If you are developing an e-commerce based website, for example: you are going to sell products, it does not matter physical or digital you will need a shopping cart system.
- Free carts such as OS commerce, ZEN Cart
- Licensed carts like Actinic, Cube Cart, ViaShop,
- Miva Bespoke in house developed.
Free Carts
A free cart can deliver very similar features to that of the well known licensed ones so why doesn’t everyone use them? Free carts are supplied on the Open Source licensing arrangement so core code is available to programmers and developers to make modifications, this means a somewhat irregular update schedule is operated so new versions or security updates come out as individuals get round to it.Like a lot of open source software there is a core team that oversees the development, provides support and works with many developers to improve the product. This does mean that getting support for a particular issue may be difficult if it relates to a third party developer. The free carts come with a very basic template with which you need to be fairly skilled in HTML and PHP to make changes to suit your business brand.Where you may save on the license fee you may end up paying a developer to build a layout that you need for your business, you also need to be aware that security on free carts is a problem as they are targeted more than licensed software, and you may need to keep the product updated.
Not all the free carts are supported by payment processors so you will need to check this first.
Licensed Carts
These are E-Commerce Software programs built by a development team like any other normally purchased software.
The difference is support and updates is via the developer you will contact them and they will know what to do straight away. The templates will be a lot more professional looking, and you will find by internet outreach that specific localisation features.
Many of the licensed carts are able to work with accountancy software like SAGEpay and they are normally preferred systems for the main bank processors like WorldPay, Netbanx, EPDQ services.
The software can be a bit more complicated to set up and also limit you in certain ways so it’s a good idea to go through the demos and check they can do what you require for your business.
Bespoke Carts
When a free or licensed cart is not going to deliver what you need, then building your own may be the only option.
Many of the major online stores operate their own system as it’s effective to have something you can adjust and update as you need to. This will be an expensive route and is really only viable if you are going to outreach more than £10K per month in online sales. Building your own also means building your own requirements for accounting and banking links.
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