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Shopping Cart Comparison Guide and Computer

In the market for a shopping cart? Deciding on the right one can be very confusing. Not only are there lots of carts available, but they all offer different features, capabilities, limitations, costs and so forth. Although most claim they are the best, the best one really is the one that fits with your business and needs. Every cart is probably best for someone, but only one is best for you.

So how do you determine the best cart for your needs? This site will let you evaluate many available carts using the criteria you deem important. Then at the click of a button, you will know which carts offer the best match to your needs, and which don't. It is fast and painless, reducing the time to evaluate different carts from hours or days to only seconds.

Basics

There are two basic types of carts, Service carts, and Softare carts.

Service Carts

Service Carts run the shopping cart on a host system, and you simply pay to use the cart. They tend to have no up front cost for purchase or setting up, but tend to either charge monthly or on a per transaction basis.

If you are a small to medium business (1 to 100 transactions per month), then it is usually more economical to go with a cart that charges per transaction, but if you have a lot of business, the carts that charge per month might be a better choice.

But price isn't everything. Losing an order or more a month due to limitation of the cart can easily make a less expensive cart cost more. These carts tend to be very easy and fast to set up and get running, and they tend to be very reliable. If you close up, then you can usually simply walk away from the cart and not be bound by any long term contract. They are the easiest and least expensive way to get up and running.

The services have the advantage that you usually get free technical support for as long as you use the cart. Also any bugs that may get found tend to get fixed without you even knowing it, and any enhancements to the cart will automatically become available for your use.

You need not worry about system upgrades or the shippers sites changes making a cart service inoperative. If there is a glitch, engineers will be on the problem immediately working to resolve it, with no cost in money or aggrevation to you.

One disadvantage of these carts is that if the company ever goes out of business, you may be left without the use of a cart until you can switch to another one. Also if a cart goes out of business, they could take your customer database, order database and other important files unless the "Backup" selection is yes. In that case you can keep those databases on your computer as a backup.

Software Carts

Software usually require you to purchase the software, then install it on your own system. Some may do the installion for you. This normally takes a good bit more time and effort than the service carts to get up and running. Some of the vendors will let you install the cart on their own hosting system for a monthly fee, so you end up with what is essentially a cart service, yet have to pay for the software too.

If you install the cart on your own system, then you will have to purchase a Certificate at $125 a year or more to be able to make it secure. Don't forget this cost, it alone may be more than the yearly cost of using a cart service with low volume stores. Also the system you install it on must be able to run cgi scripts, and you may need an interpretor, such as Perl installed on the system.

On the other hand, if you know the language the cart is written in or have an engineer who does, then you can make a software cart do anything you want without limitation. Plus once you have paid the fee for the software, there should be no further monthly payments to be paid.

Once a cart is installed and running it should continue to do so without any additional effort. However this sometimes does not turn out to be the case. The updating of Perl or the server software, a change in the ip, or a change in how the UPS or USPS server handles rate requests can make a cart immediately unservicable. If your tech support has run out, you may find it difficult or impossible to fix unless the cart is provided in the form of source code, and you have the technical expertise to fix it.

Technical support tends to be limited on these for a few months or a year, and if you find a bug after this time, it may be diffficult if not impossible to get the cart fixed. Upgrades to the cart at a later date may require you pay additional fees to acquire, and will almost certainly require you to reinstall the new software.

How to do a Comparison

Along the top of each cart type under the heading, you will find input fields for most of the features. Initially each feature is assigned a 2, for fairly important. Review what each field means, and determine what is important to your application. Then enter the appropriate numbers in these fields, and click on 'Submit' to get an evaluation of each cart using your criteria.

The criteria are:

0 - Not important to me at all
1 - Nice to have but not too important
2 - Would like to have
3 - Really want if possible
4 - Absolute must, cannnot do without

Note that if you have a '4' on an item, any cart that does not support it will score a '0' no matter how well it matches the other criteria. Once you have narrowed down the carts that best meet the criteria, then check the pricing, shippers supported, additional features, and other columns which do not have an input for your wants to make a final decision.

