Paid vs. Free Shopping Carts

Today, it seems like almost every single webhost out there offer numeroues shopping cart software solutions for your website. There’s osCommerce, CREloaded, Zen cart, CS-Cart, Cubecart, Virtuemart, agoracart, QuikStore… the list goes on and on.

Most of these carts offer the same features. They generally offer various themes, customizable storefronts, etc. But they generally don’t offer optimized content, database importing tools, or technical support. In fact every webhost out there that gives these up for free usually makes the caveat of something along the lines of: “We just install the software, we don’t support it. Check with the manufacturer author for all support.”

This can be a little daunting if it is your first time setting up a storefront, or even if it is your 10th time setting one up. If one particular item seems to keep causing your shopping cart software to crash, who do you call? Hope you’re good with SQL or have a competent web designer on-call.

That’s where the paid solutions come in. Paid? Yeah.. paid. Sure, there’s a lot of free options out there on the internet. Everyone wants everything free on the internet. But you are operating a business here, right? If someone came into your storefront (assume you have one for this) and offered to drop down a bunch of free registers and inventory tracking programs on your doorstep, and then leave, would you still accept it? Knowing that they’d never be back and would never be there to help you if that cash register broke down?

Businesses need business grade solutions, even entry level businesses. They need things that will work quickly and consistently and this includes their ecommerce software.
Pick any of those free ecommerce shopping cart solutions, then pick a well-known paid solution, like aShop Commerce. Here’s a list of things you’ll get from them that you won’t get from the free places:

• Live-Chat System (Let your customers chat live with you, save those sales!)
• Ticket Support System (Let your customers file problem tickets)
• Daily Backups of your entire store
• 128bit SSL encryption (Most webhosts charge extra for this on a monthly basis)
• Free Unlimited Technical Support
• SEO (Search Engine Optimized) - Your products will get searched and indexed easily by Google and the like
• QuickBooks integration
• Discount Coupons & Gift Certificates
• SMS Order alerts
• And a whole lot more…

The price can be a bit of a turn-off for some people, with monthly fees starting at $39.95. But the question a business owner will need to ask themselves is: “Will I be able to save 1 or 2 sales per month thanks to this powerful software?” I bet most will, and for many that’s enough to justify the cost. How many people out there have been shopping on another website, but because you couldn’t find something or couldn’t get a question answered quickly you ended up leaving it and shopping somewhere else?

Do yourself a favor and save your customers! (And maybe your business) If you offer your products online, offer them the best way you can so you can make the most sales you can. Go take them for all for a test drive, head to Agora Shopping Cart, Zen-Cart, or osCommerce and take them for a test drive. After you’re done, research a few paid solutions like aShop Commerce and take them for a test drive. The difference is like night and day.

Webmasters, business owners big and small, grandma selling quilts on the internet: Look into a paid solution, trust me, you’ll thank me.

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