Shopping cart applications have one purpose: to make it easy for virtual customers to purchase products and services from your site.
In brick-and-mortar stores, shoppers use a cart to navigate the aisles, choose products, and take them to the checkout stand. The virtual shopping cart has the same core functionality, but it also takes the role of a catalog, by providing a means for users to browse your wares, and of a salesclerk, by allowing shoppers to pay for the products they want to purchase. More than that, shopping cart software provides inventory, order tracking, reporting, and marketing functionality. In other words, a good shopping cart solution will give you everything you need to create your virtual store.
The importance of choosing the right ecommerce solution cannot be overstated. The ultimate success of your online store may depend on this choice. With the right ecommerce web hosting solution and the right shopping cart, you have everything you need to succeed in online commerce. It is important to know what options you have and what the pros and cons are for each shopping cart. In this article, we explore the top shopping cart applications of the moment, with an emphasis on open source solutions. We discuss the strengths of each ecommerce hosting application and their most suitable uses.
osCommerce
osCommerce (“open source Commerce”), created in 2000, can be considered the original free shopping cart. A number of other open source solutions, including the popular Zen Cart, are actually forks of osCommerce. osCommerce is built on PHP and MySQL, so you will have no trouble finding ecommerce hosting solutions that support it.
osCommerce provides rather basic functionality out of the box, but the active osCommerce community provides numerous add-ons and contributions. This means that you will have to do a lot of work to extend and customize your online store. Another downside is the fact that osCommerce doesn’t have a graphic template system, so you’ll have to put some effort into modifying the appearance of your ecommerce host. Therefore, osCommerce is suitable for basic applications and for users who don’t mind spending time customizing the application.
CubeCart
CubeCart is another popular shopping cart that requires a PHP/MySQL ecommerce web host. According to the company that markets it, the application is used on more than a million websites. CubeCart is a proprietary solution, but the price is quite affordable at less than $250. Keep in mind that the basic version comes with a CubeCart logo on the front page, which you can disable for a fee.
CubeCart boasts an intuitive control panel, advanced sales reports, and built-in search engine optimization features. Also, you can customize your installation with the integrated code hooks, which is great news if you plan to scale or modify your ecommerce hosting installation in the future. You also get many payment processing gateways and shipping gateways that are readily integrated into your store, saving you time and money.
Zen Cart
The next application on our list is a shopping cart known for its accessibility and ease of use. Zen Cart is derived from osCommerce and includes most of its core functionality, plus many pre-installed add-ons that greatly extend its capabilities. However, you won’t be able to use extensions from osCommerce with a Zen Cart ecommerce web host because the two applications have distinct architectures.
Zen Cart can be installed easily, even by non-professionals, thanks to its smart setup system. Once you deploy it, you can use Zen Cart’s many built-in features such as product attributes, a templating system, and a coupon system. With other shopping carts, you may need to purchase or develop your own add-ons, but Zen Cart provides great capabilities in the base package. Used in conjunction with a good ecommerce web hosting plan, Zen Cart is recommended to beginners and professionals alike.
Magento
Magento is available in several paid editions and as a free “community” version that provides limited features and no support. The company that markets Magento recommends the community edition for experts and skilled enthusiasts who don’t mind spending time debugging and customizing the installation.
Magento is one of the most widely used ecommerce platforms for large online stores, servicing close to 10% of the top 10,000 online stores. However, Magento is equally suitable for smaller implementations. If you don’t have extensive requirements, you can create a rich online store with the community edition alone, saving thousands of dollars in the process. Note that some ecommerce website hosting providers offer free Magento services, including installation and updates, which may allow you to save additional time and money.
Ubercart
Ubercart differs from the other shopping carts presented in this article by being a module for the Drupal content management system, rather than a standalone ecommerce solution. For this reason, you will have to make sure that your ecommerce website hosting plan also provides full support for Drupal. Ubercart’s integration with a content management system provides many advantages over conventional shopping carts, such as tools to create a community around the online store and simple digital products (ebooks, music, etc.) distribution.
Ubercart delivers all the functionality required to run an online store, including a configurable catalog, a streamlined checkout process, integrated payment processors, and multiple order value calculation methods.
Choose from a wide variety of ecommerce platforms at Certified Hosting
Certified Hosting is a leader in ecommerce web hosting solutions, with thousands of satisfied customers from around the world relying on our services. We provide quality ecommerce web hosting plans at affordable prices, backed by a 99.99% uptime guarantee and a “No questions asked” anytime, money-back guarantee.
At Certified Hosting, you get best-in-class ecommerce server hosting, no matter if you work with osCommerce, CubeCart, Zen Cart, or another shopping cart solution. You also get free installation, free upgrades, and free templates for most of the popular ecommerce platforms, open source or proprietary. If you ever need assistance, our team of certified engineers is available around the clock to help you make the most out of your ecommerce hosting solution.
Learn more details about our ecommerce website hosting solutions or order your own ecommerce hosting plan by visiting certifiedhosting.com or calling 909-498-4415 today.