Shopping Cart Software
How do I know which shopping cart to choose? Is one better than the other? Choosing a shopping cart is a largely personal matter, as YOU are the only person who completely understands your business needs.
Selecting a Shopping Cart
Begin by making a list of features you would like your ‘ideal’ shopping cart to have. For example, if you are a total beginner, you will want a shopping cart that does not require you to have programming or HTML (though a little HTML knowledge is very helpful to have) knowledge. If you already have a shopping cart, list the things you do and do not like about your current shopping cart software.
Shopping Cart Comparisons
Below are simple Pros and Cons Comparison Charts of all of the shopping carts we offer. For more detailed feature lists, visit our Shopping Cart Page
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Pros |
Cons |
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Unlimited Product Options. Accepts Decimals for Fractional Quantity Orders. Payment Processor Integration. USPS, UPS, FedEx, and CanadaPost. Inventory Control. Built in newsletter. Froogle Feed capabilities. Printable Packing Slips. Coupon codes and quantity discounts. Customer log in/Individual Acounts. Image Majik and GD for Thumbnail support. Seamless integration for iDevAffiliate, the #1 self-managed Affiliate Tracking Software - requires a Dedicated IP and SSL Certificate. FREE Technical Support for all ∗ default features. |
May be difficult for a beginning html coder to customize. Quickbooks’ export is VERY limited, allowing export of customer name, transaction ID number and amount ONLY. Wish List is simply a ‘wish list,’ but cannot be effectively utilized as a Gift Registry. It does not allow multiple quantities of single items and does not update quantities upon purchase. Fractional Quantities can be used, but do not reduce inventory properly. The developers explained it as sort of a ‘bug,’ and when they upgraded the shopping cart software it was removed. We retained it for our fabric stores, but the inventory issue cannot be remedied. |
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Pros |
Cons |
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Full-Featured Quickbooks Integration. Unlimited Product Options. Accepts Decimals for Fractional Quantity Orders. Payment Processor Integration. Built In SSL. USPS, UPS, FedEx, and CanadaPost Inventory Control. Printable Packing Slips. Coupon codes and quantity discounts. Seamless integration for iDevAffiliate, the #1 self-managed Affiliate Tracking Software - requires a Dedicated IP and SSL Certificate. |
Cutting and pasting HTML code can be tedious on websites that have a high turnover of items. |
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ZENCART |
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Pros |
Cons |
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Unlimited Product Options. Payment Processor Integration. USPS, UPS, FedEx Inventory Control. Built in newsletter. Coupon codes and quantity discounts. Customer Log in. Helpful support forum answers most questions. |
Subcategory display removes display of items within the main category. Program “squishes” larger photos to make the thumbnails images. It does not maintain aspect ratio (which means the images are skewed when using the shopping cart to make the thumbnails. No Quickbooks integration. Admin area is not so user friendly. |
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osCOMMERCE |
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Pros |
Cons |
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Quickbooks Integration. Unlimited Product Options. Payment Processor Integration. USPS, UPS, FedEx Inventory Control. Built in newsletter. Coupon codes and quantity discounts. Customer Log in. |
Difficult to customize by yourself, hard to ‘break out’ of the osCommerce look. Program “squishes” larger photos to make the thumbnails images. It does not maintain aspect ratio (which means the images are skewed when using the shopping cart to make the thumbnails. Admin area is not so user friendly. |
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CUBECART |
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Pros |
Cons |
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Unlimited Product Options. Payment Processor Integration. Coupon codes and quantity discounts. |
Support is via a forum which is not very busy. Not a lot of bells and whistles. |
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AGORA CART |
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Pros |
Cons |
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Customizable store home page. Options files with multiple option sets may be created. Supports multiple gateways and payment types. USPS, UPS, FedEx Database imports and exports. Coupon codes. |
You must download other files and upload them in order to create new options for different products within the admin area. The front and back end feel ‘primitive’. Need to know cgi in order to make any major changes to the layout. Admin does not offer a lot of customization to the overall look and feel. |
