You must know the features you want out of the cart. Here are some features you need to look for:
In order to know what shopping cart to get, a good shopping cart will have the ability to do the following:
Accept real-time payments by credit card or PayPal. In many situations, people prefer to use PayPal because it is easy and convenient.
A good shopping cart program will help you prevent fraud by taking security measures such as Credit Card Address Verification System (AVS), and four-digit Credit Card Security Codes.
The shopping cart should be able to remember what each customer purchased and payment information so when the customer returns, they don’t have to remember what they purchased before. And they don’t have to re-enter their credit card information again. This makes it easier for returning customers to check out faster.
With a good shopping cart program you should be able to:
This can be done by offering coupons for the next visit. So when the customer returns, they get a discount automatically when they purchase again.
Determine what product you want to sell after the initial sale has taken place. This will increase your sales and provide more revenue. You can judge this based on the customer’s past product purchases.
A good shopping cart program will automatically create a customer record after the customer purchases something from you for the first time. The data would include the customer’s name, address, payment information, and past buying habits.
There is one feature that can’t be ignored. That is shipping. If you have no way to adjust for shipping, you could overcharge some of your customers. Here is what a good shopping cart program will do:
After the customer submits his order he should be taken to a review page where he can look at his order and review for accuracy. He can change the shipping method on this page.
If the shopping cart is a good one, the buyer can see actual shipping rates by shippers such as UPS and FedEx.