Shopping Carts For The Faint Of Heart

Written by T. O' Donnell


The chief criteria for judging an ecommerce shopping cart arerepparttar number of credit card processors and shipping services it supports, andrepparttar 135775 number of people that support *it*.

Why? Because credit card processors and shipping services mutate allrepparttar 135776 time. Your cart will require updating. Which service works today may go out of business tomorrow, and leave you withrepparttar 135777 orders piling up.

Other important criteria are how easy it is to set up, and add products, and how easy it is forrepparttar 135778 customer to use.

When you set up your shop test it using a wide variety ofrepparttar 135779 oldest and buggiest browsers you can find. If your web store works under them you're home and dry.

Here arerepparttar 135780 cheapest, simplest, and most effective carts I've found:

1. Oscommerce (free) - http://www.oscommerce.com

A very good, full-featured, cart. Uses Php and MySQL. Not easy to set up for a 'newbie'. Cookies are used to trackrepparttar 135781 order. If you have PhpMyAdmin installed in your web account, it's easier. Requires a customer to register before they can make a purchase. Supports a wide range of credit-card processors and shipping services.

Bad point: Technical support is limited torepparttar 135782 Oscommerce forums, which are not helpful to newbies.

Also, it may be a while before an update is available to a payment module. These are done by unpaid enthusiasts.

Good point: Oscommerce is supported by thousands of unpaid enthusiasts; this means updates do eventually arrive, and it's less likely to go out of business, unlike a commercial cart.

2. X-Cart (commercial) - http://www.x-cart.com

Similar to Oscommerce. Requires a customer to register before they can make a purchase. Lots of features and add-ons. Supports a wide range of credit-card processors and shipping services. Has an affiliate program add-on, and lets others sell products though your cart.

3. Dansie Cart (commercial) - http://www.dansie.net

A well specified cart. Supports a wide range of credit-card processors and shipping services.

Bad point: Apparentlyrepparttar 135783 Perl code is obscured, to make it harder to copy, which is annoying if you want to customise it.

3. Interchange (free) - http://www.icdevgroup.org

A version ofrepparttar 135784 old Akopia / Minivend carts. Complex product with lots of files and a lot of setting up to do. A complete solution, and includesrepparttar 135785 option of third party credit-card real-time order processing. Encrypts orders.

4. Agora (free) - http://www.agoracart.com

A Web-Store/Commerce.cgi hybrid.

5. The Commission Cart (commercial) - http://www.siteinteractive.com

A CGI-based shopping cart which also functions as an affiliate program. Other webmasters earn commissions by signing up and linking to your site. 6. ShopFactory (commercial) - http://www.shopfactory.Com

5 Tips for Online Shopping

Written by Melanie Breeze


Shopping online has become more and more popular in America as we are all looking to save a little time and money. E-commerce sales are growing at astronomical numbers ranging from 20-25% per year. And according to Forrester Research, 40% of households are using coupons in their web shopping. The huge increases are obvious:repparttar online savings and discounts are impossible to match by traditional stores constrained byrepparttar 135640 overhead costs of employees, rent, and insurance. By using some ofrepparttar 135641 tips and tricks mentioned below, you’ll be able to take further advantage of a new American pastime: saving with online shopping!

Tip #1: Don’t buy Ebay. We all know online auctions seem like such a great deal, and it’s easy to get caught up inrepparttar 135642 emotion of auction. Thing is, auction sites like Ebay and Ubid have become saturated with buyers AND sellers, so virtually any discount found is quickly sought by re-distributors who then add their own markups to your purchase. The online marketplace has enough people out there that you can end up spending hundreds of extra dollars forrepparttar 135643 same things found in your local mall! Don’t let your emotions get involved – these are notrepparttar 135644 right places forrepparttar 135645 aware shopper.

Tip #2: Never pay retail. Take this scenario: You find something you want to buy, mayberepparttar 135646 latest craze or fad such asrepparttar 135647 Ipod. Should you really payrepparttar 135648 price that Apple is offering? No! You can find many deals and coupons forrepparttar 135649 same purchase just by typing, for example, “ipod coupons” into Google. Spend a little time searching throughrepparttar 135650 top ten to twenty results, you’re sure to findrepparttar 135651 same product for a significant discount. Sometimes, by filling out a survey or signing up for an email list, you’ll get additional savings and many times you can even get your product for free!

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