Choosing the Best Ecommerce Shopping Cart
by Tiara Rea
A lot of customers at Lunarpages use ecommerce features to enhance their sites. Since we offer four different shopping cart software alternatives, many people wonder which one works best and what the major differences are between each. So, I’m here to help you choose the perfect shopping cart! :)
The Agora Shopping Cart features design integration for cascading style sheets/CSS, templates and HTML, PERL, and even JavaScript. You can also take charge of merchandising and inventory management by generating unique product pages, adding unlimited options for each product to vary by size, color, weight, etc, adding unlimited categories and sub-categories, and even classifying taxes, best selling items, and discount codes. This makes order processing and order management incredibly easy, since you can generate creative order confirmation emails, HTML order forms, and handle multiple payment processing gateways. With the ability to view order logs by date, year, status, etc, and support for various shipping arrangements, many customers prefer Agora to the competition. Of course, you also get it as a one-click installation through the Lunarpages cPanel. ;)
Since they’ve been in business for over 6 years, OsCommerce is one of the leading E-Commerce shopping systems in the world and probably the best known as well, serving over 12,000 storefronts and 150,000 webmasters. Their software runs on any operating system or machine, so it’s Windows and Linux-friendly and compatable with Macs too. There is a one-click installation for OsCommerce via Fantastico through the Lunarpages cPanel, and since it works on a template-based structure, integration into your website and everyday updating is simple. Like Agora, osCommerce supports unlimited categories, subcategories, products, and invoices, and also allows webmasters to add, remove, or edit any of the features easily. Their administration area is secured with sensitive login and from there you can create newsletters, backup your information, and send out packaging lists or invoices directly from the interface. OsCommerce also supports an address book, product reviews, shipping, and payment through multiple payment gateways like Authorize.Net and PayPal.
CubeCart is a professionally audited shopping cart system, which offers a variety of extras along with the most common shopping cart features. It is 100% template driven, where the HTML code you create can be completely separated from the PHP code that runs the application on the server. This makes CubeCart a favorite for webmasters who want ease of use and simple maintanence. There are various layouts to choose from, XHTML and CSS are fully-functional, it supports unlimited product images, has an HTML image gallery pop-up, enables currency support for a various countries, and includes email marketing tools, multiple tax classes, and various languages, such as German, Chinese, and Slovakian. Plus a one-click installation, because Lunarpages likes to make things that easy.
ZenCart’s motto of “the art of ecommerce” aptly suits them, as the software speaks for itself. Acclaimed for being newbie-friendly, many customers choose ZenCart as their option for its customization, XHTML and template systems, and of course its ease of use. Again, we offer a one-click installation through cPanel, so that makes it quicker than ever to get this fully-functional shopping cart up and running. Considered one of the most helpful systems around, ZenCart’s FAQs are one of the other many reasons customers flock to Zen. Among the other outstanding reasons to give them a try are no HTML knowledge necessary to add, delete, or edit product catalogues, security guarantee, the inclusion of an advanced template system for CSS, HTML, and image functionality, multiple pricing and payment options, product quantity limitations, one-time fee additions, sorting by any method, store layout is easily customizable, customer authorization keys, WYSIWYG page editor, and even advertising banners, which is one of their neatest features.
So Which Shopping Cart Works Best?
As always, the best way to find out which one will best suit your site and personal tates is to give each of them a shot! You can visit their websites and read up on their support, ease of use, and creative elements, because what works for one person doesn’t necessarily fit another. It’s ultimately up to you to do your homework to find out which works best for your customers and website.
November 23rd, 2007 at 12:23 pm
[...] offers a variety of shopping carts for you to choose from (see my last blog post about shopping carts), many of which are PHP-based. However, if you find a better open source or paid PHP-based shopping [...]
December 27th, 2007 at 10:05 am
Hi Tiara, thank you for the great reviews. Can you tell me what the differences (advantages/disadvantages) are between the solutions you reviewed and a more customizable solution such as http://ecommerce.objectwareinc.com ? Thank you once again.
December 27th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Hi Jillian,
Like I said above, it’s all about the features YOU need most. So I’d compare the features in the plans that automatically come with your LP account to the ones at objectware’s site. It looks like their solution may also be hosted on their own servers or you may need to install it on ours.
Advantage-wise, again, look at the features and compare. It seems like the link you provided may offer a bit more customization, but I can’t tell for sure.
The only main disadvantage I can see is that we wouldn’t have tutorials to help you with simple errors with this other software. Our staff also knows the shopping carts we provide better, so it’d be easier for them to troubleshoot if you can’t figure out the installation, etc. Any questions about the installation for that other cart would likely have to be done through their site.
You might want to shoot this company an email and ask a couple simple questions like “Is this software hosted with you or with my hosting company?” and “what requirements should my hosting company have in place in order to run this software?” I.E. if they run ASP.NET, you’ll have to be on a Windows machine, and if it requires root access you’ll need a VPS or Dedicated Server, etc.
I hope that helps! :) Good luck with whatever you end up choosing!
January 11th, 2008 at 2:41 am
We never found shopping so fascinating and enticing but three kudos to ecommerce solution that has made shopping available online saving so much of our precious time and energy. Added to this, this solution ensures dynamic, revenue-generating and database-driven content transactions.
February 7th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Thanks for all the great information!
February 28th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
I highly recommend BlingCart Shopping Cart Software. It is very easily customizable and comes with many unique features that makes it so easy to start your online ecommerce business.
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:58 pm
ZenCart is the winner, by a mile. I’ve been using them all and there simply is no contest in my mind.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Excellent article & comparison thanks! It’s posts like this that help people make smart choices when it comes to E-commerce.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
I’m disappointed you aren’t offering http://www.pinnaclecart.com. I moved away from OS due to the lack of support and the problems trying to do the day to day work. It was very hard to operate from someone that just wanted to get into the cart and go. Pinnacle Cart came along and saved me a ton of time and I make a lot more money now.
June 24th, 2008 at 4:14 am
X-Cart Pro is very easy in usage. The main privilege is that it allows to add multiple providers, sometimes, of course, additional modules are needed.
I have been working for long with osCommerce and can recommend it as it is open source and it is highly customizable. The code is very simple for understanding and logically structured.
July 11th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Very nice article. It gives a good explanation of some of the top carts. I do recommend adding other big ecommerce softwares such as http://www.3dcart.com, http://www.crowncart.com, http://www.volusion.com and http://www.pinnaclecart.com.
I will be adding this blog to my favorites. :)
July 31st, 2008 at 8:12 am
We found that osCommerce and C.R.E. had major limitations. We needed a CMS interface so clients could add, delete or update information on web pages and special features pages such, Free Giveaway, Gift with Purchase, Special Value with Purchase, and Item of the day work seemlessly with the CMS. So we ended up writing own shopping system.