How To Pick The Perfect eCommerce Shopping Cart

In this comprehensive guide, you'll learn how to choose & pick the perfect eCommerce shopping cart and best practices for online tools

By Claudio Pires
Updated on August 19, 2024
How To Pick The Perfect eCommerce Shopping Cart

In this comprehensive guide, you’ll learn how to choose & pick the perfect eCommerce shopping cart and best practices for online tools. Picking the perfect eCommerce shopping cart software for you and your business isn’t always easy. After all, there are plenty of options for you to choose from. So what should you go with?

  • A free or paid option?
  • And what extensive features should you look for?

You must know the answers to these questions, as you want to make sure that you pick the right option that meets your needs and wants, like the excellent and complete features of ecommerce present on Fabulive.

I’ll address these questions and much more, so keep reading on.

Features For The Perfect eCommerce Software

First things first, you will need to address where you are in terms of your business experience.

Building a business has multiple stages, but let’s classify them into three categories and see how to choose a shopping cart.

  1. You are just getting started (beginner).
  2. You consider yourself to have some experience (intermediate).
  3. Lastly, being a grizzled veteran, your biggest goal is scaling (expert).

So, which category do you currently fall into? You might also fall in between a couple of categories, which is perfectly fine.

The reason that I ask is that it can help you pick the best shopping cart.

I’m also going to assume that you fall anywhere in the beginner and intermediate stages, and don’t worry; those stages of your business can certainly be exciting.

So, with that being said, let’s look at the first tip to help you with the process. Keep reading to this comprehensive guide, you’ll learn how to choose & pick the perfect eCommerce shopping cart and best practices for online tools.

When selecting the perfect eCommerce shopping cart, integrating with the WhatsApp Business API can significantly enhance customer engagement and streamline communication. The WhatsApp Business API allows businesses to send order confirmations, shipping updates, and personalized offers directly through WhatsApp, offering a seamless and customized shopping experience. When choosing an eCommerce platform, ensure it supports easy integration with the WhatsApp Business API, allowing you to leverage its powerful messaging capabilities to improve customer satisfaction and drive sales. This integration boosts customer interaction and provides a competitive edge in the rapidly evolving eCommerce scenario.

Free Or Paid Shopping Cart

Choosing between a free or paid shopping cart will most likely come up.

If you’re an intermediate or expert marketer, it tends to be a much easier decision when choosing a free or paid option.

Given that you have experience and have most likely already made sales, utilizing paid software will be your best choice.

However, the choice might require more research if you’re starting your online store.

The good news is that most paid shopping carts come with free trials, which you should undoubtedly take advantage of. A free trial is perfect for demoing the software and seeing if it works for you.

But before you pick an option to demo, here are some key features you should look into when conducting your shopping cart research.

Your Domain Name

Here is a perk that can help you save some money when you get started, depending on the software that you pick and learn how to choose a shopping cart.

Shopify is an example of a shopping cart that can help you build your online business, and it also comes along with the ability to register your domain through it. However, that is something that you will have to pay for.

On the other hand, 3dcart is one of the more significant Shopify alternatives, and they provide a free domain name, which means that you don’t have to pay an extra fee.

This can be an essential decision for you based on where you are in the categories I mentioned (beginner, intermediate, and expert). Let’s continue with more great features to look for.

Perfect eCommerce Shopping Cart: Multiple Integrations

Getting a new shopping cart software can be an exciting experience. What’s more exciting? Being able to integrate with other third-party tools to increase your traffic, leads, or even sales with best online shopping cart.

So be sure to ask yourself, “What integrations will I need?” Shopping carts can’t do everything, but they can certainly help improve your process.

Here are a few examples of integrations that you might consider. Just knowing about these will help you make the best decision moving forward.

  • Email marketing tools for building your list.
  • Connecting with payment processors like PayPal and Stripe can be very important.
  • Landing pages are used to build your sales funnel further (like adding one-click upsells).

Those are just a few examples. Nowadays, many shopping carts integrate with Zapier, which allows you to connect even more apps to your liking.

Cart Abandonment Reduction: Best eCommerce Cart Practices

The good news for you here is that many of the popular eCommerce shopping carts come along with the ability to help reduce cart abandonment. I’m moving too fast; let me rewind a little first.

Cart abandonment is when a customer sees something they like, adds it to their checkout cart, and then leaves without purchasing. They were about to complete the purchase, but something, for some reason, stopped them.

Many shopping carts come with preventative measures to reduce this, which you should be on the lookout for. Here are a few key examples.

  • Creating a buying process that is as smooth as possible.
  • Utilizing the most secure and trusted payment gateways.
  • Make sure that your shopping cart is mobile-optimized.

Some shopping carts even allow you to email the potential customer after a certain amount of time if they don’t purchase. That is a great way to increase your conversions. Here’s another excellent way to increase your sales.

Perfect eCommerce Shopping Cart: Discounts And Coupons

Who doesn’t love a discount? The fact is that this is a great way to help incentivize potential customers to make a purchase. This is sometimes also referred to as a promotion, and there are a few ways to make it work.

First and foremost, you can advertise the promotion on your site, checkout page, or even both. Here are a couple more ways to utilize discounts and coupons.

If someone moves their mouse toward the exit page, you can have a popup window and offer a coupon code. You can also have a coupon sent via email to anyone who abandoned the shopping process (as discussed in the previous section).

This is yet another feature you’ll want to look for when choosing a shopping cart. Let’s have a look at one more helpful eCommerce shopping cart feature with best eCommerce cart practices.

Premium Customer Support

This topic isn’t discussed as much, but it’s essential for building and growing your business through selling. After all, new software is going to come with a learning curve.

This is why you must look for a shopping cart with excellent customer support and helpful tutorial videos and guides. You can also ask for help during your free trial because that’s what customer support is for.

Overall, the faster you can have your online store up, the quicker you’ll be able to start making sales, and that’s a great thing!

Final Words

Let’s take a quick recap of what we discussed on picking the best shopping cart software. First, you’ll want to look at both free and paid options. This will allow you to differentiate between the features you get for free and premium software choices. Don’t forget about free trials, as they help you make the best decision, too.

Next, we talked about your domain name. Depending on the software you pick, this will either be free or cost a little extra. We spoke about powerful integrations. While shopping carts aren’t able to do everything, they can certainly help you out when it comes to integrating with other powerful tools.

Don’t forget to reduce the number of visitors leaving their shopping carts. You can also utilize discounts and coupons to help increase your sales. You’ll want to watch these features because who doesn’t want to increase their sales? Lastly is the importance of customer support.

When you finally get started with your eCommerce shopping cart. Don’t be afraid to speak with support and ask questions if needed. This will make for a better process of learning how to use the software. Keep these tips and features in mind when you’re doing your research. So, you’re ready to find the perfect software for your selling needs.

Claudio Pires

Claudio Pires is the co-founder of Visualmodo, a renowned company in web development and design. With over 15 years of experience, Claudio has honed his skills in content creation, web development support, and senior web designer. A trilingual expert fluent in English, Portuguese, and Spanish, he brings a global perspective to his work. Beyond his professional endeavors, Claudio is an active YouTuber, sharing his insights and expertise with a broader audience. Based in Brazil, Claudio continues to push the boundaries of web design and digital content, making him a pivotal figure in the industry.