Order of carts is not significant, simply alphabetical order. A star '*' beside the criteria input indicates that a 'no' is the desired entry for matching the criteria instead of a 'yes'. If by chance you want the opposite of what is indicated as a match for a criteria, then entering a negative number will compute for the opposite as a match. Remember until you enter the level of need for each criteria, the results of a computation will be meaningless for your application. Make no assumptions using the default values of 2.

Service Type

nameurlset-up costMonth CostTrans CostEver FreeWhen FreeTrial PeriodInstall TimeAdd item TimeHTML requiredHTML OKftp or telnet req.Browser AdminBrowser UploadSupportSupport via emailSupport via PhoneSupport via 800Support via 900Support HoursNeed CookiesCookie OKIP trackingItem LimitCertificate NeededForced advertisingGateways SupportedImagesThumbnailsCurrency Exchange LookupCurrency Exchange conversionDealer EntryPassword ProtectPrice BreaksMax number of BreaksOptionsEmail order to CustEmail order to ClientEmail error to ClientLog OrdersLog ErrorsCODCOD SurchargeOpen AccountRestrict Open AccountOffline CCEncrypt CCSearchingCust. IDsCouponsPO Numbcompany namecommentsBill & Ship AddState TaxMultiple State Taxship before taxship after taxflatrateweighttotal costNum of itemsActual ShippingWhich ShippersCompute ship plus handing + insuranceInternationalCountry SelectionLegit Ship ChoicesSelect ShippersRefuse illegit choicesDisplay RestrictDownload & Access OrdersBackupimages hostedSecure ConnectAddl Features
Criteria       *  *****    
AAcart http://aacart.com 0 19 0 no N/A 30 day 3 1 no yes no yes yes Free yes yes no no 10-5PT no yes no no no no yes yes no no no yes yes yes N/A yes yes yes yes yes yes no N/A yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes no yes yes no yes yes UPS yes yes yes yes yes yes no no yes host yes
BIZyCart http://www.bizynet.com/BIZyCart/Tour-Index.htm 0 $25.00 0 yes If site hosted on BIZynet no Time to create web pages 1 minute each yes yes no yes none required 24/7 yes yes no no 24-Hour no yes yes no no no All and Any yes yes no no yes yes yes Percent, Price, or Quantity yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes & Gift Certificates yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes no yes yes UPS, USPS, FedEx yes yes yes yes yes yes not Yet yes yes Either yes 30 replacement tags which may be used to create template pages
with information from the data base and four different templating modes.
Four to six web pages will display a catalog of thousands of items
with no obvious change to another location.
King Cart http://www.king-cart.com 0 0 .10 to .25 no With merchant account & gateway 30 day 10 1 no yes no yes yes unlimited yes yes no no 10-6 pm Eastern time no yes no no no no anacom ePN itransact verisign authorizenet linkpoint SecurePay PayPal WorldPay TransactionCentral & More yes yes yes yes yes yes yes unlimited yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes & gift certificates yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes UPS, FedEx, USPS yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes either yes Inventory Tracking
Discounting
Affiliate program interface
Software and image sales supported UPS, USPS, Fedex, DHL real time rates PCI compliant Gift Certificates and coupons
WebMerchant (tm) http://ccedwards.com 0 9.95 mo 0 yes With hosting no 10 1 no yes yes yes yes unlimited yes yes no no 9-5 M-F PST no no yes 25 no no Authrozenet LinkPoint QuickCommerce yes yes no no yes yes yes unlimited yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes no yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes no yes yes no N/A no yes yes no yes yes no yes yes host yes
MonsterCommerce http://www.monstercommerce.com 194.90 (includes first & last month rent) 79.95 for basic package NONE NO 30 Day money back guarantee 1 day 1 min/product no yes no yes yes unlimited yes yes yes no 9am-9pm PST no no yes 75,000 no no authorize.net, Card Service International Linkpoint, Verisign, WorldPay, Bank of America yes yes yes no yes yes yes unlimited yes yes yes no yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes UPS, FED EX, DHL, USPS yes (no insurance yet) yes no no yes no no yes yes host yes You have covered most.... e-file delivery
WebGenie Professional http://www.webgenie.com/Software/Shopcart/ 150 14.95 0 no N/A 30 day 3 5 yes yes yes no no 30 days yes yes no no 9-5 PT GMT+9 30 yes no yes no yes no WorldPay iTransact yes yes no no no no no N/A yes yes yes no yes no yes no yes no yes no no no no yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes UPS no yes yes yes yes no no no no either yes some options availaible with customization Australia
GoECart http://www.goecart.com $124.95 $79.95 No Yes Initial Trial Period 30 days 10 minutes We have a import facility which can add products in minutes No Yes No Yes Yes Depends on the type of support Yes Yes Yes No 24/7 support Yes No No No, one can upload unlimited products No, the SSL certificate is already integrated. No Paypal, Authorize.net, Bank of America, Tricash, Link Point, E-Pay, First National, Protx Yes Yes Yes Yes - Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes UPS, FedEX, DHL, USPS, Canada Post Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Affiliate Program Manager
Quickbooks Integration,
UPS Approved Product Provider
Marketing & Promotion Tools

