Comprehensive Guide of Ecommerce Shopping Cart: Top 5 for Business

Definition

Ecommerce shopping cart is a software application that supports the process of purchasing products or services online. You can think of it as a virtual store, allowing customers to review all the items again or store items they are interested in, then choose what they really need and move step to complete the transaction.

To put it simply, an ecommerce shopping cart is like when a consumer holds a shopping cart at a grocery store or a brick-and-mortar supermarket, chooses everything he wants to buy in it and goes to pay. This tool helps customers refine their purchasing process to become neater and simpler. On ecommerce platforms, ecommerce shopping cart development is also often integrated with payment gateways, inventory management, order management and shipping costs to different regions and locations.

Types of Ecommerce Shopping Cart

Ecommerce Shopping Cart is often divided into many different types, each with unique features and effectiveness compatible with the operations of business:

• Hosted Solutions: includes ecommerce platforms fully managed by a third party. You can build an ecommerce shopping cart by logging in through your web browser and paying a service registration fee. For example: Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace.
• Self-Hosted Solutions: you will self-manage the ecommerce software on your server if you choose this option. Flexible and diverse, however, you will need a high level of expertise and technique to set up and maintain. For example: WooCommerce, Magento, OpenCart.
• Open Source Solutions: your business will be able to use off-the-shelf software, download it for free, easily modify and use this solution without paying licensing fees. However, to really understand the functions and apply them easily, you need enough resources to deploy and maintain an ecommerce shopping cart on a platform like this. For example: PrestaShop, ZenCart, osCommerce.

Friendly, easy to use

Certainly, you should choose a platform that owns an ecommerce shopping cart that is intuitive, has a friendly interface and is easy to use for both business owners, you, and customers. This element plays an essential role in smoothing the operations, management and operational processes, from adding products to order processing, while ensuring a seamless customer experience, leading to higher conversion.

When looking for an ecommerce shopping cart platform, you may require basic features such as drag and drop functionality when designing product pages, simplifying the checkout process, and having clear menu navigation toolbars.

Expense

Appropriate cost is paramount for you to truly ensure that you can operate a long-distance ecommerce shopping cart, optimize management costs and deeply evaluate the values it can bring to your business.

At this time, when searching, you need to really focus on factors such as registration costs, transaction fees, setup fees and other costs associated with advanced features or live support services. You should find at least 3-5 ecommerce shopping carts to compare prices and features of each to make the best decision for your business. Don’t forget to consider the return on investment in terms of increased sales and customer conversion rates.

Ability of extension

Expanding your business on a digital platform is not a wish, but a mandatory goal you need to achieve when operating a business. Ecommerce shopping cart development is not a service that can be used overnight, but will definitely accompany you in the long run. Therefore, a perfect platform will allow you to handle increased volumes without affecting performance, support high traffic volumes and have upgraded features as your ecommerce business expands dramatically. 

Customizability

With ecommerce shopping carts, you need to choose a platform that has special features such as being able to easily customize themes and templates, to add CSS/HTML code for advanced design editing, or support other plugins and integrations with third parties. The high level of customization in the ecommerce shopping cart allows your business to make an outstanding impression with a distinctive, attractive and trend-setting online facade that fully reflects your brand identity and builds loyalty with the target audience.

Security features

Selling on ecommerce is a sensitive task, especially when customer information can be leaked at any time, affecting the reputation and responsibility of your business. That’s why you need to look for ecommerce shopping cart platforms that have strong security features like SSL encryption to ensure data transmission between tools is 100% secure, PCI compliance for information processing according to a certain safety standard. The platform should also regularly review additional security measures to quickly detect fraud, if any, and increase protection against data breaches due to unauthorized access.

Shopify

Shopify is an ecommerce platform used globally, famous for its extremely user-friendly interface and strong integration with 3rd party providers. No matter what industry the company is in or what stage of development it is in, Shopify with its ecommerce shopping cart can meet your online sales needs.

• Pricing: from $25 to $399/month.
• Payment types: diverse, ranging from credit cards, debit cards, mobile wallets, installment payments, with more than 100 supported payment gateways.
• Ecommerce integration: integration with many different ecommerce platforms, with the ability to work simultaneously with third parties present on Shopify Apps Store.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a thoughtfully designed platform that offers a comprehensive feature set from customizable templates, flexible product catalog management, and integrated marketing tools to help your business operate. and develop in the most convenient way.

• Pricing: from $39 to $399 per month.
• Payment types: supports a wide range of payments, including credit cards, PayPal, digital wallets like Amazon Pay or Apple Pay.
• Ecommerce integration: integration with popular ecommerce platforms such as Amazon, Google Shopping or eBay.

OpenCart

OpenCart acts as an open-source ecommerce platform, allowing businesses to operate flexibly and have complete control over all activities in their online store. It includes many features such as an ecommerce shopping cart, customizable templates, multiple payment gateways, and multilingual support.

• Pricing: free to download and use.
• Payment types: includes credit card, PayPal, cash transfer or bank transfer.
• Ecommerce integration: easily integrate with other ecommerce tools and services through 3rd party modules.

Ecwid

Ecwid gives business owners the flexibility to operate everywhere, including on the web, on social media, and in person. Its standout features include store customization, mobile responsiveness, and integrated marketing tools.

• Pricing: from free to $105/month.
• Payment types: credit card, Paypal, offline payment such as bank transfer or cash on delivery.
• Ecommerce integration: easily integrates with other platforms such as WordPress, Wix, Squarespace.

AdobeCommerce (formerly Magento Commerce)

AdobeCommerce is known for its powerful customization and extensibility. Key features of this ecommerce shopping cart development include advanced product management, automation of overall marketing activities and clear identification of customer segments.

• Pricing: customized pricing.
• Payment types: Paypal, credit cards, alternative methods like Afterpay or Klarna.
• Ecommerce integration: seamless integration with Adobe Experience Cloud and other Adobe products and services.