Shopping Carts for Web sites and Blogs

I use and recommend KickStartCart, which is actually a complete ecommerce solution.

I use KickStartCart to send my enewsletters and ezines, maintain my databases of enewsletter subscribers and customers, allow people to sell my products and automatically get commissions (i.e. affiliate program), create coupons, special promotions, bulk discounts, and oh yes, I also use it as a basic shopping cart

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Download the free ebook, How to Pick a Shopping Cart System that Makes You Money

Shopping Carts that Help Sell
(Reprinted from Ted Demopoulos' book What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting)

"Would you like fries with that?" asks Tom Antion, referring to the ability of a shopping cart to suggest related products to someone ordering, perhaps with a package discount. "This is real power and something you absolutely want in a shopping cart system," says Tom, a well-known Internet marketing guru and professional speaker. After all, the buyer already has their credit card out and has decided to buy – this ability to "upsize" can add enormously to sales and profit.

An electronic shopping cart operates with a physical shopping cart metaphor. Shoppers add items to electronic shopping carts as they shop, and "checkout" when they are ready to pay, usually with a credit card. Items for sale from a blog are often on the sidebars and occasionally in posts themselves. Clicking on an item usually brings you another page that has more information on the product. It may even take you to a related website or electronic storefront.

There are literally thousands of shopping cart systems available for free or very inexpensive. "Basically, they just take the order like a cashier," says Tom. "They don't do anything to help you sell. Picking a shopping cart is a very serious decision you will likely have to live with for a long time."

It's also possible to have a shopping cart custom built. Tom strongly recommends against this approach. "You better be prepared for some frustration and delays making it all work. Believe me I know." Tom had his first shopping cart custom built as there weren't many commercial options available then, and "I'll never do it again," insists Tom. "It was a total nightmare!"

Tom recommends smart shopping cart systems that automate as much as possible, for example calculating shipping and taxes and capturing customer data like email addresses, as opposed to a simple cart." Smart shopping systems "will dramatically increase sales because they manage the entire shopping experience including upselling the customer, making and handling special offers," and much more says Tom.

According to Tom, some features to look for in looking for a shopping cart system include:

• Upsizing capability – as we discussed already

• Shipping and tax calculations – some carts do this better than others

• Soft and hard goods – the capability to sell both digital downloads, for example ebooks and audio files, as well as traditional "hard" merchandise

• Associate program capabilities – an associate program lets others promote your products via a link, and automatically calculates and tracks commissions when sales occur. "This basic premise made Amazon.com a billion dollar company," says Tom, and it's "like having an army of commissioned salespeople working for you."

• Coupons and discount capabilities – which can "mean a tremendous boost in sales"

• Email integration – a great shopping cart will send a confirmation email when a sale is completed, keep a database of email addresses and allow you to broadcast to whatever subset of customers you'd like, and much more.
  

For years Tom refused to recommend or endorse a specific shopping cart because none of them had all the functionality he required. Tom has a favorite cart he recommends – he likes it so much he has licensed it and rebranded it as Kickstartcart.

Whether you chose Kickstartcart or another shopping cart, remember that you'll probably live with your choice for a long time. You might not need some of the features Tom mentions above today, especially if you start out selling only one or two products, but features like upselling, coupon capability, and associate programs can mean substantial revenue in the long run.

Want  more information on shopping carts?

Download the free ebook, How to Pick a Shopping Cart System that Makes You Money