Best Ecommerce Shopping Cart Software is a turnkey solution for helping merchants to create an online store. It is one of the tools I would advise you to use in your online journey. You see, you can either create shopping cart software free or purchase it. Or do you want to know more about the best ecommerce shopping cart software?
If you are an ecommerce store owner, it’s no secret to you that the most important aspect of running a business is generating revenue. However, you may not be aware of the best ecommerce shopping cart software available to help your store generate revenue.
More and more businesses are starting to sell online. Chances are you know someone who has an online store. Ecommerce is a great way to boost your business because you can reach many people without having the hassle of shipping physical products. Plus, it gives you a lot more freedom and room for creativity compared to conventional shopping. Check this list for the best ecommerce shopping cart software that you can use for your website to increase sales.
There are numerous types of ecommerce shopping carts offered today. Each has its own unique selling point and caters to different types of businesses. However, they all come down to a choice between a hosted shopping cart and an open source shopping cart. If you’re wondering which one is right for you, read on!
How does a shopping cart software work?
This is a tool that allows website visitors to buy goods and services from a website using their credit cards and other online payment solutions such as PayPal. The tool processes the payment sending funds from your account to the vendor and the vendor delivers the goods or services that you have bought.
3dcart
Best for quick and versatile shopping cart creation.
It is a powerful shopping cart solution with more bundled features than you would find on any other competitor.
Features:
- Comes with a store and website designer.
- Bundled SEO package that allows you to optimize the site for better ranking on search engines.
- Supports mobile eCommerce, so customers can shop on the move.
- Supports various sales channels, from music websites to social media platform sales.
Cons: Complex platform that may take a few days to get familiar with.
Verdict: This is a versatile shopping cart solution that allows you to scale upwards depending on the size of your business.
Price: There are various shopping cart solutions with similar annual and monthly rates when using a promo code. The values change drastically without a promo code. The rates (with promo) vary from $9.50 to $114.50.
The rates without promo are shown in the table below:
Website: 3dcart
Shopify
Best for the creation of an online store, blog, and website on one platform.
This software allows you to sell your products or services anywhere in the online world. It supports a multitude of shopping channels.
Features:
- Has built-in tools that help you in your marketing efforts.
- A versatile dashboard that helps you view your performance, and make tweaks from one convenient place.
- Great tools to start an online shop within a few minutes.
- Mobile integration makes it easy for you to build, edit, and market your business.
Cons: Some primary functions that come bundled with other Shopify competitors require the purchase and installation of other apps.
Verdict: This is a great way to start an online shop, especially if you want to sell your products or services on social media channels.
Price: There are three solutions available; Basic Shopify for $29/Month, Shopify for $79/Month, and Advanced Shopify for $299/Month.
Website: Shopify
Magento
Best for building a B2C shopping interface with intelligent commerce features.
It is a popular shopping cart solution that allows you to fully customize and control the experience and look of your shopping cart.
Features:
- Various integrations help build powerful custom stores.
- Has a massive community that makes it easy for newbies to catch up.
- Fully customizable for a unique experience.
- The open-source tool allows the community to tweak the shopping cart.
Cons: It is a challenging shopping cart solution to use. It has no support for the free version and is quite expensive compared to the alternatives available.
Verdict: Magento is a tool that is geared towards huge and powerful stores. Those starting can also use the tool with minimum extensions and scale up as the business grows.
Price: A shown in the table below, Magento pricing is variable and will depend on the extensions that you need for your store. Prices range from $0 to $22,000 per year depending on your choice.
Website: Magento
Ecwid
Best for adding online store functionality to any existing web presence including social media sites like Facebook and Instagram.
It is a versatile shopping cart plugin that you can add to any site to sell products and services. It is ideal for those who want to sell on social media even without a sales website.
Features:
- Sell your products on any site, including Google, Instagram, and Facebook.
- Fast and easy mobile integration allows customers to shop quickly while on the move.
- Allows for easy marketing of goods and services on social media, which shortens the sales funnel.
Cons: It is quite a challenge when you want to grow your business, and this forces people to seek other solutions.
Verdict: Ecwid is a great tool for those who are familiar with social media marketing but cannot create an optimized website. Simply put your products and services on social media and allow people to buy from there.
Price: It has three different pricing options, Free Forever plan, Venture plan for $15/Month, Business plan for $35/Month, and an Unlimited plan for $99/Month.
Website: Ecwid
WooCommerce
Best for creating an online store on WordPress.
This is the best shopping cart solution when you want to build an online store using WordPress. It is as easily customizable as the parent platform.
Features:
- Easily installed into WordPress.
- Easily customizable to give customers the best shopping experience.
- Huge ecosystem of available extensions.
Cons: Some of the plugins offered are extremely expensive.
Verdict: If you want to build an online store using WordPress, then this is the best shopping cart software available to you. Although it is free, be prepared to spend some money on advanced extensions, and each hosting company will charge you a price to install it for you.
