Ecommerce Shopping Carts: Which One Do You Need?

2007-03-08 10:33:40

( Web Hosting-SEO-Web Design )



If you already have internet presence and are planning to go into ecommerce, your choice of shopping carts can make a big difference. Compared to a brick and mortar business, you only have your online storefront to capture and impress your customers. You do not have the advantage of impeccable customer service or a nicely-furnished store. It is only your website that your visitors see. Due to this, you have to make your website as impressive as possible to gain your customer’s trust.

Ecommerce shopping carts are of particular importance because it is the part of your online business that deals with sensitive and confidential information. Your visitors need the assurance that they are giving their personal information like credit card numbers and billing addresses to a respectable company.

There are three types of ecommerce shopping carts available today: merchant services, hosted shopping cart services and the fully-integrated shopping cart.

An ecommerce shopping cart requires your business to have a merchant account and a gateway. A merchant account allows you to conduct transactions by credit card and a gateway performs the transactions over a secure connection.

If you are just starting out, it may not be feasible to get your own merchant account and gateway immediately. You can therefore opt to get a merchant service for your shopping cart. Merchant services allow you to use their merchant account and gateway. These services usually charge a set-up and a per-transaction fee. Since you are using a merchant account that is not yours, your customers will be redirected to another website once they want to pay for their purchases. It is also the merchant’s name that will appear on your customer’s credit card statements. This may cause some of your customers to dispute the charges if they do not recognize the company name.

If you are getting a significant amount of business every month through your website, you may want to consider a hosting shopping cart service. You can get your own merchant account and gateway. Although this type of service works almost the same way as a merchant service, there are several big differences. Your customers will be redirected to another site, but you can customize this website so that it will look like your own. Your company name will also be the one to appear in your customer’s credit card statements. Ecommerce shopping carts like these charge a flat transaction fee per month in addition to the regular monthly dues.

The fully-integrated shopping cart is the most flexible option for businesses that can afford it. You can customize your own shopping cart and even include functionalities such as discounts and out-of-stock indicators. However, this option requires advance programming skills. If you want a fully-integrated shopping cart but do not have the knowledge to do so, there are a lot of companies are specialized in customizing fully-integrated shopping carts.


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