Web Resources > Developing Your Site > Do It Yourself > Shopping Carts

A Shopping Cart is a software program that acts as a "virtual store front". Such software typically allows a web site user to create and manage a virtual shopping cart to which items can be added or removed. Once a customer is ready to "check out", this same Shopping Cart Software typically includes interfaces to allow customers to pay with their credit card directly on the site.

Shopping Cart Software is critical for those web sites that intend to sell products and services directly over the Internet without human intervention.

Choosing the Right Shopping Cart Solution

There are many shopping cart solutions to choose from. Each shopping cart solution typically has the same features required to support the buying process described in the diagram above. However, some shopping cart software programs have more capabilities than others. Also, prices for shopping cart software vary significantly.

A brief list of shopping cart software packages is listed below:

• NoodleKart
  
• EZShopper
  
• VirtualCart
  
• InstantStore
  
• Super Cart
  
• Miva Merchant
  
• Web Genie

Shopping cart software packages differ by a variety of factors including price, SKU support, secure ordering, integration with accounting systems, search engine capabilities, and order acknowledgement.

Integration with Your Hosting Company

Many hosting plans which are described as 'e-commerce' hosting plans typically include some sort of shopping cart solution as part of the plan package. Renting shopping cart software through your hosting plan is a good way to ensure the software will integrate with your hosting provider's infrastructure and is less expensive in the short term.

If you require certain features and capabilities from your shopping cart software, you may need to either:

• Choose a hosting company that has the specific shopping cart software you desire
  
• Purchase your own shopping cart software and integrate it with your web site
  

Resources For Shopping Carts

http://www.cyberfirms.com/shopping_cart_reviews.html - Shopping cart comparisons

http://execonn.com/cgi-bin/compare.pl - Shopping cart comparison tables