Shopping Carts and Platform Tips

When it comes to choosing software for your e-commerce store, the possibilities can seem endless. There are a ton of factors to consider, including:

• Should you sell on a marketplace or an e-commerce platform — or both?
• Which features and tools do you need? Which can you safely pass up?
• Can your chosen technology support your current sales volume, as well as growth as your business scales?
• What’s your technology budget?

 

The e-commerce arena is rapidly evolving. Every new trend quickly becomes a basic necessity for all e-commerce startups. So it makes sense that online retailers have increasingly high expectations of their e-commerce solution providers.

Search engine optimization, good UX design and ability to customize still hold utmost importance, but trends like m-commerce (commercial transactions conducted electronically by mobile phone) and social commerce (the use of social networks in the context of e-commerce transactions) is hot on the radar of every e-commerce startup.

Shopify

Shopify is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms in the world, in part because of how simple it is to quickly launch a new store. This makes Shopify particularly popular with smaller e-commerce brands doing a lower order volume. Shopify is arguably the most popular e-commerce partner among online shop owners. As a matter of fact, if you are launching an online shop or a bricks-and-mortar retailer planning to sell your products online, Shopify’s simplicity and ease of use can serve you well. Currently, it hosts over 325,000 active online shops, and its platform continues to evolve to meet the growing requirements of online stores.

Here are some of its plus points:

• 100+ mobile-friendly store themes
• 1,500+ plugins and extensions
• Ability to sell your products directly on Facebook
• 24/7 live support via chat/call, tutorials, and a community forum

Here are some of its pain points:

• There’s a t­Transaction fee on sales if retailers don’t use Shopify Payment
• Not all extensions are free, so the overall cost will be higher than the standard price
• Customization requires knowledge of ‘Liquid’, Shopify’s native language

The pricing of Shopify ranges from $29-$299 per month. The bottom line is that for online stores with conventional requirements, Shopify is a great go-to e-commerce platform.

 

keywebco uses Shopify and we use Strikingly websites too, as a matter of fact, we make strikingly websites learn more at 

https://ift.tt/2ZTJxkb

 

CREATE CHECKOUT PROCESSES IN A FEW STEPS

One of the fundamental characteristics in the best shopping cart designs is the reduced number of steps to follow to finalize the purchase. What is the ideal number? Between 3 and 4. In fact, it is not advisable to reduce this number, as it would force to include in a few pages a large number of information, fields, and elements. An example to follow is Apple, which currently uses 4 steps in its checkout process.

The use of a step-by-step method makes the payment process easy to follow for the customer, who must provide the e-commerce with a series of essential data to complete the purchase:

• Log in with your user and password (or create an account, if this is the first time you make a purchase).
• Fill in the data relating to billing (which will be reduced to a simple confirmation if the customer has an account).
• Select one of the available payment methods.
• Confirm the purchase and complete the payment.

This summary helps us understand how much information consumers need to provide before making a purchase. It also shows why step-by-step checkout processes are the most used and efficient.

MAKE THE LINK TO THE SHOPPING CART PAGE VISIBLE

While the consumer is shopping, it is important to show him in a visible place (e.g. in the form of a shopping cart to the right of a menu with ‘position: fixed’). In this way, we offer two benefits to the user:

• Show you updated information about your shopping cart, such as the number of items included or the final price so far.
• Allow you to finish shopping at any time by clicking on the shopping cart icon.

USE CLEAR AND SIMPLE DESIGNS IN YOUR CHECKOUTS.

A lot has been written about the impact of design, color palette or typography on consumer purchasing decisions. According to the Color Marketing Group, 8 out of 10 consumers choose one product over another based on color. Design choice in checkout processes cannot be taken lightly.

In general, it is advisable to use clear and simple designs, which besides harmonizing with the e-commerce branding, accentuate the buttons and key checkout fields: H2 titles, CTAs, available payment options, etc. It is important to avoid designs that are confusing, messy and with too many elements. As it usually happens, when we talk about design, less means more.

Exact and bright thumbnail images

There’s nothing more annoying than a tiny ridiculous thumbnail that barely helps to identify a product.

When your customers review their product, give them the opportunity to see it properly in a convenient size and resolution.

Additionally, displaying a decent-sized image also helps mobile users have a better mobile experience.

Payment options that your users love

Having different payment options is a necessity in today’s ultra-competitive e-commerce environment.

Not only will this help you gain more conversions but it will also reassure visitors that are used to a particular payment solution.

In fact, it’s so important that Control estimates that 50% of regular shoppers would cancel their purchase if their favorite payment method wasn’t available.

