Want to launch a successful ecommerce business? Having an easy-to-use, reliable shopping cart is a necessity. But what many first-time business owners don’t understand is that a shopping cart is only one part of the process. In order to upload a working site that makes money, you’ll need a shopping cart and much more! Don’t panic. I’ll gladly take you through what’s required to create a basic ecommerce site.

What Is An Online Shopping Cart?

The term “online shopping cart” is mistakenly used when referring to the entire process visitors go through when reading product descriptions, adding an item to their virtual baskets, checking out and paying for their orders. That is only partially correct.

The shopping cart comes into play when a site visitor chooses to add an item to their basket. According to Wikipedia.com, “The software allows online shopping customers to place items in the cart. Upon checkout, the software typically calculates a total for the order, including shipping and handling charges and the associated taxes, as applicable.” That’s it.

Until your visitors add an item to their carts, and after they initiate payment, the shopping cart isn’t involved. Those functions take additional types of software and accounts. Let me explain.

In the Beginning…

When a visitor types in your URL (also called a domain name or web address), he/she can view your website. The website is what delivers your pictures and product descriptions. It includes the design and any necessary programming to make the basic site function. Perhaps the site uses a content management system (CMS) to serve up your products in a logical way or it may simply use basic HTML. Either way, once the site design is completed, you are now able to show your products to the world. But that’s all. At this point, they can’t buy anything. This is where the online shopping cart enters the game.

The shopping cart provides visitors with the ability to create a list of items they want to buy. It stores the items as the shopper continues to browse through your site. The shopping cart can calculate totals, show listings of what’s currently saved in the cart and more. When a visitor has finished shopping, two other components come into play: a merchant account and a payment gateway.

Show Me the Money!

In order for a visitor to pay for their items, your site must be equipped with the ability to accept credit cards and the ability to process those cards via the Internet. This requires a merchant account as well as an online payment gateway.

A merchant account is provided by a bank or other institution. It allows you to accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express and other credit cards as payment for purchases your visitors make. Generally, if you were a brick-and-mortar store, this would be all you needed. However, for ecommerce sites, you must have a way to instantaneously process the cards in real time via the Internet. That requires a payment gateway. Once you have all four elements in play (a website, an online shopping cart, a merchant account and a payment gateway) you can launch your ecommerce site and sell products or services.

Sound complicated? Not really. Because the functions work hand-in-hand, you can find companies that offer complete packages containing all four elements. That makes it simple for you to quickly upload your pictures and content and start receiving orders right away.

The Internet can be an exciting place to earn a living. Before jumping onto the ecommerce playing field, however, do your research. You’ll want to find a reputable company to provide these all-important services. If possible, find one organization that offers all the services. Look for a business that has a proven track record of dependability and outstanding support before making your decision.

The best way to find a good shopping cart for your website is to conduct research to determine available products and services in the market. This will allow you to make an informed decision by making a comparison of product functionality and features. Before purchasing an ecommerce shopping cart there are several aspects to consider. For example, what products and services are you offering to your target market? Will you be offering soft goods (downloadable products) or hard goods (physical products)? Do you want to use a free shopping cart, purchase shopping cart software to install on your own server, or purchase hosted shopping cart software provided by an application service provider (ASP)? If your budget does not include purchasing shopping cart software, there are a number of free online shopping carts available. The best way to find these free shopping carts is to conduct a search for “free shopping carts” on your favorite search engine. On the other hand, if your budget allows you to purchase software or services, you must first determine your needs.

Weather you are scouring the market for a free shopping cart or plan to purchase shopping cart software, the best way to find a shopping cart after you determine your needs is to develop a list of criteria to compare shopping cart features. These features may include the following:

Hosting Server: Is the shopping cart compatible with your website host? What servers support the software? Windows, UNIX or Linux servers?

Pricing: What is the monthly price? Is there a set up fee? Is there an application fee?

Merchant Account / Payment Gateway: What merchant accounts and payment gateways integrate with the shopping cart?

Payment options: What payment options will you accept? What payment options does the shopping cart accept? Does the shopping cart accept different currencies? Does the shopping cart accept multiple forms of payments such as e-checks, credit cards, money orders, etc?

Security: Does the shopping cart support SSL (secure socket layer) with 128-bit encryption?

Database integration: Will you need a shopping cart that integrates with popular commercial databases such as MS Access,MySQL or SQL server to store and retrieve data?

Shipping costs and taxes: What shipping methods will you use? Does the software calculate shipping cost and taxes based on consumer location? Does the shopping cart retrieve shipping methods

Believe it or not, the online shopping process actually has a larger number of “to-do steps” compared to a quick trip to the local Wal-Mart. That’s because apart from finding, placing, checking out and paying as we do in a brick and mortar store, there’s the additional review of the shopping cart with each new item, an account creation process (if one doesn’t have it already), followed by a log-in, followed by an online payment process, followed by a “buy now” confirmation and a log out… phew! Can we blame them for preferring to drive a couple of miles and spend ten minutes finding that elusive parking slot? At least the actual shopping isn’t such a pain!

But before you throw the baby out with the bathwater; take a look at some common shopping cart design flaws which contribute towards a high drop out incidence. Avoiding these mistakes on your website may help retain customers with a genuine intent to buy.

What’s in a name? Plenty, apparently! Shoppers anywhere are simple minded people. They’re usually the find cart- fill cart- pay- get out variety. No reason to believe online shoppers are any different – they’re expecting to find a shopping cart, so please give them one. Don’t experiment with names like basket, barrow, bag… It’ll only serve to confuse them. Add a cart icon for good measure!

Loading the cart is not the same as buying. Some online shopping sites feature a “buy” button even when the customer is merely looking around or loading the cart before taking a final decision. “Buy” suggest an irrevocable commitment and will drive many people away. “Add to cart” is much less pushy.

Tell them how many. Quite often, an online buying process will allow the customer to continue adding items, without going back to the shopping cart. While this is supposed to make it more convenient, it can be quite unsettling if the customer cannot see what has been stacked up so far. The shopping cart design must include a feature whereby a summary of the items in the cart is displayed at the top of each page. This also assures the customer that he or she has successfully added all the required items to the cart, or removed them from it, as the case may be.

Don’t ask them if they want fries with their order. Some shopping cart design models have a built-in cross-selling feature that pops a question as soon as something is put into the cart. This is the online equivalent of being stalked by an overenthusiastic salesperson. When a buyer is busy filling the cart, all he or she seeks is confirmation of that process. Don’t spoil it.

Putting the cart before the horse! Sometimes, buyers are asked to register, provide shipping, billing and even credit card details before they have a total cost of items in their cart. Taxes, freight and service charges are added at the end, and could make an impact on the decision to buy. Asking the customer for so much personal information before they even know what it’s going to cost them, is not a smart idea!

Keep it simple. An effective shopping cart design will ensure that the buying process is simple, intuitive and as painless as possible. Some sites actually issue instructions on how to use or update the shopping cart. Others require users to type a “0” in the quantity column if they wish to cancel an order. Spare your customer. A “remove or delete item” button works best.

Remember, a shopping cart is much more important in the scheme of things, when it comes to online selling. Ensure that you design yours well, to maximize chances of converting a casual visit into a sale. The next step is to choose a reliable vendor* for setting it up. Getting the basics right will help you go a long way.