Online accessibility is an essential to today’s businesses. To remain viable, open, noticed and easily reached by customers, your business has to be optimized for web and mobile to capitalize on an audience level spanning worldwide.
The technology offered to merchants has evolved from simple online carts to full-blown CRM, email marketing, and search engine optimization. So whether you’re a web development guru, a serial entrepreneur, or a startup merchant who wants the ball rolling ASAP, here is a list of online shopping cart solutions to help you optimize your small business web store:
Volusion is an all-in-one e-commerce package (website, store and hosting) and is currently ranked #2 on TopTenReviews. It is mobile responsive and can be connected via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. They have a free 14-day trial, and their plans start at $ 19 per month.
Content Shelf has a great set of more than 50 features, but it’s their reasonable rates (free version, and premium plans at $ 14 and $ 29 per month) and essential apps integration with payment processors such as PayPal, Stripe.com, 2Checkout and even BitPay, as well as email marketing vendors like MailChimp, Aweber and iContact that makes them stand out.
An e-commerce site development package by developers for merchants and other developers, FoxyCart is a good choice if you’re looking for an enhanced, feature-rich site that needs more complex and customized development. Their pricing starts at $ 15 per month and can go up to a whopping $ 2,000 per month depending on your e-commerce site’s tweaking needs.
Since social media has become the new way of advertising products and gaining consumer interest and trust, a nifty Shopify feature worth mentioning is its CRM/blogging platform optimized for social sharing. Shopify has world-class designers contributing various store templates, although customization is also an option. Shopify has a 14-day free trial with a starter plan of $ 14 a month. Price can go up to a monthly $ 179 depending on the upgrades you choose.
Aside from your usual online store, 3dcart offers a broad range of services including web store design, hosting and setup. 3dCart also has marketing services and an online university for tutorials. Their monthly plan starts at $ 19.99 for up to 200 products and goes up to $ 129.99 as features add up.
OpenCart is an open-source PHP-based shopping cart solution that’s simple enough to install, manage and use, and has a comprehensive list of features that are updated continuously.
InfusionSoft differentiates itself by combining email marketing, contact management, e-commerce and CRM in one cloud-based solution. All customer, lead and email marketing data can be integrated into a single dashboard, giving you the power to organize and evaluate your business’ performance. InfusionSoft also provides scores and reports, as well as free resources to enhance your sales and marketing know-how. Their pricing is pretty hefty at $ 199 a month for starters though and goes up to $ 379 a month.
Aside from the usual e-commerce platform, 1ShoppingCart offers targeted customer advertising and email marketing, if you’re too busy to do them yourself. 1ShoppingCart has a free four-week trial period, and their packages start at $ 34 a month.
ShopperPress is a popular WordPress shopping cart theme. The premium theme enables online store and shopping cart features on your WordPress site. There is no limit to the number of store products you can upload. The theme is open source, allowing for easier customization.
BigCommerce is among the first to offer social e-commerce tools to online merchants. They also have what they call the Success Squad, a “group of experienced e-commerce entrepreneurs, certified marketing experts, and masters of online selling,” whose help and advice can be tapped by clients. BigCommerce has a 15-day free trial, and monthly plans start at $ 29.95 all the way up to $ 199.95.
Developed by a group of like-minded e-commerce entrepreneurs, developers, designers and consultants, Zen Cart is a free, open-source online shopping cart software.
Magento is a multi-awarded e-commerce solution with a free, though unsupported community version. Pricing for the Magento Enterprise Edition can be obtained by contacting their sales department.
Another mainstay in the e-commerce solution market, Yahoo Merchant Solutions is as ubiquitous as it is comprehensive, with complete support, integrated apps, hosting solutions, and business advisors ready for their clients. Subscription starts at $ 26 per month, if billed annually.
If you need to set up more than one store, AmeriCommerce is possibly the best e-commerce solution for you, as it allows you to manage multiple online storefronts in a single dashboard. Monthly pricing starts at $ 24.95 for 100 products, going up to $ 299 per month for an unlimited catalog of products.
Weebly is well-loved by small business owners as it allows them to build websites quite easily, complete with blogging, shopping cart and coupon-creation capability. Weebly’s business hosting allows store owners to sell unlimited products for only $ 25 a month.
If you want something simple and, best of all, free, Fat Free Cart is worth considering. Fat Free Cart is a copy-paste cart that doesn’t require any registration or installation. It can work with PayPal and Google Checkout.
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