Effective E-Commerce – You Need Shopping Cart Software
As you start your new online business, whether it be for business services or hard goods like shoes or flowers, you will want to use shopping cart software. This essential tool will help you run your business more effectively and safely. This article will show you 10 ways you will benefit from using shopping cart solutions.
1. Customers expect it. Customers are very used to ordering online and using their credit cards. If you don’t have a shopping cart, you will lose sales as people might not pick up the phone to call you to order.
2. Get orders from customers 24 hours a day. The Internet is a world-wide service and you could have people wanting to buy your product when you and your staff are asleep. With a cart, your online store is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is ready, willing and able to take orders for you when your customer is ready to buy — even if they are halfway around the world.
3. Fraud protection. Each credit card order is verified by a certified company. You will know instantly if the card is valid. This service will protect you from fraudulent charges.
4. Security. Most shopping cart services operate under the highest level of security the Internet can offer. When customers see the code “https:” in the URL, they know that your website shopping cart is secure.
5. Sales reports. At the flick of a button, you can create sales reports that show how many of each product were sold on each day, week or month. It’s like having a super assistant!
6. Tracking codes. Higher end shopping carts provide unique tracking codes so you can measure the effectiveness of any advertisement, promotion, article or any other inbound marketing tool. No longer will you wonder where your leads and sales come from. You’ll know the source of your sales so you can spend your marketing dollars effectively and you won’t waste any more advertising dollars.
7. Coupons and discounts. These handy tools can help increase sales. Not every cart has these tools, so be sure to ask. You has complete control over these features so you can determine how large the discount is and for how long the offer lasts.
8. Newsletters and ezines. Some carts let you send newsletters and ezines to your members and subscribers. This service can save you a lot of money because you won’t have to buy another service to send out your newsletters. Again, not all shopping carts have this feature, so if you use one that does.
9. Autoresponders. You might not know the term, but you’ve probably seen this handy tool in action. An autoresponder is a pre-written message that is sent if a condition is met. To put this in plain English, here are a few examples. You buy a product from a company and you immediately find a confirmation message in your mail box. You sign up for a webinar and the codes are sent to you via email. You subscribe to a home study course and each lesson appears in your mailbox. Each of those examples is powered by an autoresponder service. Autoresponders can save you time by sending messages. These powerful tools save you lots of time by delivering your products, supplying customer service or just staying in touch with the customer on a regular basis. You create the messages and you decide when the messages go out. This tool could be the most important feature of a shopping cart. Make sure your cart has it because it will save you time by reducing tasks that you repeat frequently.
10. Sales tax and shipping calculations. A good shopping cart will have up-to-date information on all the different tax rates that are charged. This feature can save you a lot of time and prevent a lot of headaches — plus it will keep you on the right side of the law when it comes to collecting and paying taxes!
