Online shopping has become a staple for most people. Due to this, it has become increasingly important for websites to feature easy-to-use shopping carts in their online stores. When choosing a shopping cart for your online website, you have a lot of options. Before you can choose one, however, you have to determine what kind of shopping cart you want. There are two major types of shopping carts: licensed and hosted.
Licensed Shopping Carts
This is online shopping cart software that you can installed on any server. For the most part, this kind of shopping cart is used by companies and individuals who own the licenses to their shopping carts after buying the software. While a licensed shopping cart isn’t for everyone, advanced merchants often cite the freedom that comes with owning a licensed cart as the main reason why they choose it. In some cases, it can lead to a better experience for your customers. However, the most notable advantage that a licensed cart has over a hosted cart is the cheaper price tag. Licensed shopping carts typically have a one-time fee, whereas hosted shopping carts do not.
Hosted Shopping Carts
A hosted shopping cart fits into the model of a piece of software being offered as a service. When you use a hosted shopping cart, you have to pay a monthly fee to access the software. The biggest downfall of a hosted shopping cart is that you can’t customize or modify the shopping cart software in any way. On the plus side, these types of carts are typically easier for merchants who don’t want to make a lot of decisions about their shopping carts. Hosted carts offer simple interfaces and generally require no technical know-how from you.
Advantages of Shopping Carts
No matter what kind of shopping cart you like better, it’s important to choose one for your website. Shopping carts not only benefit your customers but also your business. Studies show that consumers are likely to buy more items from an online store that features a shopping cart. This type of software also makes it easy to accept discounts and coupons. All good shopping cart software comes with business performance checking features as well. This provides an easy way to see how much you’ve sold, what your most popular items are and which items your customers are adding to their wishlists.
Regardless of which shopping cart you think is best for your company, there are a few things you need to look for. You want a shopping cart that offers direct deposit into your business account and that accepts all major credit and debit cards. Additionally, some shopping carts take a percentage of each transaction you make, so determine the fee before making your decision.