Shopping Cart Solutions: Why Your Ecommerce Website Needs Them
Ecommerce websites are the most popular way people like to shop these days. But for an investor, it’s about more than just creating a website with their products. You must ensure the user checks out. The link in between is a custom shopping cart development.
This process aims at helping a user get from the product page to the payment page. To achieve this, you must pick a type of shopping cart, identify the issues, and then choose from the best shopping cart solutions.
Shopping Cart Types
A shopping cart is a necessary component of every eCommerce site. That is because any issue in the shopping cart will negatively impact sales! So that makes paying attention to this small but crucial detail even more critical.
There are a few types of shopping carts, but two mainly apply to eCommerce websites. Let’s have a look at some of them.
Hosted Shopping Cart
The main feature of a hosted shopping cart is that they are free! However, ‘all that glitters is not gold’. Therefore, investors should be aware of the possible shortcomings of hosted shopping cart solutions.
These are third-party solution providers that take care of the following:
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- Shopping cart appearance and functionality
- Backup of servers for the shopping carts
But there is always a catch with third-party applications. Users are redirected to a completely different page to complete checkout. That can cause users to fear the hacking of their payment details.
Licensed or Custom Shopping Cart
On the other hand, an alternative option for a shopping cart solution is a licensed or custom shopping cart solution. This type of shopping cart is best if you value users and want to give them a customized and pleasant experience.
When using a custom shopping cart, you can add or remove features at your will. Thus, you can alter the experience according to feedback given by users. That results in appealing customized shopping carts that increase the chances of users checking out.
Reasons For Cart Abandonment
The reason for user cart abandonment could be one of many. Sometimes it may not even be anything related to your website! But most times, there is a significant flaw in your website that needs immediate attention. Every abandoned cart is money lost!
Here are the most common reasons for cart abandonment on an eCommerce website:
- The shopping cart is not appropriate or specialized for your niche and market segment. That appears confusing to the user.
- Uncustomized shopping cart. That makes it unpleasant and often difficult for users to review their cart and checkout.
- Previously hidden charges come to light. Put all-inclusive prices (including shipping charges) on product pages. So users know the total price.
- Users get put off checking out when they have to create an account or sign in to do so.
- Lack of suitable payment options contributes to high user cart abandonment.
- Glitchy, slow app functioning can cause users to exit an app before they checkout.
- Sketchy and unsafe payment solutions can cause a user to rethink entering their bank/card details. That results in an abandoned cart.
Now that we’ve established the reasons for the high cart abandonment rate, how can we fix it?
How and Why to Reduce Cart Abandonment
Having a high cart abandonment rate is not a positive sign for your eCommerce website! It will take some eCommerce website development services to correct it. But, this will also take some vision from you to make it just right for your business.
So, what are the approaches you can take to reduce your cart abandonment rate?
Flexibility With A Custom Shopping Cart
Just take a minute to think about it. There are several advantages and reasons why you should build a custom shopping cart.
Custom shopping carts are cater-made for the users that visit and shop on your eCommerce store. It is made to facilitate fast and easy checkout in every scenario. Users will appreciate these types of shopping carts and this, in the long run, benefits eCommerce app owners!
Custom Shopping Cart Development Offers Opportunities
Just think about it: custom shopping cart development can also have a marketing edge. Perhaps you can have a section that suggests related items on the cart page. There are high probabilities that some users will buy an item for these suggestions.
Also, with custom shopping carts, you can advertise special offers applicable to your website. That may not be possible when opting for a third-party hosting shopping cart.
High eCommerce Website Performance
If your eCommerce shopping cart is performing well, it may not be the reason behind the high cart abandonment rate! It could be your eCommerce website itself. A poorly performing eCommerce website will obviously lead to poor sales.
In this case, your eCommerce cart doesn’t need fixing. Your website does! More often than not, slow loading speeds and glitches (website loading failure) are behind poor eCommerce websites.
Clear Navigation/Simplified Cart Design
Users don’t want to be rocket scientists to review and check out their orders. That said, custom shopping cart development should simplify the user’s shopping cart review-checkout experience.
Alternatively, you may have a high volume of visitors who are just ‘window shopping’ on your site. It is highly likely that they won’t even be buying anything from your website. How do you change this?
Shopping carts for websites happen to be one solution available to you. When building an eCommerce website, shopping carts can be a make-or-break feature to add.
Having a simple and appealing eCommerce website design and layout can invite visitors. But, having the best eCommerce shopping cart solution can lead to a sale!
Distinguish Yourself From the Rest
Every eCommerce out there ‘claims’ to be different from the next one. However, they all have the same monotonous checkout cart. The truth is, this cart design is not appealing or user-friendly! You yourself probably wouldn’t use it either.
Opt for a different cart style and design than the conventional one you find everywhere. As long as the design facilitates rapid and easy cart access and checkout, you don’t have to worry about anything.
Most times, eCommerce app owners care more about appearance rather than functionality. Unfortunately, this is not the best approach, and professional eCommerce development services don’t opt for it. Instead, pay more attention to functioning and speed rather than looking good!
Best Shopping Cart Solutions
Are you wondering what technology or software developers apply for making ideal shopping carts? Here are the best shopping cart solutions.
Magento
You’ve probably heard this name before because of the big companies that use it. These include Nike, Ford, Coca-Cola, etc. It is an open-source technology that is free for all to use. However, just because it’s free doesn’t mean it compromises features or functionality!
Magento offers almost every feature you will need when building an eCommerce website. The most important of these features is pre-configuration for several payment gateways, including PayPal and Authorize.net.
Shopify
Shopify is a popular multi-vendor eCommerce website platform that has gained fame for adopting several payment methods.
This shopping cart solution requires no knowledge of website function and code either! Plus, it covers all the primary payment methods, including credit/debit cards. Unfortunately, it is not available worldwide yet!
WooCommerce
If your eCommerce website is built on WordPress, there is a high likelihood that you’ve heard of WooCommerce. It’s WordPress’s free shopping cart plugin. Advantages of it are it’s both free and functional.
Conclusion
Shopping cart solutions are definitely something that an eCommerce website owner should take seriously. When you put enough attention into custom shopping cart development, it has the ability to increase sales. But, when you do not pay enough attention, they can decrease sales!
With the help of an eCommerce website development company, you can implement a shopping cart strategy to benefit users. The shopping cart should be simple, appealing, but most of all, functional.
