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You have merchandise you want to sell in your own online store. Sounds easy enough, but looking for an ecommerce shopping cart software program is confusing to say the least. Opinions in discussion forums and the reviews of ecommerce software programs are as mixed as the programs available. Even if you hire someone to design and set up an online store for you, you are still the one that is going to have to be using the program to manage your online store. So which shopping cart software is best for you? |
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People have different needs, so different shopping cart programs are often suggested to fit specific purposes, such as selling downloadable products, having various shipping or payment options, inventory management, works with Amazon, eBay or Etsy, and price. Hopefully my research for a shopping cart program will also help you, by narrowing your search down to a few out of the hundreds of ecommerce software programs available. Based on my criteria of:
I only looked at three types of ecommerce software:
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Note 1: Most of the descriptive information provided below is quoted from the various software company’s websites. Note 2: I added a note if a shopping cart program said that it aligned with selling sites like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy. Note: 3: For those of you who prefer a monthly fee with setup and strong technical support, I’ve added information near the end of this listing for Shopify, hosted version of Big ECommerce by Interspire Shopping Cart. Note 4: Before deciding on a shopping cart solution, it’s important to understand Payment options. There are many payment gateways, too many to discuss in a shopping cart article, but here are some articles about PayPal options. Note: Good overview of Payment Gateway Process: http://www.shopsite.com/cc_101.html
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| Shopping Cart Software Programs – Stand Alone |
| PrestaShop – $Free http://www.prestashop.com Features: http://www.prestashop.com/en/features Demo: http://www.prestashop.com/en/demo |
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PrestaShop comes complete with over 310 features that have been carefully developed to assist business owners in increasing sales with virtually little effort. All features are integrated in the software and are 100% free. Product Export to eBay and More – Create a new sales channel by placing products on third party product listings such as, eBay, Amazon, Google Shopping, and more. Not only will these efforts offer more exposure to new visitors but improve search engine ranking. PrestaShop’s e-commerce software comes integrated with eBay, while others can be found in the Addons store. Simply configure the module for the respective site and products will begin integrating to major shopping sites after a few simple steps. Comes with most necessary add-ons. Huge collection of themes and add-ons, some free most for cost and they can get pricey. For cost themes run from $45 up $280, and 4,500 module add-ons available $40 up to $1,400. Easy plugin browsing. 1. Amazon Modules: http://addons.prestashop.com/en/search?search_query=amazon 2. eBay Modules: http://addons.prestashop.com/en/search?search_query=ebay 3. Etsy Modules: http://addons.prestashop.com/en/search?search_query=etsy |
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Zen Cart – $Free |
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Zen Cart® truly is the art of e-commerce; free, user-friendly, open source shopping cart software. The ecommerce web site design program is developed by a group of like-minded shop owners, programmers, designers, and consultants that think ecommerce web design could be, and should be, done differently. Over 1,800 plugins and add-ons. Has plugin search, but not so easy to just browse. Looks like some good plugins, perhaps free, I did not see any prices. Has Amazon Inventory Loader: Creates a product feed of your products for upload to Amazon.com. Amazon uses the UPC/ISBN included for each product to create your products listing. No descriptions or product titles are required. |
| AgoraCart – $Free (Perl) One Time Fee Upgrades available starting at $19.95 or $159 w/support. http://agoracart.com Demo: http://www.agoracart.com/demos.htm |
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AgoraCart is one of the early open source ecommerce shopping cart software solutions offering small businesses and online retailers more flexibility, power, and customization on a larger scale. AgoraCart can be easily installed on your existing website or it can be hosted for you. Built as an Open Source Software ( OSS ) using Perl, our ecommerce shopping cart software is community driven in its design and development, which keeps the focus on the merchant needs. Watch for future versions written in PHP and Ruby in addition to Perl. Has PayPal Express and Standard. Unsure about shipping calculator options. Limited templates. |
| Ecommerce Templates – $159.00 One Time Fee. Video Overview: http://www.ecommercetemplates.com/overview.asp Demo: http://www.ecommercetemplates.com/demo.asp |