Price: The plugin is offered for free, so you may install it on your own. However, some fees apply for different WordPress hosts depending on the extensions that they add. When hosting on their official website, the ‘Getting Started” plan starts at $3.95 per month, the “Growing Stores” plan starts at $45 per month and the “Enterprise Stores” option starts at $499 per month.
Website: WooCommerce
BigCommerce
Best for creating an online store without any coding knowledge.
This is a great shopping cart solution that requires little coding knowledge and thus allowing you to concentrate on product and service development.
Features:
- Multichannel selling including social media platforms.
- Complete SEO control of Metadata, Keywords, etc.
- A huge library of themes for a stellar customer shopping experience.
Cons: Inconsistent speed, which may lead to a high rate of shopping cart abandonment.
Verdict: If you want an online shopping cart software that allows you to market easily, then BigCommerce is a great option. You can easily create coupons as an incentive for customers to buy your products or services.
Price: Standard plan for $29.95/Month, Plus plan for $79.95/Month, Pro plan for $249.95/Month, and a custom Enterprise plan with prices depending on the features you need.
Website: BigCommerce
Volusion
Best for building a no-frills online shop that is primarily targeted at making sales.
Volusion was developed as a powerful online shopping cart software, which can be hosted on various platforms and does not come with bells and whistles to distract customers.
Features:
- Great tool for creating a data-driven online sales platform.
- Responsive themes for better mobile shopping experiences.
- Front-end online shop creation for those who cannot code.
Cons: It is quite complicated when you want it to fit with your website design.
Verdict: This software solution for websites that require a secure shopping cart, but without any design customization options. Simply plug it into your website and start selling without bothering any design customization issues.
Price: Personal plan for $29/Month, Professional plan for $79/Month, Business plan for $299/Month, and a customized Prime plan based on your online sales volume.
Website: Volusion
XCart
Best for creating large and enterprise style online shops.
XCart is a shopping plan solution primarily targeted at large online businesses. It has a free plan for those who are starting.
Features:
- High-quality shopping cart system.
- A major support system, but at a premium price.
- Easy to build and customize into a website.
- The dashboard is easy to navigate for updating your store items and descriptions; management and reporting tools are easy to understand.
Cons: It is costly and challenging to set up especially for newbies.
Verdict: If you have a large brick-and-mortar shop and you want to migrate to an online store, then this is the best option for you. It is designed primarily to accommodate large stores.
Price: Free basic plan, Business plan for $495, Multivendor plan for $1,495, and an Ultimate plan for $5,995. All plans come with a lifetime license.
Website: XCart
Common Features to Look For In An eCommerce Platform
It can be a challenge to determine which features you’ll need from your eCommerce solution before you really begin selling. Every shopping cart comes with a different feature set, but they tend to be similar in the categories of features they offer.
Here are a few things you should look for as you seek out an eCommerce platform:
- Ease of Use: The world’s best software is useless if you don’t know how to use it. Sign up for free trials of each platform you’re considering and test it out to make sure the admin panel makes sense to you.
- Unlimited Products, Bandwidth, and Storage: Not every platform will offer unlimited everything, but it sure is nice to not have to worry about exceeding your plan’s limits.
- Complex Discount Features: Look for software that lets you create flat rate and percentage discounts. You should be able to apply those discounts to your whole store or a specific category or product. Also look for software that lets you place limits on the number of times customers can use your coupon.
- Email Marketing Features: Most platforms let you create and send emails from your admin panel. You’ll likely need to integrate with a CRM (Customer Relation Management) software like MailChimp or Constant Contact to create more complex email campaigns.
- Inventory Management Features: Nothing disappoints a customer more than out-of-stock products. Make sure your inventory stays up-to-date with built-in inventory management features. Set low stock notifications and set products to display an “Out of Stock” notification when they are unavailable.
- Shipping Options: Look for the ability to integrate your platform with shipping carriers (USPS, UPS, FedEx). This will allow you to automatically calculate real-time shipping rates.
- Tax Calculator: A built-in tax calculator helps you ensure that you’re collecting the correct sales tax rate from every customer.
- International Language and Currency Support: These features will allow you to sell across borders.
- Reporting Tools: Check for reporting tools related to your site’s traffic, conversion rates, order totals, overall sales, and more.
- SEO Tools: You should be able to add metadata to your products and pages. Look for the ability to write custom URLs and create a .xml sitemap as well.
Conclusion
Ecommerce shopping cart software is designed for businesses with physical and virtual stores, it offers numerous benefits such as inventory management and order tracking and management. Online marketers choose the best ecommerce shopping cart software free or the best ecommerce shopping cart software based on the requirements of their online store and business.
Every online store wants to create a unique shopping experience for its customers, starting from the website, products, and service catalogs or display, all the way to the shopping cart solution available. If you want to reduce shopping cart abandonment, you should make the process quick, effective, and pleasurable.