We are living in the hi-tech era where any and everything is just a click away from us. The Internet has transformed our lives to the extent that now it is a necessity for many. For example, purchasing products online is one of its many uses. There are many websites that are engaged in this type of activity, done through shopping cart system, are referred to as an ecommerce solution.

Learn a little more below:

– An ecommerce software package helps customers generate a list of products for purchase.

– The software also calculates your shipping charges, taxes, etc. and provides you the final total.

– It also ensures a secure transaction by checking the validity of the credit card via a secure access set up using “https” in the browser.

Now, let us take a look at how it functions:

– Its set up is installed partly in the website and partly in the server. For the website, the cart software needs to be installed on the host server and the set up should be done in HTML code. However in the place of the host server the software can be installed on the secure server for dealing with private data like payments and verifying the credit card.

– HTTP cookies and query strings help the online cart solution operate. Almost all applications store all the information regarding the shopping cart in the session object. This information changes only when the customers choose their choice of products from the cart. Post the selection of the products, a list is generated to keep the record of the products and then the cart gets cleared.

Shopping cart systems have two basic components as follows:

Storefront: It’s the visible part of your online store meant for the customers to visit and buy. This software automatically generates search pages, products pages etc to assist the customer. This generation is based on the data available in the database. Its appearance and feel can be easily changed to match the rest of the website.

Administration: This includes tasks like adding and editing products, categories, discount rates etc. Its function basically depends on the kind shopping cart software one uses.

Main Features to Look for with an Online Shopping Cart

As an online business person, there are some specific characteristics to look for in the cart software before you choose one type to use. Here is a ready reference guide:

1.Since a priority is keeping your customers happy, shopping cart software that confounds the shoppers on your website will simply not do. You should choose software that makes shopping easy for your clients, where navigation and surfing is fun and simple. This should certainly be one of the advantages of good shopping cart software.

2.Another requisite of good shopping cart software must be the support it offers to the visitors. Ideally, the software should offer unlimited support. Usually, without this type of support, the customer cannot find his (or her) way out of any problem he might encounter. The best software solution will help you navigate out of problems easily with a support desk and / or other means to reach out for help.

3.You must also take shipping prices into consideration while choosing your cart software. Compare the prices offered by the well-known shipping companies like FedEx, USPS and UPS. Some software companies offer a combined scheme with these top companies so that the charges are cheaper. With a cost-effective way of shipping, customers won’t fear buying small products in the fear that shipping costs will far exceed the price of the article itself!

4.Before buying shopping cart software for your company, run a check on whether it is compatible with various payment processors. The fewer the number of payment processors on its compatibility list, the more difficult it will be to shop for merchant services to plug into your cart’s check out system. This strategic number will ensure that it is a software worth buying for your company.

Online shopping also has its risks, such as the threats of hacking, which is dangerous considering all the information that is stored in the database of any shopping cart software. To protect all the important information, it is good to choose software that has barriers against hacking, like encryption.

Author Bio: For more info on this and other shopping cart software topics please visit: ecommerce software

Category: Internet
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