when researching shopping cart solutions thing about:

• the types of products you will be selling eg are they going to be downloaded or do they need to be shipped
• How are you going to be be paid -how are you going to process payments recieved
• Will payments be recurrent such as monthly fees
• your target customers

Online shopping carts are peices of software that allow successful website that to provide a mechanism to sell something. However, if the program is insufficient then it may result in decrease in a website’s productivity. Customers want to deal with programs that are easy and time saving. This most certainly includes online shopping carts.

When a customer goes shopping they want to have a shopping cart that is easily accessible and allows a customer to view a product with the option to buy it should be right there. The ability to view what is in the shopping cart at any given time is always a plus with customers. A program that can give them an estimated total that includes shipping helps them gauge how much more to spend on a website is also a valuable feature.

Also the ability for the last minute marketing pitch where just before a customer is ready to check out be sure to advertise other products. The most effective way to do this is to say something to the effect of “other customers who purchased this product also purchased…” Having a list of other products by the customer’s newly chosen product may help them with that last minute impulse buy. Much like the last minute impulse buys at check out lines that include lollies or magazines.

To keep customers happy there should be a way that they can correct any mistakes that they had made in their online shopping cart. This can include adding an item, removing an item or changing their shipping option.

Not all items purchased go directly to the customer placing the order. Many times online shoppers prefer to do their last minute gift shopping online and may also find it easier to order a present for a loved family member via an online website. Having an option in the online shopping cart that allows for an order to be sent to another person with out the customer having to change their home address on the website. To even take it a step further some successful online shopping cart programs offer to keep a database of people a customer has shipped to in the past. This way when they need to ship to them again it is as easy as a click of the mouse.

You can find out more and contact shopping cart designs for a full featured ecommerce website here