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What to Look for in a PHP Shopping Cart

I have been running my business online since early 2001. In that time, I've looked at quite a few options for ways to sell stuff online, and finally, in 2004, it became certain that I had wasted too much sweat in doing things the out-of-date way (having clients call me with credit card numbers or mailing me a check), and that I was long past due to finally use an online shopping cart as a way to sell goods and services online. However, the options out there seemed so overwhelming.  Where would I start? The first thing I had to do was find a merchant card provider. Since I do little person to person  commerce, I chose a supplier who deals almost exclusively with high gross online merchants.

I generally advise that you need to be doling out at least $500/ month in credit card charges to make a merchant account financially feasible for you, as you will be charged a setup fee, a percentage per transaction fee, as well as a monthly statement fee. Charge, www.charge.com, is another option for your merchant account.

It's always a good idea to look for an online merchant which allows you to upload a batch of credit card numbers at one time. For example, I have a number of clients who pay their fees monthly, outside of the shopping cart system. All I have to do is maintain their information in my database, and update it on a monthly basis (changing the invoice description or amount, as applicable, for example), export it as a tab delimited file and upload all of my charges at once. This is a wonderful time-saving feature over manually inputting 5-10 charges each month. After purchasing my merchant account, the quest began for a suitable PHP shopping cart software. Several associates tried to interest me in some open-source shopping carts, like OS Commerce, www.oscommerce.com or ZenCart, www.zencart.com, but I found the customization to be a rather complex task.

I think it’s important to be able to go in and fiddle with my products and not have to call tech support every time I make a change. In addition, open source carts lacked some features that I had seen in other shopping carts. Ultimately, I decided to go with WebCart's Shopping Cart. Here are the money-making features you'll want in a shopping cart:

1. Calculate Shipping and Tax In real time form USPS, USP, FEDEX.
   
2. Product Pages should be SEO friendly.
   
3. Be able to customize gift certificates and product coupons.
4. Have the ability to customize your own PHP Shopping Cart.
   

In addition, a full-fledged shopping cart should be able to offer discounts for multiple purchases, a “complimentary with purchase “type of promotion, or other similar unique offers.
Receipt and confirmation emails. An email confirmation of purchase to the customer as well as a receipt for you as the business owner to place in packages that have to be shipped are a great convenience for both you and your clients.  Web-based administration page. An online interface should be provided so that you can log in and add products, change prices, generate special offers, etc. from anywhere in the world.

Affiliate program compatible. Instead of buying a separate piece of software to create an affiliate program to help you sell your goods and services, your shopping cart system should have one that is integrated and permit you to manage it from your web-based administration page. Good shopping carts will have the ability to suggest related products to the shopper based on what they have already purchased, or what's already in their checkout cart.
The ability to offer coupons and discounts can mean a tremendous boost in your sales. A good shopping card will enable you to offer percentage and fixed discounts when selling your products. 9. Multiple website capability. Shopping cart systems that can handle products from a variety of websites will save you heaps of money and irritation.

Chronological auto responders can be your best online sales tool. Auto responder systems can send follow-up messages to your customers automatically to ensure they're happy with their purchase and to tell them about special offers and promotions you may have for them. Alternatively, you can use the system for those who don't buy your product and offer them an ecourse, for example, that will give them a small taste of the product you're selling. To put together all of the features that I mention above using stand-alone applications could run into many thousand dollars. I like the “one stop” shopping concept, and want my software to be a workhorse and fulfill as many functions as it can. Let the features of your full-fledge shopping cart regularly earn you money in your online business

Learn more about Web Cart's shopping cart by clicking here