Best Shopping Cart Software in 2023

What Is Shopping Cart Software?

Shopping cart software allows customers on e-commerce websites to add items to the cart for an eventful purchase and enter delivery & payment details. It can also calculate shipping fees and other relevant taxes, so the customers would know the exact amount before paying.

It offers businesses several modules to create an impeccable customer experience combined with an embedded way to collect payment and crucial customer information to fulfill orders. This software is useful for companies who use e-commerce software with minimal features or plan to build their e-commerce platform from scratch. Moreover, it can be integrated with payment gateways and e-commerce websites.

Types of Shopping Cart Software

• Open-Source Shopping Cart Software:

  In an open-source shopping cart software, merchants can host their websites on their own or with the help of a platform provider.

  It is often available for free and provides a minimal level of checkout facility. To use any extra functionality or integration feature, users must buy a subscription from a third party or develop the system as per their needs.

  Although open-source shopping software can provide near-limitless functionalities, you have to spend more time on the technical aspects rather than the operational aspects of your business.

• SaaS-Based Shopping Cart Software:

  The vendor is responsible for the ownership, maintenance, and upgrades of SaaS-based shopping cart software. You only need to pay a monthly or annual fee to access its functions, features, security measures, and software updates.

  The ease of use and flexibility offered by SaaS shopping carts is on par with on-premises software, making it a preferred choice for most e-commerce brands.

What are the Key Features of Shopping Cart Software?

• Hassle-Free Interface: Shopping cart software offers an easy-to-use panel to add items, store them for purchase, and update information. The panel has a straightforward layout and presents relevant data in the form of logical folders & subfolders.
• Product Catalog Management: It allows visual communication with customers via product images, catalogs, animation, videos, and descriptions. Moreover, customers can zoom, save, or resize an image along with the search control options.
• Shopping Cart and Checkout: With this feature, you can ensure secure, efficient, and fast checkout for buyers. You can also synchronize it with other payment gateways, which means that buyers don't have to visit a third-party website to make a payment.
• Payment Gateway: Few software come with inbuilt payment gateways others need Integration with payment gateways to process transactions securely.
• Chat Support: You can use the chat support integration facility to provide adequate customer support and answer their questions. Along with customer satisfaction and competitive advantage, it boosts your conversion & sales rate as well.
• Reporting and analytics: Reporting on sales, revenue, cart drops and customer behavior to help businesses make data-driven decisions.
• Shipping and tax calculation: Ability to calculate shipping and tax charges based on the customer's location and the weight or volume of the order etc.

Who Uses Shopping Cart Software?

Shopping cart software can be used by any business that operates an online store and wants to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its e-commerce operations. Shopping cart software is vital for any e-commerce website. It bridges the gap between shopping and purchasing.

An online shopping cart stores and shows product details, accept customer orders/information and facilitates transactions. Shopping cart solutions also allow customers to place items, review their cart, make modifications, and purchase.

• Small Business: Retailers use online shopping cart software for small businesses to sell products online and manage their e-commerce operations.
• Wholesalers and distributors: Wholesale and distribution businesses can use shopping cart software to manage their product catalogs and sell products in bulk to other businesses.
• e-commerce Companies: Businesses that sell digital products, such as software, music, or e-books, can use e-commerce shopping cart software to manage their online sales and delivery process.
• Service-based businesses: Service-based businesses, such as service providers and consultants, can use shopping cart software to sell services online and manage customer appointments.
• Non-profit Organisations: Non-profits can use shopping cart software to sell merchandise, accept donations, and manage fundraising campaigns online.

In short, shopping cart software is much like the shopping cart used in grocery stores. However, shopping cart platforms perform more tasks because they are the grocery shelves, the store itself, the signs, the cashier, and the payment transaction machine.

What are the Benefits of Using Shopping Cart Software?

Using shopping cart software can bring several benefits to businesses. Here are some important advantages of using shopping cart software:

• Safe & Secure Shopping: Most companies use this software to provide a secure shopping experience to customers. It ensures the safe and seamless facilitation of payments. With this buyers don't have to worry about fraudulent transactions and their account details' privacy.
• Single Hub to Manage Customer Data: A website shopping cart software is not only used as a tool but also as an intelligent platform to collect product stats and customer preferences. It stores customers' payment details for faster transactions, and you can also gauge the buying trends and patterns for different periods.
• Improved Revenue and High Profitability: When you use shopping cart software, it drastically increases your conversion rate, which further improves income and profitability. Moreover, by using this platform, you allow your business to grow at a rapid pace and become more successful.
• Analytics and Reporting: Shopping cart platforms collect invaluable insights for the company; hence you don't have to rely on third-party platforms for data. Your platform can track your orders, depict older or current sales trends, and distinguish prospective purchases from prospective cart abandonment.
• Better customer experience: a user-friendly shopping cart and checkout process can improve the customer experience and increase conversion rates.
• Enhanced marketing and sales insights: Through reporting and analytics tools, businesses can gain valuable insights into customer behavior, sales trends, cart abandons and marketing effectiveness to inform business decisions.

