If you do any online shopping, and many of us do, when you are ready to pay you will see a little shopping cart symbol that tells you it is time to start the payment process. But although the symbol makes it easy for us to know what's happening, the shopping cart icon hides a sophisticated process that you will need to understand if you are going to put online shopping facilities on your website. Here's what you need to know about shopping carts and a round up of some of the major players.
What Is A Shopping Cart And How Does It Work?
The shopping cart that you see is really a piece of software that runs a series of scripts to allow people to pay for goods and services. The shopping cart is only the start of the process, allowing people to add items and get a total, but when they are ready to buy, the shopping cart will pass them on to a secure payment gateway, which is where the money is actually collected.
In a speedy online process, the payment gateway takes the card details that you have entered, communicates with your card issuer or bank to verify that it's ok to take the funds, processes the payment and then returns you to the point specified by the retailer. So your shopping cart is both a front end and a back end for the payment process. This seamless experience is what you need to recreate for visitors to your site, but it's not as easy as it seems. There are hundreds of shopping cart packages out there and it can be difficult to decide which one is right for you.
Shopping Cart Compatibility
Shopping cart software comes in free and paid versions. Some shopping cart software has to be hosted on your own domain, while other programs are hosted by the providers. If you host the software on your own domain you have total control, but having the software hosted by a provider can help you test the waters if you're creating your first online store. However, you will have to pay a monthly fee which can be upwards of $80 and you may have to pay a set up fee as well.. Be warned, though, shopping cart providers can go out of business so be sure to make regular backups of all your customer and sales data. And there may be less opportunity to customize your shop than if you host it yourself.
Most web hosts offer a couple of free shopping cart programs, and you can be sure that those will be compatible with your hosting package. However, if you plan to purchase shopping cart software, then you need to be more careful. Shopping cart scripting can be in Perl, ASP, CGI, PHP, Javascript and other scripting languages so make sure the program you plan to buy is compatible with your web host. (PHP open source; ASP Microsoft integration)
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