Ecommerce Shopping Cart

I wanted to mention a bit more about shopping carts before leaving the topic. There are several good ones, and several that can cost more than $100 a month, but offer nothing of value.

Always try a demo or make sure there is a trial period. This is because you want to make sure that your definition of easy matches the company's. I was with prostores and their idea of easy was horrific. It took me more than 20 hours to just set up the template. Then, it wouldn't do half of the things their features page promised - without me knowing a bunch of coding, or hiring a programmer. This makes the service of little value to a small ecommerce site.

All ecommerce software should be easy to use, and state clearly whether a programmer is required. I personally have purchased 3 scripts that I had to abandon because I didn't write PHP code or have the proper scripts on my hosting service.

Now, I do three things before looking at any new shopping cart software, cgi scripts, forums or other software. First, I research the web until I find 5 that fit my needs. Second, I look for reviews. Third, I look for forums that discuss problems with the product. Only then will I buy the product.