Software type

nameurlset-up costMonth CostTrans CostEver FreeWhen FreeTrial PeriodInstall TimeAdd item TimeHTML requiredHTML OKftp or telnet req.Browser AdminBrowser UploadSupportSupport via emailSupport via PhoneSupport via 800Support via 900Support HoursNeed CookiesCookie OKIP trackingItem LimitCertificate NeededForced advertisingGateways SupportedImagesThumbnailsCurrency Exchange LookupCurrency Exchange conversionDealer EntryPassword ProtectPrice BreaksMax number of BreaksOptionsEmail order to CustEmail order to ClientEmail error to ClientLog OrdersLog ErrorsCODCOD SurchargeOpen AccountRestrict Open AccountOffline CCEncrypt CCSearchingCust. IDsCouponsPO Numbcompany namecommentsBill & Ship AddState TaxMultiple State Taxship before taxship after taxflatrateweighttotal costNum of itemsActual ShippingWhich ShippersCompute ship plus handing + insuranceInternationalCountry SelectionLegit Ship ChoicesSelect ShippersRefuse illegit choicesDisplay RestrictDownload & Access OrdersOperating SystemsLanguageSourceMulticompatibleAddl Features
Criteria       *  *****    
Actinic Business http://actinic.webyourbusiness.com $1195 $0 $0 no n/a 30 days 10 minutes 1 no yes no no no Unlimited EMail yes yes yes no 9-5 EST yes yes no no no no Many yes yes yes no yes yes yes Unlimited yes yes yes no yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes no yes yes yes yes yes yes yes no yes yes yes yes no n/a yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes PC & Windows C++ no yes Many of the features can be coded in
print invoices, shipping notes, order summaries
supports affiliates, has "remember me" feature
Actinic Catalog http://actinic.webyourbusiness.com $499 $0 $0 no n/a 30 days 10 minutes 1 no yes no no no Unlimited EMail yes yes yes no 9-5 EST yes yes no no no no Many yes yes yes no no yes yes Unlimited yes yes yes no yes - Securely yes yes yes yes no yes yes yes no no yes yes yes yes yes yes yes no yes yes yes yes no n/a yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes PC & Windows C++ no yes Many of the features can be coded in
print invoices, shipping notes, order summaries
supports affiliates, has "remember me" feature
ChargeCart SellCart NationCart StoreCart StoreClerk PayPalPartner http://www.chargecart.net
http://www.sellcart.com
http://nationcart.com
http://storecart.net
http://www.storeclerk.net
http://www.paypalpartner.com 		199 0 0 no N/A no install includ. 2 no yes no yes yes unknown yes yes no no 12 pm-12 am E yes yes no no no? no Authorizenet Plug-n-Pay iTransact Verisign SkipJack PayPal yes yes no no no yes no N/A yes yes yes no yes yes yes no no no no N/A yes yes no no yes no yes yes no yes yes yes yes yes no yes UPS no yes no yes yes yes no yes Windows UNIX Perl yes yes Many features can be added on request
Dansie Shopping Cart http://www.dansie.net 150 0 0 no N/A no 10 minutes 10 yes yes yes no no unknown yes no no no 24/7 no yes yes no not secure yes 20 different ones yes yes no no yes no no N/A yes yes yes no yes no yes yes no N/A yes yes yes yes yes no yes yes yes yes yes yes no yes yes yes yes no N/A no no yes no yes no no yes Unix Windows NT Perl no yes
DreamCart Standard http://www.dreamcost.com 299 0 0 no N/A no 30 1 no yes yes yes yes 1 year yes yes yes no 9-5 EST no no no no yes no authorizenet verisign yes yes no no yes yes no N/A yes yes yes no yes yes no N/A no N/A yes yes yes yes no no yes no yes yes yes yes no yes yes yes yes yes FedEx UPS USPS DHL Airborne Express Airnet BAX Emery no yes yes no yes no no yes UNIX WINDOWS PHP yes yes Creates Shipping labels
