eCommerce – Choose which Shopping Cart Software to use

12 thoughts on “eCommerce – Choose which Shopping Cart Software to use”

1. For a self-hosted solution, many users prefer WooCommerce. For a third-party hosted solution, there is also Shopify. You would have less control for the latter, but they would take care of the security concerns.

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2. Nice sharing!! I am reading your post and admire that you posted article which gives users useful information.

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3. I’m trying to figure out the best cart to download for digital and hard copy sales.

    

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   1. Hello Antoinette,

      The answer is not cut and dry. This is because almost all ecommerce programs can do as you ask, the difference will be in how easy you find the program to work with. This may take some trial and error to find the best one for you.

      Kindest Regards,
      Scott M

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   2. I’m trying to find a cart that will allow integration with Curbstone (payment software) with ease… I’m guessing there’s no such thing (at least not “with ease”), but thought I’d add a comment in case anyone can point me in the right direction?

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   3. Hello jbartlett,

      Thank you for contacting us today. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any compatible e-commerce cart. I looked at Curbstone’s website and seems like they actually sell compatible software solution. You may want to contact them and see what solutions they recommend.

      Most or all of the CMS’s listed above are easily compatible with PayPal, and Authorize.net, which are 2 of the most commonly used payment gateways. For ease of use, you may want to consider these alternate options.

      If you have any further questions, feel free to post them below.

      Thank you,
      John-Paul

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4. I wish there was a better comparison of the carts available.  For example what does things natively? and what does it do natively? Does one version have robust free themes where another the best themes are going to cost you 100’s.  Is one easier to modify than the other and what skill level do you need to be to work with the various platforms.

   I think this article is extremely basic — which is great.  However it is missing the concrete comparison so that any amateur who is trying to start an ecommerce site can make an informed decision.  

    

   The same way there is a comparison chart when you try to decide if you need an inmotion power package or a launch package it woudl be nice that existed here.  I find myself fustrated and left wanting.

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   1. Hello Mrs. Guzman,

      I apologize for the article missing more information. Meanwhile I can try to assist you in picking the perfect solution for you. What type of items do you want to sell? Are they digital or something you would have to ship? Do you want a software with many options or something pretty simple?

      Best Regards,
      TJ Edens

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5. Hi Jeff. I am looking for a PHP based shopping cart. Is Avactis shopping cart any good? Please guide.

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   1. Hello Mave,

      Thank you for your question. Unfortunately, I have never used Avactis for a shopping cart system. (I also asked around the office as well.)

      Looking at their site it seems to be a commercial/privately owned product. Most of the options listed above are free and open-sourced, which usually results in helpful forums, and many sources for addons, such as Themes/plugins.

      The most common shopping cart software I see is OpenCart, and PrestaShop, followed by VirtueMart.

      If you have any further questions, feel free to post them below.

      Thank you,
      John-Paul

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6. Choosing a cart mostly comes down to preference. Nearly all cart software can do what you are describing either natively or with an additional plugin.

   Personally, I highly recommend WooCommerce and have written a few articles on it here on the support center. I recommend that you simply try out multiple cart systems to see which one suits your needs the best and go from there.

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7. can you guys make a more detailed recommendation for IMH customers looking for a cart to install. i have a cart on a 3rd party proprietary and i will export the databases into the new cart i build on IMH. there are 2 basic points, answered, would help so many customers move to IMH and do it themselves. WordPress Woo Commerce is not on your list. i’ve emailed some girl at Woo Commerce and they do answer quickly, she says people don’t recommend Woo Commerce because they just don’t know how good it is. and isn’t OSC dead?

   1. I take money from customers
   2. I ship products to customers

   1a. my cart needs an Authorize.net, and a paypal (that’s all i can think of)
   2a. i need UPS shipping based on the weight and dimensions of product. my kayak paddles/oars get an oversize charge because their long. about 5% of my rafts are too heavy for UPS and must go motor freight. i don’t need a motor freight module just a way to bypass and say call for shipping est and not run the transaction. i only USPS to alaska and hawaii, seems it might be custom code for the cart to choose shipping method or force and address of AK or HI to be USPS.

   3. i don’t want anything to do with “custom code” being the solution unless it’s very simple to do every time there is a CMS update.
   4. i need to migrate my data to the new cart (many users won’t need to do this. even i might manually enter the data as long as everything else worked on the cart. but it doesn’t look very difficult to bypass paying Cart2Cart the $600 or more. it’s easy to export a cart to a CSV as long as the carts you suggest have the function to import CSV into the proper fields. on the carts suggested, how do we ensure every field from the old cart exists in the new cart, so everything lines up?

   i think if you can answer, even put a tutorial together on how to the above it would be most helpful and generate lots of new IMH customers.

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