What Shooping Cart To Use?

[wayne1]

Hi

Any recommendations on shopping carts? I’m looking for something pretty cheap, not over $150 a month. But I don't want to sacrifice quality to save on loose change.

Any suggestions?

[bradkrussell]

Hi Wayne,

I've recently had a friend launch a ecommerce site on Big Commerce. From everything I've read, and everything my friend tells me, they are fantastic. I had a bit of a play around with the backend and it's really easy to use too.

Prices start at around $25 a month and I'm pretty sure there are no locked in contracts.

Cheers

[SaforwebDesign]

Hi waayne

We're using Virtuemart 2.0.6. Free and easy to use. You can download it from www.virtuemart.net.

I hope this can help you.

[flex22]

If you want to recommend CART66 150usd SO and there is little free version.

Flex

[anthonytjm]

ZenCart is a popular shopping cart system as well and its free open source. Ive been happy using zencart and virtuemart for my shopping cart applications. Virtuemart Ive only used in conjunction with Joomla CMS websites. Not sure if it works as a stand a lone.

[SaforwebDesign]

Only with joomla, but they're free... and with a big community sharing new components, plugins, and modules... ZenCart is other good option.

[zigojacko]

Recommendations need to be based purely on your specific requirements (and budget)...

Undoubtedly, opting for a cheap solution, will sacrifice on quality - as with many things in life.

Are you planning on using a website design / development agency to build and design your store or are you just looking for an off the shelf platform with pre-built templates?

What is the $150 per month for? Hosting? Monthly transaction commissions on self hosted solutions or just monthly fee for usage of the ecommerce solution?

First identify whether an open source platform or a self hosted platform is best for you. If you want everything taken care for you and aren't worried about the endless limitations you will face, then a self hosted solution such as Shopify or Big Commerce may be best.

We've got many years experience in ecommerce having worked with lots of ecommerce providers and there really isn't any case of one size fits all nor are there many that we recommend as the majority have flaws.

Generally we'll recommend Magento as it's open source, extendible, flexible, robust, powerful - but it is also bulky so needs experts to fine tune and configure server, site and a decent hosting package - preferably in a dedicated environment - but this won't always be the best or cheap option for some etailers.

Some questions you may want to be asking before going with a recommendation include:-

• What is the reasons for upgrading / switching if you already have an ecommerce website?
• How many products do you need to upload and will the filters/options be complex at all?
• Can you design, code or work around PHP, MySQL databases, HTML and CSS (typically)?
• What ecommerce features do you require?
• How extendible does your solution need to be?

Other noteworthy subjects to consider:-

• Support & Service
• Themes & Extensions
• Maintenance & Updates
• SEO / Core Optimisation

You may also find this article on Killer eCommerce Tips for Online Retailers useful too. Whether before you have chosen an ecommerce solution or after...

[GIGS20]

SearchFit is a very powerful shopping cart software and one of the best out there. Starts with $79 per month with $39 for 1st month. They also have 14 days trial.

http://www.searchfit.com

[wayne1]

AWESOME! Thank you everyone for all your help. We truely have a fantastic community here at SEOmoz!

Thanks everyone!!