subject: Shopping Carts: 7 Tips For Evaluating a System [print this page] Shopping Carts: 7 Tips For Evaluating a System
There is so much to consider when you begin setting up an online presence. Once you outgrow a simple Paypal account and realize the importance of direct merchant services the work begins.
The shopping cart is one of the least thought about, least spoken about, and yet the most important component of the whole process.
Nothing else is as responsible for the amount of money your business can earn, the automation of your processes, and the sophistication of your operation as a whole than your shopping cart.
Below are seven tips for evaluating a shopping cart system.
Tip 1: In this day and age where we sell digital products as well as physical products it's important to make sure your cart can handle the delivery of both.
Tip 2: Wouldn't it be nice to make a special offer when you want to? Some carts will allow you to bundle products and create whatever offers you want, and some are unable to accommodate your creativity.
Tip 3: The last thing you want to have to worry about is integrating your shopping cart with QuickBooks or Quicken or whatever you might be using in that department. So make sure your cart delivers output to your accounting software. Otherwise, you'll be doing far more work than is necessary.
Tip 4: Upsells are huge. Some marketers find that 30% of their customers purchase their upsell. That means turning a $97 sale, for example, into $127 sale, with a $30 product offered after the initial transaction has been approved. Without doing anything extra you can have an additional $30 on its way to your bank account without customers even having to reenter credit card information, simply because your shopping cart allowed you to offer upsells.
Tip 5: Keep things simple. Get a cart that allows you to integrate your sales and prospects into one database. Why try to manage several databases when you can have one that's capable of managing them all in one place.
Tip 6: If you think you may ever want to offer discounts or coupons to bring in new business then give some thought to this when evaluating a shopping cart system.
Tip 7: Odds are good that you will need more than one website at some point. It's very important therefore to have a shopping cart that you can use on an infinite number of sites without them being tied together in anyway. Even if you pay a little more for a cart with this capability over another without it, you'll no doubt end up saving money in the end.
You want a shopping cart that you can stay with for the long haul, so choose wisely. There are definitely Mercedes and Yugos out there so take the time to do the research. When it comes to your ecommerce set up you would be hard pressed to find a more important component than your shopping cart.
For a complete checklist for evaluating a shopping cart I would like to offer you access to the FREE ebook "How to Pick a Shopping Cart that Makes Money." Get your copy from www.TheRightCart.com where it's always free.