Supports Dropshippers
Supports Affiliate
Includes Customer Service Feature
EasyCart http://www.easycart.com 399 0 0 no N/A 15 day 5 5 no yes no yes yes unlimited yes yes yes no 9AM 7PM E. yes yes no no no no many yes yes no no yes no yes unlimited yes yes yes no yes no yes no yes no yes no yes yes no yes yes yes yes yes yes yes no yes yes no no yes UPS FedEx no no no no yes no no yes N/A N/A N/A N/A many of the above options can be custom programed for a small fee
MonsterCart http://www.1-shoppingcartsoftware.com 1895 79.95 0 no N/A no 300 3 no yes no yes yes unlimited yes yes yes no 9-7 PT no no no 20000 yes no Authorizenet BankAmerica TriCash PayPal Wells Fargo yes yes yes no no yes yes unlimited yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes no yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes no no N/A no yes yes no yes no yes yes Windows 2000 Archieve Server Pages no no Dealer Entry with purchase of 2nd cart Certificate not needed if they host
NooodleKart http://www.nooodle.com $99/$185 0 0 yes special offers for webmasters & hosting companies no 5 minutes, installation included 1 yes yes yes for installation, no for maintnance yes no 90-day phone, unlimited email yes yes no no 9-5 CST yes yes no no no no Authorize.net, PayPal, & Payments through Postal Mail yes yes no no no yes no n/a no yes yes no yes yes yes no no no no n/a no yes no no yes no yes yes yes yes no yes no yes no no n/a no no no no no no no yes Unix Perl no no This shopping cart displays the contents of a customer's cart on EVERY page, so there's no clicking to a second page to view your cart's contents. The shopping cart also includes Email List Management & Sending Software. Other features can be added on request. Admin interface has order managing, tracking, searching.
QuickStore http://www.quickstore.com 199 0 0 no N/A no 15 1 no yes no ftp built in no yes 30 day free support yes yes no no 10am-6pm EST M-F no no yes no yes (unless we host) no Authnet NetBill LinkPoint ATS Verisign iTrans ECX EZIC SkipJack WorldPay PsiGate PayPal yes yes yes euro only yes no no yes unlimited yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes no N/A yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes UPS yes yes yes yes yes no no yes Unix Perl yes yes Menu Driven, Installation Wizard
Templates Batch Decryption
automtic updates
ShopFactory Light http://www.3d3.com 179.00 0 0 no N/A 30 day 5 1 no yes yes no no unlimited yes no no no 9 yes yes no 1 dept. 50 items yes no over 50 no no yes yes no no yes unlimited yes no no no no no yes yes yes no yes yes yes no no yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes UPS no yes yes yes N/A yes no N/A Windows 95/98/2K/NT C++ no yes Will host cart Dealer entry via 2 carts
ShopFactory Professional http://www.3d3.com 299.00 0 0 no N/A 30 day 5 1 no yes yes no no unlimited yes no no no 9 yes yes no no yes no over 50 no no yes yes no no yes unlimited yes no no no no no yes yes yes no yes yes yes no no yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes UPS no yes yes yes N/A yes no N/A Windows 95/98/2K/NT C++ no yes Will host cart Dealer entry via 2 carts
ShopFactory Developer http://www.3d3.com 699.00 0 0 no N/A 30 day 5 1 no yes yes no no unlimited yes no no no 9 yes yes no 1 dept. 50 items yes no over 50 no no yes yes no no yes unlimited yes no no no no no yes yes yes no yes yes yes no no yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes UPS no yes yes yes N/A yes no N/A Windows 95/98/2K/NT C++ no yes Will host cart Dealer entry via 2 carts
