Top eCommerce Shopping Cart Platforms

Choosing a Platform Based on Price

Yes, price is a consideration when choosing a platform. Should it be the main consideration?

Absolutely not. If you’re shopping for a store platform you either already have a product to sell or you’re doing research and looking for vendors. You’re ready to go, toss that, you’re raring to go!

Before you jump into a platform consider how you’re going to feel about it six months down the road.

Switching platforms is doable but definitely not fun and certainly not what you should be spending your time or money doing. Once your store is built your focus should be on promotion and marketing not the underlying tech. I understand budget constraints but picking the right platform in the beginning will save both time and money in the long run.

ShopSite Store

Here are some things to look for:

- An SEO friendly function or module – You need complete control over your meta tags for each and every page.

- Cross Selling – When used correctly cross selling can be huge for your eCommerce store.

- Coupons – You need to be able to create discounts for anything in your store and there should be no limit on the number you can create.

- User defined URLs – This isn’t strictly necessary but I prefer creating a custom URL to having the product name used automatically.

- Database functionality – Using a spreadsheet to create and upload your product data is much faster than creating them separately in the backend.

You also want to look into the availability of outside customization. Unless you’re a developer you’re going to run into things you want done that you’re not able to do yourself. You may have found an awesome, cheap platform that has all the functionality you need but if you can’t find any good developers to help you customize it or the work is prohibitively expensive it doesn’t do you much good.

Here are my top three platform recommendations:

- Yahoo Merchant Solutions – http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-4073363-10432576 – Yahoo offers good functionality with an easy to learn interface. You have the choice of building your store three different ways. You can use the built-in templates, Yahoo’s own HTML editor called SiteBuilder, or build your own templates using Store Tags. Everything about using Yahoo is easy on the surface and you can build your store quickly.

Once you get under the surface of the platform it gets very complicated. It runs off RTML, which is not easy to learn so almost all of your customizations will have to be outsourced. I’m not a fan of SiteBuilder, I think it is very limiting and not a truly viable way to build your store. But Yahoo is decently priced and good for beginners.

- Xcart – http://www.finestshops.com/go/ba3ece70.html – This is an all around great platform. It has all the basic functions you need and just about anything else you want can be created by a custom programmer. Xcart code can be copied and pasted into any HTML editor so you can do your own customizing comfortably.

Xcart is a bit complicated. Even if you’re comfortable with HTML there is a learning curve while getting used to the Smarty PHP the platform uses. So you’ll either have to pay for most of what you want changed or take the time to learn it for yourself. If you do learn, there is almost nothing you can’t do.

- ShopSite – http://www.lexiconn.com/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=audreykerwood – This platform is like an amalgamation of Yahoo and Xcart. It has the excellence of Xcart functionality and flexibility combined with the simplicity of Yahoo.  But it is also more expensive than both.

If you’re comfortable with HTML you’ll be customizing in no time. The ShopSite templates work off calls to other files or pieces of information, It takes some getting used to but it’s more intuitive than Xcart in it’s structure. If you’re not interested in making your own changes there are great developers out there who understand SEO and conversion. ShopSite has an easy to use database function that makes adding products much faster than one at a time through the store backend. All in all it’s a great platform.

I use the Store Tags from Yahoo in my own custom designed templates. I do 99% of my own customization in Xcart. I had my first set of templates for ShopSite designed by a developer and learned how to do it myself from looking at them. Those are my top recommendations.

Whether you go with one of them or not keep this in mind – you want a platform you can afford now with the functionality you need now, the functionality you’ll need six months or a year from now, and the ability to customize it yourself or hire someone to do it.

As long as those four aspects are covered your platform will be sound.

Audrey’s Top Platform Recommendation – ShopSite

One of the questions I get asked over and over is what shopping cart platform I most use and recommend. Over the past few years I’ve tried a number of carts and found a few that I’m very happy with. There is one though that stands ahead of the crowd in my opinion.

ShopSite is super powerful in terms of use and tools as well as the flexibility to make your store as unique as you want. That combination alone makes it a great platform but it’s the ease of use that makes it the cart I most recommend.

There are plenty of powerful carts that can be customized but most of them are so complicated even simple tweaks need to be done by a developer. ShopSite is simple enough for a person with no experience to jump into and start building. If you have HTML knowledge you’ll quickly be able to start customizing the templates or building your own. ShopSite templates work off simple calls to include files which makes them easy to work with so you can build your store the way you want it.

So that’s my answer to one of the most common questions I get. I’m happy to elaborate if anyone has questions, post a comment.

I also have a recommendation for ShopSite hosting. I use Lexiconn for my ShopSite stores. They are fantastic and that is not an exaggeration. I’ve never had to wait more than a half hour to get a question answered and any issues that have popped up have been fixed in less than 24 hours. They’re helpful and the hosting is high end.

There are other ShopSite hosts out there that are cheaper, but the level of service Lexiconn offers is worth the extra, it’s only like $20 more, per month. They offer a few add-on modules that I recommend including the Order Status Module and Product Review Module.

If you’re thinking about going with ShopSite, check out Lexiconn. This is my affiliate link: http://www.lexiconn.com/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=audreykerwood

Again, I’m happy to answer any questions. Choosing a platform is a big decision and making the right choice from the start will save you time, stress, and money. So do some exploring and make sure the cart you go with has all the features you need and any others you want.