Online Shopping Carts – Which One Fits Your Needs?
3 Stars = It Rocks!
2 Stars = Not so bad!
1 Star = Hope they didn’t quit their day job!
Americart Shopping Cart Service
http://www.americart.com/
Freelance Weekly Rating: 2 Stars
About: Americart is a part of the Suresource, Inc. family of companies located in Shelton, Connecticut
Set Up: Registration begins with a free trial setup page where you will need to enter your Website URL and Title. You will choose a user name and password and enter your billing information (no credit card required for trial.)
Navigation: Configuration can be completed using your online browser or by editing one of their built in demo pages to your own product. They offer a variety of color schemes, and logos are available that can be customized to your liking. Cookies are used some; however your shopping cart will be FULLY functional with browsers that do not accept cookies. Online security and fraud protection is provided using Visa’s Cardholder Information Security Program and Scan Alerts HACKER SAFE certification. The site also offers order management solutions via Stone Edge Technologies, Atandra Systems, and Synqware that will help avoid losing customers due to an overwhelming number of orders. The built in order manager tool offers options that allow your data to be integrated with QuickBooks. The user interface is easy and simple to use. Some features include a shopping cart summary, quantity and price totals, related product suggestion and automatically generated order numbers.
Sharing: Search engine optimization and pay per click advertising is available for sharing your business and your direct marketing needs.
Customer Service: The site provides a regular and URGENT email address for technical support. Also available are basic and advanced cart setup overviews, FAQ’s, recommended troubleshooting steps and sample shopping carts.
Recommendation: There are many extras to Americart that would fill any business need. Support for any subject is available right on site and the demo pages allow for quick and easy setup.
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Virtual Cart
http://www.virtualcart.com/
Freelance Weekly Rating: 3 Stars
About: Virtual Cart is a complete E-commerce solution for your business
Set up: A step by step guide is provided for you by filling out their setup configuration form. You will need to know some html and some of the configuration information needed is a bit advanced for the average user.
Navigation: Virtual Cart is a quite powerful site that provides all types of different services including custom programming, site marketing and consulting services. The shopping cart feature is quite powerful and does more than some of the other sites. The site uses SSL encryption for security, has built in shipping rate calculators and tracking tools, supports credit card processing and calculates sales tax. “Hot products” can be sold with ease using the express order page, and graphic themes are fully customized to meet your needs. They offer a free 30 day trial period and 3 month subscriptions thereafter.
Sharing:
Since this site is a FULL e-commerce solution the sharing possibilities are endless. Full integration can be obtained with all the other services they offer.
Customer Service: Help is provided in multiple ways including setup guides, knowledge bases, demo stores, cart code builders and a fully functional payment center. They also provide service via email and phone.
Recommendations: For the advanced user this site is perfect! Features are phenomenal and plentiful, all services can be customized to meet your needs and the support is endless. However, if you are a beginner I would recommend that you not start your shopping cart needs here.
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CoolCart
Freelance Weekly Rating: 2 Stars
About: Coolcart is a verisign secure site that provides basic shopping cart services
Set up: The quick setup section provides a full code page that you can copy and paste right into your web page. There is also a wizard function that will walk you through setup and configuration. I love the ease of help, the GUI (graphical user interface) and the tutorials provided.
Navigation: As long as you have a gateway, all common forms of payment are accepted including Google Checkout, Amazon Payments, Paypal and LinkPoint. They offer shipping methods for the US and Canada. The software has basic inventory controls, coupon and special promotion features and discount tables complete with date ranges. Customization is offered via button styles, borders, fonts and images. They offer a 30 day trial and are quite affordable compared to other sites.
Sharing: Because this site does not offer other E-commerce solutions, sharing and merging information is limited to common formats such as Excel.
Customer Service: The help desk offers quick start tutorials, an html tag reference page (for hidden tags used by CoolCart), a searchable knowledgebase and email and phone support.
Recommendation: This site is great for the beginner! Its user interface is simple, the help files are visually easy to read and flow well with the eye. Although it does not offer as many features as some of the other sites I have seen, it is perfect for the basic user that needs a simple shopping cart.
Freelancing is my life. It's what I know, it's what I'm good at, and I can't imagine doing anything else. You can call me "Freddie the Freelancer"… because I'd prefer not to use my real name for reasons that I'll tell you about in a moment.