WebGenie Professional http://www.webgenie.com/Software/Shopcart/ 495 0 0 no N/A 30 day 3 5 yes yes yes no no 30 days yes yes no no 9-5 PT GMT+9 30 yes no yes no yes no WorldPay iTransact yes yes no no no no no N/A yes yes yes no yes no yes no yes no yes no no no no yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes UPS no yes yes yes yes no no no Windows 95-2000,NT C++ Perl yes cgi part only some options availaible with customization Australia
PDG Shopping Cart 2002 www.pdgsoft.com/cart.htm $399.00 license purchase 0 0 Requires initial license purchase. No additional fees. yes, 30 day (includes free installation) 10-15 1-2 preferably (plug-ins available for FrontPage, DreamWeaver, and NetObjects users) yes (template driven- HTML templates are fully customizable) yes, FTP for setup yes adding products, options, etc.- yes installation of product-no (unless host offers browser based uploading) lifetime minor version upgrades, lifetime access to PDG Support Forum, 90 days personal assistance, per incident and support contracts available after 90 days yes yes no no Monday-Thursday 9 yes yes (all basket info retained when the user returns to the site) includes IP for security purposes no yes no AuthorizeNet, VeriSign PayFlow Pro, LinkPoint API, SurePay, ECX Quick Commerce, PSIGate, PlanetPayment, CyberCash, EFTSecure yes yes yes yes yes no yes unlimited yes yes yes yes- for payment errors (e.g. declined sales resulting from improper input during checkout) yes no yes yes yes no yes yes- using GPG from www.gnupg.org yes no yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes UPS, USPS yes yes yes yes yes yes- via UPS and USPS implementation no yes Windows NT/2000, Linux (libc5 and glib2), Solaris (Sun and Intel), BSDi, FreeBSD, IRIX, Digital UNIX (tru64), Cobalt mips C may modify operation via administration, however source code is not provided no cost, however user must obtain new executables Easily translated into virtually any language, multiple discounting options, frequent shopping points (e.g. frequent flier miles), affiliate tracking, exportable orders logs (for accounting/spreadsheet/database applications), softgoods (e.g. distribution of downloads upon completion of purchase), works within "shared" secure environment, frames compatible
phpMyCart http://phpmycart.com $39 0 0 no n/a no 10 minutes 1 no yes ftp yes yes unlimited yes no no no business time yes yes yes no no yes PayPal, etc yes yes yes yes no no no n/a yes yes yes yes yes no yes yes no no yes yes yes yes no no yes yes yes no no no no no yes yes yes yes Canada Post yes yes no no no no no yes Unix, Linux, Windows PHP for additional price yes Many features can be added on request.
StoreFront® http://www.storefront.net Varies None None No No Varies Varies No Yes No Yes Yes 30 Days Free Yes Yes Yes No 24 X 7 No Yes No No No Most Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Unlimited Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes USPS, UPS, FedEx, Canada Post Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Windows .NET Yes No StoreFront allows unlimited customization of functionality along with integration into back office systems including Great Plains, Navision, Retail Pro, QuickBooks, MAS 90/200/500 and more.
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Shopping Cart Comparison Guide

