Online Shopping Carts

If you are a small business owner with a start-up web site you probably think you can’t afford an online store or online shopping cart. The truth is that there are several ways you can add a cart to your web site with very little investment.  

You don’t have to register as a credit card merchant – that can be expensive. The least expensive method is to register for a membership with the largest online payment company. You can find their site by using your search engine and looking for ‘online payment’.  

A membership with this online payment vendor will allow you to create payment buttons and customized fields to capture customer requests and comments.  

You can add product ID fields and other fields as well. You’ll use the online payment site to create your custom buttons and when you are finished, the site will create HTML code you can copy to your web site. When this action is completed, you will have a payment button to rival any professional retail online store.

When a buyer pays for the item, you will receive an email, complete with the product ID and other custom information. This site also allows you to add shipping fees and will calculate fees based on your criteria.  

There is a fee for the service. The vendor collects the fee when the buyer pays for the item. After the online store payment vendor collects a percentage of the fee, the balance is deposited in your account and can be transferred to a business bank account or other account as you desire.  

If you choose to create a full service online shopping cart, you can purchase software or download software online. These software products allow you to choose from several options to create a store that fits your needs and organize the shopping cart and online store to your liking. You can upload photos of products and product descriptions, add shipping costs and customer service information and customize the look and feel of the shopping cart and online store.  

Before you purchase or download an online store software package you should ensure that the software is compliant with the program you are using to create and manage your web site.