Domain Availability
Shopping Carts
IMPORTANT NOTE: Whether you're considering using an ASP or software, before you make your final purchasing decision, you'll want to make sure that your shopping cart is going to be compatible with your merchant account.
This is absolutely critical because NOT ALL shopping carts and merchant accounts will work together! If you already have a merchant account, contact your provider and ask for a list of the shopping carts they are compatible with.
QUESTION 2
HOW MUCH CONTROL DO I HAVE OVER HOW MY SHOPPING CART LOOKS AND OPERATES?
You want to make sure that you have the option of customizing your shopping cart software to include logos, graphics, and colors that match the overall look and feel of your web site; a shopping cart that looks drastically different from your site may confuse potential customers, causing them to leave before completing their purchases!
Whether you choose an ASP or software, you will be offered at least one (or a combination) of the following three options for customization:
- WEB PAGE TEMPLATES that you can just fill in with your product information, prices, descriptions, etc. You don't need to know (or even see) HTML
- "COPY & PASTE" HTML PAGES that have all the coding in place, so all you have to do is copy and paste the code, then add the details you need to create your web pages (you can usually modify the code if you want).
- An EASY-TO-USE WIZARD that leads you step-by-step through creating and customizing your cart.
... Each of these three options is pretty user-friendly; however, if you're not comfortable working directly with HTML code, you should probably stick with the wizards and templates.
On the other hand, if you plan to customize your cart beyond these standard options (i.e. if you want to integrate other software or alter the cart's functionality to fit your specific needs), you may need access to the source code.
With software, you tend to have more control over customization than you do with an ASP - you will usually have all the source code you could ever want, and if you're the technical type, you can go nuts!
ASPs, however, may not offer you the option of customizing their source code, or they may offer code that is quite complicated. Because ASPs host carts for many different clients, it's usually easier for them to maintain control over the way the carts work. This is something to watch for if you are interested in customizing your cart to any great extent.
QUESTION 3
HOW DO I MAKE CHANGES TO MY SHOPPING CART?
Obviously, your inventory and your offers will never remain exactly the same, so you'll need to make changes from time to time. All shopping carts will provide methods of making changes to pricing and product descriptions, updating your inventory, etc.
You can make the changes using either "browser-based" or "database" maintenance, depending on what your package offers.
BROWSER-BASED MAINTENANCE is the easiest way to go. With an ASP cart, you'd make changes by logging onto the ASP's web site and going to an administrative options page that allows you to update prices and inventory. With a software package, you'd go through your own "back office."