Each column represents a cost, feature or limitation of each cart. Below we will discuss each in detail so you can determine which are important and which are not for your application.

Name:

The name of the shopping cart.

URL

The main url for the cart. Click here to go to the entrance page of the cart.

Set Up Cost

This is the cost to purchase the cart if a software cart, and the cost to set it up if it is a service cart.

Monthly Cost

This is the monthly fee for a service cart. For a software cart is is an optional lease price in place of a purchase price.

Transaction Cost

This is the the fee per transaction. If there are two fees then the fee is dependent on volume.

Ever Free

This determines if you can get the cart for free. It may be with a hosting fee, or if you sign up for a gateway and/or a merchant account via the cart vendor. Note that signing up for a merchant account is often free, so it might be worth while to obtain another merchant account through the cart vendor if offered.

When Free

If the cart is offered free, what is the offer.

Trial Period

If a trial period if offered. This is very important, since there is know way to no if the cart may have a limitation which precludes you from using it. If there is no trail period, you may be out the purchase price and have to go with another cart.

Install Time

The time it takes to install on the host system. Generally it is very short for service carts, since the software for the carts is already installed and just needs a bit of configuration. Install times are longer generally for software carts, but in some cases the cart vendor installs it, so it is not important. It is quite likely if you are installing a software cart and do not know cgi, you will have to hire a consultant to do the installation.

Add Item Time

This is the time it takes to add an item to your cart. Can become significant if you are putting in lots of items.

HTML Required

If you do not know HTML this is something you need to watch since you will have to use HTML to set up or maintain the cart.

HTML ok

If not required, then this means that you can fancy up your cart's pages with HTML if you know it. However you don't have to, it is just an option.

FTP or Telnet Required

You may be required to set up the cart or maintain it via telnet or ftp. These tend to be more difficult to set up and maintain than those that allow maintenance via a web browser alone.

Browser Admin

Can you do all maintenance from a web browser? Important for easy, fast and convenient maintenance of your cart.

Browser Upload

Does the cart allow you to upload finished pages and/or images. Browser uploads are easier than ftp uploads, and the cart should automatically change to the proper name, put in the proper place, and set the proper ownership and permissions, saving you the hassle of doing it via ftp.

Support

The support terms, i.e. the length of time you get free support after purchase or signing up.

Support Via Email

Is tech support available via email. This is the most basic of supports and should always be yes.

Support Via Phone

The next level of support, voice. Can be very helpful when confronting a difficult or confounding problem.

Support Via 800

This is the highest support, via toll free number. Note it may be an 877 or other toll free number.

Support Via 890

This is probably the least desirable method of support, normally charges can run $20 per call or several dollars per minute.

Support Hours

These are the hours of support to expect for phone support. Often times email support will be available beyond these times.

Need Cookies

This is a negative. Many users mistakenly think that cookies somehow invade their privacy and turn them off. There are reports that as many as 20% of the users may do this. If the cart requires cookies and the user has them turned off, you will lost the order.

Cookie OK

This is a positive. It indicates that if the customer leave the cart completely (i.e. his browser crashes), and returns he will not lose the information he has already entered, and will still have his shopping cart if he has not disabled cookies.

IP Tracking

This is another method of tracking a customer. Once again it is somewhat of a negative as it can result in possible problems. Many customers are on Proxy servers, such as aol. Their ip can change from access to access. If the cart uses the entire ip for tracking, then they could lose their cart and other information in the middle of ordering. This can be gotten around by only using the first part of the ip. However that presents a different problem, in that case multiple customers on the same isp can get confused with each other, causing them to get each other's carts, or even worse maybe their credit card and other confidential information. The likelihood of this happening is rather slim though.

Item Limit

The maximum number of items you can put in the store. Verify that this number is higher than you will ever need.

Certificate Needed

For the most part a certificate will not be needed when using a cart service but will be needed when running a software cart on your own host. Those which indicate that a certificate is NOT needed for a software cart are almost for certain assuming you will host on their system, or they do not support secure access. Check with the vendor to make sure before committing.

Forces Advertising

Virtually call carts will put a link in for the cart as advertising from themselves. The question is whether or not you can remove this advertising. Also a free cart may throw banners for other sites, even your competitors, in place of a fee. If you plan on using one of these carts you will have to weigh whether or not it is worth the loss in professional look or customers for whatever other advantages the cart may offer.

Gateways Supported

This may or may not be important to you. If you are going to process offline, you will not need a gateway. If you already have a gateway, you may want the cart to support it. Many carts will add a gateway if you request it, so if you want a cart that is missing your gateway, ask if they will put it on. If you have no gateway, you may want to use a cart that supports several gateways so you can have more options for signing up for a gateway, or if a particular gateway does not function to your satisfaction.

