customer more than out-of-stock products. Make sure your inventory stays up-to-date with built-in inventory management features. Set low stock notifications and set products to display an “Out of Stock” notification when they are unavailable.
• Shipping Options: Look for the ability to integrate your platform with shipping carriers (USPS, UPS, FedEx). This will allow you to automatically calculate real-time shipping rates.
• Tax Calculator: A built-in tax calculator helps you ensure that you’re collecting the correct sales tax rate from every customer.
• International Language and Currency Support: These features will allow you to sell across borders.
• Reporting Tools: Check for reporting tools related to your site’s traffic, conversion rates, order totals, overall sales, and more.
• SEO Tools: You should be able to add metadata to your products and pages. Look for the ability to write custom URLs and create a .xml sitemap as well.

Do I Need to Use Integrations?

In short: Yes.

While SaaS solutions like Shopify do an excellent job providing the tools that most beginning merchants need, no shopping cart will come with every feature you’re looking for already built-in. You’ll very likely need to use an external shipping, email marketing, or accounting program, and you’ll want to make sure that software easily connects with your eCommerce platform.

As you shop for an eCommerce solution, look for a platform that offers a large app marketplace, complete with the most popular integrations.

How Much Will It Cost?

The price of running your eCommerce solution will vary depending on your business’s size and needs.

An SaaS platform can cost anywhere from $10/month to $300/month, depending on the features you’d like to access and the number of products you plan on listing. Additional expenses include costs related to integrations and customer service.

Open source platforms may be free to download, but they are not free to operate. You’ll have to pay for web hosting, a domain name, site security, and any add-ons that your site may need. In addition, you’ll likely need to hire a web developer to help you through a rough patch. Costs for open source businesses range widely.

Try Before You Buy

Choosing an eCommerce platform is a big commitment. Fortunately, most SaaS services provide free two-week trials of their platforms. In most cases, you’ll only need to enter your name, email address, and phone number to access those trials.

Always, always test out prospective software before you put any money into the platform. Make sure you’re comfortable with basic functions. You should also take the time to test out your vendor’s technical support options to make sure you’ll be able to find answers to all of your future questions.

Once you’ve thoroughly vetted your platform, you can sign up for a plan worry-free.

Good luck, and happy shopping!