So, should you just close your eyes and pick any shopping cart software and hope and pray it’ll be suitable?

If you want to fail, then yes!

Think about it… your online business will be powered by your chosen shopping carts software, choosing a lousy can seriously dent your growth. Saying that, you just need to focus on several important points when evaluating your next shopping cart.

1) Usability

You definitely don’t want to waste too much time figuring out how to make things work, make sure you choose one that lets you get started quickly without wading through tons of manuals. Almost all shopping carts have point and click interfaces and what may seem obvious to someone else may not be simple to you. So, this is definitely based on your personal preference. Test the top rated shopping cart providers and go with one that makes the most sense and easiest to use for you.

2) Hosting Speed, Stability & Scalability

People shopping online move at internet speed. So, it’s critical that your web pages load up fast and is up and running properly all the time. Make sure you choose a company that gives you at least 99.9% uptime guarantee. That translates to a maximum of 43 minutes total downtime per month. Make sure you ask your chosen provider how sustain your store’s growth when it gets more popular and busier. Do they have a dedicated server upgrade plan? What about if your store is too busy even for one dedicated server? How can they help you?

3) Search Engine Friendly Pages

Who doesn’t want free targeted visitors from the search engines. So, you absolutely have to make sure the shopping cart you choose builds search engine friendly pages that use static URLs. Don’t use ecommerce solutions that generate dynamic URLs with confusing question marks (?) in the URL of important pages. The best shopping carts software providers will also give you tools to help your store pages rank well for the search terms you’re targeting. So, those who do provide such tools are a bonus.

4) Marketing Tools

Yes, you can probably getting a cheaper ecommerce software and buying the marketing tools separately, the best shopping carts bundle marketing tools to help you get going and promoting your store and attracting customers. Since marketing your store is your most critical task after it has been completed, any bundled tools will get you started quickly and save you from any large initial investments.

I certainly hope this guide makes your carts shopping experience both easier and clearer with these 4 crucial points to look out for. At the end of the day, choosing your shopping carts software is just the first step to getting your online store started. So, don’t be intimidated and let the different offerings confuse you.

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