This point was driven home recently when Anacom went belly up. All the merchants were left high and dry, and only those that had a cart that could quickly be switched over to offline, then to a new gateway avoided significant losses.

Images

This is pretty well a must. To sell an item usually requires showing, thus images are very important.

Thumbnails

This is a nice feature that most carts have. It allows you to set up your cart so that the customer can click on a small image on the products page, and a larger image will then be shown.

Currency Exchange Lookup

If you plan to ship internationally this is very important. Without it your overseas customers will not know how to convert the dollars shown in your cart to their currency. Without displaying the conversion rate, they can also be wary that you may take them on the conversion, and thus lose orders. Check with the cart vendor if this is important on how up-to-date the conversion table is.

Currency Exchange Conversion

This is a step beyond the lookup. All prices will be displayed in the customer's own currency, a feature your international customers will appreciate. Once again, if it is too difficult for a customer to figure out what it will cost him, you could lose a sale, so this is important if you are doing any international business.

Dealer Entry

If you plan to sell to dealers, you will want to offer them lower prices than the general public. Thus you will want a cart that supports dealer entry. Most carts support dealer entry, although some require you to purchase a second copy of their software.

Password Protect

You may not be selling to the general public, and password protecting your store may be just the ticket you need. For the most part you will want to password protect the Dealer entry as well if you have a dealer entry.

Price Breaks

If you want to offer lower prices on a product if multiple units are sold then you will have to get a cart that supports price breaks. Some carts offer discounts, but this lacks the flexibility to set different prices and breaks on each product.

Max Number of Breaks

If you will be offering quantity pricing on various items, make sure that the cart will support as many breaks as you want.

Options

Options are additional selections that go with a product. IE, you may have free options, such as size and color, or additional cost options such as gift wrapping or adding a birthday card. If you will have options with any of your products this is a must.

Email or log to Customer and Client

These are pretty well self explanatory, they tell how orders and errors can be handled. The owner of the store is the client.

COD

If you ever plan on shipping COD this is a must.

COD Surcharge

You will pay about $4.50 additional shipping for a COD order, and you will incur some losses due to people refusing the shipment. To cover this you will likely want to add $6 or $7 dollar surcharge to COD orders. Thus it is essential that the cart support this option if you will ship COD.

Open Account

If you have dealers you will likely want to offer them open account purchases. Make sure your choice includes this if you need it.

Restrict Open Account

Most stores that have dealer entry and open account ordering restrict the open account to dealers. You may also want to restrict the open account status only to specific dealers with good credit. Check with your cart supplier to make sure you can do this if important.

Offline Credit Cart

You can take credit card orders without a gateway if your cart offers this. You will get the purchase information, and have to enter the charge by hand via a Tranz terminal or other method.

Encrypt Credit Cart

Credit card data is confidential. There are normally two methods that allow you to access the card information, yet keep the card number as a whole secure. The basic method is to send part of the card number in an email, and put the other part in the log file. This is somewhat clumsy for the merchant to obtain and splice the card information back together again. A more elegent method encrypts the card information before sending it to the client in an email. Encryption is normally done using PGP.

Searching

You will want your cart capable of searching for products for your customers. Virtually all carts offer this feature.

Customer IDs

If you have repeat customers, they will appreciate a cart that will allow them to enter an id and it will retrieve all their information, such as name, address and so forth. All things being equal, most people will go to a store that knows who they are than one where they have to enter the same information every time they order.

Coupons

You may want to offer your customers something special, a prize, discount or whatever if they are responding to a specific advertisement. The cart needs to support coupons if you want to do this.

Purchase Order Number

If you receive orders from a company you will have to accept purchase order numbers for the company to accept the shipment, or to get paid if open account. Thus this is absolutely essential for some stores.

Company Name

Most carts allow this, but if you are shipping to companies, once again essential.

Comments

This one can save you a lot of headaches. Often a customer will want to comment on his order. He may say if you are out of stock, cancel the order, or that you need to check recipent signature. Without the comment you might have to refund the order, or replace a stolen order.

Bill and Ship Address

Cart should support both a billing and a shipping address. Most if not all do.

Tax for One State

Your cart will almost certainly have to add taxes for at least one state. Virtually all carts offer this.