How Much Does Shopping Cart Software Cost?

The cost of shopping cart software varies widely, depending on the vendor, the size and complexity of the software, and the level of customization and support you need. Some shopping cart software is free or open-source, while others can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars per year.

The cost can also depend on the payment processing fees, hosting fees, and any additional integrations or customization you need. It's important to research and compare different software options based on your budget and specific business needs.

How to Choose the Right Shopping Cart Software for Your e-Commerce?

If you've just started your e-commerce business, you must be looking for shopping cart software to take online payments and keep your customers happy. But when there are so many options available, then choosing the right software can become a mindboggling task.

Here we look at some key points to keep in mind for selecting the best shopping cart software to enable online transactions and ensure the utmost security of customer data.

• Recovery of Abandoned Cart: Abandoning shopping carts is one of the most significant issues ecommerce companies face. Most businesses lose significant revenue due to this problem every year. Therefore, you should opt for software with built-in cart abandonment recovery functionality. It sends customizable emails to customers who have left their cart during the checkout procedure to come back and buy the items they have in their cart.
• Internet Security and PCI DSS Compliance: Shopping cart software must meet the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance, a globally recognized security standard, to ensure the secure processing of card payments. The software must have robust security features such as tracking suspicious activities and encryption of sensitive customer data with a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate.
• Mobile-Friendliness: More than half of the purchases are made via a mobile device; hence you must select software that provides a clutter-free buying experience, reassurance around card transactions, a seamless checkout process, and precise shipping information. Moreover, you should be able to integrate it with some popular payment methods such as PayPal, Amazon Pay, Paytm, Google Pay, etc.
• Pricing & Payment: The next important point you must consider when buying a shopping cart platform is its price. It doesn't matter whether you are running a small business or a well-established e-commerce company, you should always buy the best product within the allocated budget.
• Customization: Increased competition forces companies to modify the basic software configurations and optimize the buying experience through customized shopping carts. Web developers focus on creating a tool that makes buyers feel more welcome and fulfills their address-specific requirements.
• Marketing Analytics & Reporting: E-commerce cart software collects a variety of customer data in real-time, hence analytics feature plays a vital role in analyzing unique insights that can help create personalized marketing campaigns for the target audience.
• Integrations: Shopping cart software can be integrated with various platforms like payment gateway as they are vital to the success of e-commerce businesses. Consider how the shopping cart software will integrate with your existing systems, such as your website, payment gateways, and inventory management software.
• Customer Service: Choose a shopping cart software with reliable customer support and technical assistance to ensure a smooth implementation and ongoing usage.

Before purchasing, you must choose wisely and weigh all the benefits and drawbacks of various shopping cart software. Some solutions are available for monthly or yearly subscription fees, while for others, you have to make a one-time payment, hence you can choose as per requirement.

Shopping Cart Software Implementation

The software can be implemented into an e-commerce website during the initial stages of business operations, or they can upgrade their existing software to provide a feature-rich solution to their customers. The implementation is handled by a team of in-house technical experts, project managers, or the professionals assigned from the vendor's end.

Here are a few things to consider while Implementing shopping cart software:

• Shopping cart software with essential functions requires low effort during implementation. However, software with advanced features & functions would be more complicated and may require assistance from a team of technical experts.
• When switching vendors, it is essential to transfer all existing data, including inventory, sales, and customer data, to the new platform. This process secures critical information and mitigates the risks of data loss.
• Once implementation is done, a thorough demo test should be done to test its compatibility with the other software solutions the business uses. All issues or bugs should be fixed to ensure the trouble-free operation of the tool.

At last, different departments may require a different set of modules. For example, customer service might use a separate module from the sales team. Hence proper guidance and training should be given to employees for hassle-free usage.

Top 10 Shopping Cart Software

Here is the list of best shopping cart software for business

Top 10 Shopping Cart Software
Shopping Cart Software	Best For
WooCommerce	WordPress users
Magento	Enterprise-level businesses
Volusion	Small to mid-sized businesses
OpenCart	Small businesses and startups
3dcart	E-commerce businesses of all sizes
Shopaccino	Small to mid-sized businesses
X-Cart	Small to mid-sized businesses
Ultracart	Mid-sized businesses
ThriveCart	Digital marketers
SamCart	Digital marketers