If you run an international e-commerce store, bear in mind that payment methods differ from one country to another: what’s used in the US isn’t necessarily the same as in Europe or in Asia.

Lastly, try to redirect customers based on their IP location so as to offer them a personalized experience based on the currency they use and their favorite payment methods.

Calls to action on your e-commerce site must be 100% clear

You should never make the shopper confused. Never.

You must provide specific instructions, labels and guide the visitor to a clear call to action (CTA).

What’s obvious to you and your designer may not be so to less tech-savvy users.

CTAs, such as …

• Proceed
• Go
• Apply
• Back

… may not be too clear for many visitors. For instance, where do you actually go or proceed to? Forward? Back? To check out? What do you apply?

Be specific about what you expect your buyers to do next. Better options may be Go to Checkout or Continue Shopping, depending on what you want your shopper to do.

SaaS Shopping Cart

1. 1Shopping Cart – http://www.1shoppingcart.com/
2. 3DCart – http://www.3dcart.com
3. Americommerce – http://www.americommerce.com/
4. Bigcommerce – http://bigcommerce.com
5. CoreCommerce – https://www.corecommerce.com/
6. CS-Cart – http://www.cs-cart.com/
7. Ecwid.com – http://Ecwid.com
8. Fortune3 – http://www.fortune3.com/
9. FoxyCart – http://foxycart.com
10. Goodsie – http://goodsie.com/
11. Jumpseller – http://jumpseller.com/
12. LemonStand – http://LemonStand.com
13. Miva Merchant – http://www.mivamerchant.com/
14. Moltin – https://molt.in/#top
15. Neto – http://www.neto.com.au/
16. PinnacleCart – http://www.pinnaclecart.com/
17. PrestaShop – http://prestashop.com
18. Shopify – http://shopify.com
19. Shopio – http://www.shopio.com
20. ShopVisible – http://shopvisible.com
21. Squarespace – http://Squarespace.com
22. Supadupa.me – http://supadupa.me
23. Tictail – https://tictail.com/
24. UltraCart – http://ultracart.com
25. Volusion – http://volusion.com
26. Yahoo Store – https://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/ecommerce

Open Source Shopping Carts

1. BroadLeaf Commerce – http://www.broadleafcommerce.org/
2. Commercev3.com – http://Commercev3.com
3. Drupal Commerce – https://drupalcommerce.org/
4. Jadasite – http://www.jadasite.com/
5. Magento Community – http://magento.com 
6. NopCommerce – http://www.nopcommerce.com/
7. OpenCart – http://www.opencart.com
8. Shopizer – http://www.shopizer.com/
9. Softslate – http://www.softslate.com/
10. SpreeCommerce – http://spreecommerce.com
11. Sylius – http://sylius.com/
12. TomatoCart – http://tomatocart.com
13. Virtuemart – http://virtuemart.net/
14. X-Cart – http://www.x-cart.com/
15. ZenCart – http://ZenCart.com

Licensed Shopping Carts

1. ASP.net Storefront – https://www.aspdotnetstorefront.com/‎
2. CleverBridge – https://www.cleverbridge.com
3. K-eCommerce – http://www.k-ecommerce.com/
4. ProductCart – http://www.productcart.com
5. Znode Storefront – http://www.znode.com

Enterprise Level Shopping Cart

1. Demandware – http://www.demandware.com/
2. Ebay Enterprise – http://www.ebayenterprise.com/
3. Elastic Path – http://www.elasticpath.com/ecommerce-platform
4. Fry Inc. – http://www.fry.com/
5. Hybris – http://hybris.com
6. IBM WebSphere Commerce – http://ibm.com/software/products/en/websphere-commerce
7. Intershop – http://intershop.com
8. Kalio – http://www.kaliocommerce.com/
9. Magento Enterprise – http://magento.com 
10. Marketlive – http://www.marketlive.com
11. Mozu – http://www.mozu.com/
12. Netsuite SuiteCommerce – http://www.netsuite.com/portal/products/netsuite/ecommerce/products.shtml
13. Oracle ATG Web Commerce – http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/commerce/atg/
14. ShopVisible – http://shopvisible.com

Stand-Alone Checkout Systems

1. 2Checkout – http://2Checkout.com

Marketplace Shopping Cart

1. Storenvy – http://www.storenvy.com/
2. Wazala – https://www.wazala.com/
3. eCrater – http://www.ecrater.com/

WordPress Shopping Cart

1. Woocommerce – http://www.woothemes.com/woocommerce/

I hope you enjoyed this article and please comment and share.

 

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