Multiple State Tax

If you live in a state that requires you to collect taxes for another state, or you have an office in another state, you will have to collect taxes for multiple states. Also if the Federal government moves from an Income tax to a VAT you will need to support multiple taxes as well.

Ship Before and After Tax

Most states allow you to figure sales tax on the cost before adding shipping charges, but some require computation on cost after shipping charges are added. If the cart doesn't do both then make sure the cart supports what your state requires.

Flatrate Weight Total Number of Items

This indicates what options you have on what to charge for shipping. Flatrate means you simply charge a certain amount on each order, independent on what is ordered or how much. Weight gives a little better approximation since you can charge on how much the shipment weighs. Some dealers like to charge on the total amount of the order, figuring they can inflate the shipping costs more on a large order than on a small one. You may want to increase the handling charge when more items are ordered as well.

Actual Shipping

This is the most important one, it means that the cart will contact and obtain the actual shipping charges from the shipping company, so there are no over or under charges for shipping.

Which Shippers

Which shippers can the cart acquire real time shipping cost from.

Compute Shipping plus handling plus insurance

This one pretty well ties the above shipping charge methods together. It means that you can work with all of the above to come up with whatever scheme you want for shipping and handling charges.

Which Shippers

Make sure the cart you select will support all the shippers you ship by.

International

If you want to ship international now or later this one is essential.

Country Section

You will likely want to exclude some countries from where you will ship due to legal or high levels of stolen shipments or fraud. This can save you the hassle of canceling and refunding an order from a country you do not wish to deal with.

Legit Ship Choices

This one is a hassle preventer. A cart should only give the customer choices of shipping that are proper. That is domestic shipping options should be absent from International orders and vice versa. For UPS Canadian Standard should be available for shipment to Canada and only Canada. This is important only if you don't mind spending time every day in email straighting out orders that cannot be shipped by the method the customer selected.

Select Shippers

Does the cart offer a host of shippers and shipping methods, and you can select which ones you want to offer. Pretty important but most carts support it.

Refuse Illegal Choices

This goes beyond making sure that the shipping method is legit, and will check for more subtle things like trying to ship UPS to a PO or APO Box, or ground shipping from or to Hawaii. Once again a hassle reducer.

Display Restrictions

Does the cart have the ability to display the restrictions, and prohibitions as well as the areas served for international orders going to that SPECIFIC country. Another hassle reducer.

Download and Access Orders

Can the cart handle orders for non-shippable items, such as downloads or access. A must if you are offering these types of things.

Backup

Can you backup and download the backup of your cart to your local system. This can be important if the host crashes their hard drive and their backup is old or unreadable. It can also be important if you want to discontinue your store, but may want to put it up again later.

Images Hosted

For service carts, where are the images located. You may want to put them on the host computer to save bandwidth elsewhere, or may want them elsewhere for easier access.

Secure Connection

All carts should offer a secure connection.

Additional Features

Any additional features the cart may offer that are not in the chart. Check this since some carts can offer features listed if requested or additional amount is paid.

Operating Systems

For software carts, which operating systems can the cart run on. Make sure you don't purchase a cart that will not run on your operating system.

Language

What language is the cart written in. If you know the language and you get the source code, it may make it easier to customize the cart or fix bugs.

Source

Do you get the source code of the cart so you can modify yourself.

MultiCompatible

Can the software be run on different operating systems if you should chose to move it to another host without obtaining or purchasing another copy.

Additions and Modifications

Do you have a cart and it is not listed here? If so fill in the form here and your cart will be added to the system. We reserve the right to review your cart at any time and if we find that it does not support the features you have indicated we may either remove or correct the entry. Some features can be interpreted differently by different vendors. We reserve the right to determine if a feature does or does not comply with our definitions. Your sole remedy if we are in disagreement is to have your entry removed if we are unable to reach a consensus.

Please print out these definitions before submiting an entry since the questions on the form are quite abbreviated and subject to misunderstanding.

If your cart is in our chart already, but an entry is incorrect, or a new feature has been added, please do not create another entry, it will duplicate your entry instead of updating it. Please email the webmaster instead.