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Ecommerce Templates provides a powerful shopping cart software solution integrating into WordPress, Dreamweaver, Expression Web, Responsive Designs and CSS layouts. It is also possible to use our Generic version to integrate into your existing site. The purchase price is a one time fee, there are no monthly costs as you are free to choose where you want to host your store. The purchase comes with 6 months of free support and updates. |
| QuikStore – $199 One Time Fee Overview: http://www.quikstore.com/ Ex: http://www.quikstore.com/products.php?catid=26&category=Customer%20Sites |
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Complete PHP MySQL shopping cart program solution for your website. You can bolt it on to any existing site or create a new e-commerce website from scratch – in minutes. It includes shopping cart, secure payment plugins and online order management and reporting. You can also now use the free Open Source fckEditor with Quikstore v3.0 to create your entire website content. This is a one-off purchase cost which includes all our popular credit card payment gateways (including PayPal) and shipping calculation plugins for UPS and USPS, plus free Quikstore upgrades and ticket desk support for 12 months. We also offer an Installation service by one of our experienced software team, should you require it. |
| Shop-Script 5 – $299 One Time Fee or $14.99 Monthly http://www.webasyst.com/store/ |
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Basic payment and shipping add-ons are free, but there are other add-ons for cost. Basic themes free, but some of the for cost themes are pricey. Suite of web apps that helps people work together in teams, collaborate, build websites and online stores. It’s an ecommerce + site building + collaboration platform packed into an ultimate suite. Available as an open source PHP framework and as a cloud-based solution starting at just $3/mo. |
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CS Cart – $385 One Time Fee |
| Shopping cart solution for building an ecommerce website of any size: from a small web store to a virtual shopping mall. A ready storefront, support for many payment and shipping options, full inventory control, unlimited products, promotional tools, and other ecommece software features out-of-the-box. |
| ShopSite – Starts at $495 One Time Fee or Monthly Pricing http://www.shopsite.com Demo – http://www.shopsite.com/demo.html |
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ShopSite is electronic commerce software for the small to medium-sized business. It is an online catalog and shopping cart system that is easy to learn and powerful. With ShopSite you can manage your own online store yourself, no matter what your background — there’s no HTML coding necessary. Has ShipWorks module, starts at $14.95 a month. Interesting feature: OrderAnywhere – Allows buttons to be inserted into existing HTML. |
| Shop Factory – $499 & Up One Time Fee or $39.95 & Up Monthly. Free Trial: http://www.shopfactory.com Video Tutorials: http://www.shopfactory.com/contents/en-us/d193.html |
| Shopping cart software, fully responsive website builder, store manager and more: Your complete eCommerce solution. |
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Sites I studied for Stand Alone Cart evaluation: |
| Shopping Cart Software Programs – WordPress |
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Woocommerce Dukagate IDB Ecommerce is the name of wpStoreCart 5 Ecommerce Templates – $159.00 One Time Fee. TheCartPress Exchange – Free version & pay versions $197 or All $247 Shopp Get Shopped – Appears fee with cost for add-ons. WordPress MarketPlace Easy Cart Ecwid Market Press Cart66 – $300 yr |
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Interesting WordPress Theme: Flexible Theme: X – The Theme Good review of features of X- The Theme: |
| Sites I studied for WordPress evaluation: *http://www.sitepoint.com/5-of-the-best-wordpress-shopping-cart-plugins/ *http://www.wpthemesspot.com/7-best-wordpress-ecommerce-themes-collection/ *http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2014/01/02/7-wordpress-shopping-carts-worth-exploring-in-2014.aspx |
| Shopping Cart Software Programs – Joomla! |
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HikaShop JCart and JooCart |
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*http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/e-commerce *http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/e-commerce/e-commerce-integrations |
| Shopping Cart Software for people who want more technical support. |
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Shopify – Use Shopify to create your online store. Everything you need to start selling online – today. Free trial. Our platform lets users easily and quickly create their own online store, without all the technical work involved in developing their own website, or the huge expense of having someone else build it. Merchants can use Shopify to manage all aspects of their shops: uploading products, customizing the design, accepting credit cards, and viewing their incoming orders and completed transactions. BigCommerce |
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