Jan 11, 2012

Help Desk: What You Need to Know About Shopping Cart Software

[caption id="attachment_393" align="alignright" width="353" caption="shopping cart"]

[/caption] This week on Help Desk, we are going to discuss shopping cart software, an essential tool for your online business. Nearly $31 billion was spent online by Americans during the holiday-shopping season, and online sales surpassed $1 billion on four separate days alone.¹ Who wouldn’t want to have a cut of that ever-growing pie? If you already have a website for your business, the next step necessary to compete in today’s market is adding a shopping cart and ecommerce store. If you’re not selling your product or service online, your competitor probably is! Shopping cart software allows your customer to shop at your website by placing items in a virtual shopping cart (much like the process at Amazon.com and other ecommerce sites you probably have used). Once your customer decides to checkout, the software will calculate a total for the order, including shipping and handling and associated taxes (if applicable). Features you should look for in an online shopping cart:

Easy Installation: While there may be a slight learning curve associated with getting your store online, a quality shopping program will walk you through the process of creating your store front and product database step-by-step.

Complete Administration: Simple management of your store is essential, so you should find a cart that provides straightforward administration of your products, prices, sales, coupons, promotions, discounts, etc.

Integration: One of the most crucial factors of choosing the right cart is that it should easily integrate with your existing website and your payment gateway so you can accept credit cards with ease.

There are multiple shopping cart programs available online for your ecommerce needs. Our affordable option, Newtek Cart,² requires no software license to purchase and is just $20 per month. Newtek Cart offers one-click installation and is compatible with all major payment methods. It also includes a Newtek Gateway module pre-installed if you already utilize us to process your credit card payments or plan to in the future.³ Further Reading: 1. “Online holiday spending sees busiest week ever” 2. Learn more about Newtek Cart and try our live demo. Use "demo" as the username & password. 3. Our Knowledge Base offers multiple help articles for Newtek Cart, including a step-by-step guide on how to install the software, add products, configure your payment methods, and more.