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Many people jump the gun when choosing which shopping cart will fit their needs.
Don’t start with a comparison of features of the shopping carts
The first thing that most people look for are the features that they want. However, if you take the time and do a thorough search, you will always be able to find the features that you want.
Since features are easy to find, or integrate, they should also be the last factor when determining which shopping cart fits your needs. This is not to say that features aren’t critical, but rather that they should be the last criteria used to narrow down your list.
There is nothing worse than finding the perfectly-featured shopping cart, only to find out that it isn’t compatible with your servers operating system. It is even worse to find out that it is self-hosted, and you want a 3rd party web hosting shopping cart.
The first thing that you must decide is whether or not you want a self hosted option or 3rd party web hosting shopping cart. Here are some important facts to consider when deciding where you want to host your shopping cart.
Security issues of a shopping cart
When you choose a 3rd party web hosting shopping cart, they will handle all of the security issues. This is because your customers will actually be checking out through their website.
With a self hosted shopping cart, you will need to ensure your customers security yourself. While this isn’t inherently difficult, it is an additional factor that needs to be taken into consideration because it will cost time, money, and ongoing maintenance.
Shopping Cart Maintenance Level
With 3rd party web hosting shopping carts, there is very little maintenance on your end. Once your products are set up, your website is good to go.
With a self-hosted shopping cart, you will continually be working to maintain it. Your maintenance could be security one day and software upgrades the next.
Shopping Cart Control
3rd party web hosting shopping carts only allow for a comparatively small amount of personalization and control, whereas self hosted carts give you infinite control. You have the ability to modify and control the entire check out process as well as what everything looks like.
There are a number of factors that must be weighed in order to choose the perfect shopping cart to fit your needs.
However, the most important decision that you need to make is whether or not you want to host it yourself, or use a 3rd party web hosting shopping cart. This decision will have a huge impact on what is available to you and what you will be able to modify to fit your needs.
