For years I have been asked the same question: which shopping cart is the best one? The truth is that there is no one, final answer to this question and every online retailer has to consider a bunch of different factors, before they choose a platform for their business. In my opinion, the following shopping carts are all recommended, but for different groups of clients:
Hosted shopping carts (3dcart, Volusion, Bigcommerce, Shopify): hosted shopping carts are great solutions for everyone, who is new to eCommerce. For a monthly fee, every user receives a complete set of functionalities, which are basic or advanced, depending on the chosen plan. Drag-and-drop interface makes it possible to use the shopping cart even if you know nothing about programming. These shopping carts are most recommended for small businesses and entrepreneurs, who are new to eCommerce. Unfortunately, the bigger the online store, the less competitive are the plans offered by hosted shopping carts. The most advanced plans are usually quite pricey, but do not provide solutions, which guarantee optimal performance for large businesses.
Open source shopping carts (Magento, OpenCart, PrestaShop): the best alternative to hosted shopping carts are the open source solutions, which are free, but require more understanding of how this type of software works. Open source shopping carts offer the broadest sets of professional functionalists and can support even the largest businesses. However, using an open source shopping cart is not as inexpensive, as it might seem. You have to pay for a hosting server and hire Magento programmer, if you do not have enough experience to create the store on your own. Therefore, I would recommend open source shopping carts most of all to big online retailers and small or medium-sized retailers with a well-established plan for developing their businesses. Migrating your online store to a new platform can be difficult, so if you already have a clear plan how to grow your online store in the next few years, it is better to start with Magento.
Magento programmer– http://magecom.net/magento-web-developers/
Author Bio:
The article is written by Shiney Sharaw. She is a Marketing analyst working in a top company. She is a blogger who writes on topics like Online marketing, travel, ongoing trends in marketing, Social media etc. She loves to share her experience through blogging and loves hear feedback from the readers. You can contact her through twitter or facebook.
