The Role of the Digital Shopping Cart in Online Business

Yes, you can sell your products online without ever investing in an online shopping cart. But should you? In this article I will answer three questions about digital shopping carts that will help you understand why you should not go without one if you are serious about your Internet business.

What benefits does e-commerce software provide?
There are many benefits you and your customers will gain when you invest in e-commerce shopping cart software. Here are just a few:

• Enhanced purchase security – your customers can rest assured that their financial information will be safe from cyber thieves.
• Enhanced download security – you can rest assured that only paying clients will gain access to you download pages.
• Better usability – your customers will go through a purchasing process that they are accustomed to, both in the physical world and at other online shops.
• Greater functionality – most virtual shopping cart systems include features you can use and offer such as wish lists, back-end marketing, inventory tracking and more.
• Easier business management – e-commerce software provides you with a variety of reports you can fun to better manage your business finances, monitor your sales and even offer better customer service.
• Straightforward catalog management – it is easier to add and delete products from your offers, when they are managed in a database, such as used by shopping cart software.

Of course there are more … and I'm sure that as the e-commerce matures, the software that makes it possible will evolve and develop even more features to make the online shopping experience – from both sides – better.

How does the digital shopping cart software work?
E-commerce software acts as a mediator between your website and your payment processor. It also is something like a concierge, helping your customers find the amenities you offer that are best suited to their needs. Through the use of databases and code, the software organizes all the data required for a successful transaction and makes sure it runs smoothly and in an orderly manner.

Of course, how each software option works specifically can't be answered in this article. But the generalities are pretty much the same. A prospect arrives at your website and sees that you offer several products of interest. The prospect selects those items he or she wishes to purchase and places them in a virtual "shopping cart". The software stores this information so that once your new customer decides to pay, there will only be one purchasing process to go through, rather than one per purchased item.

The software then collects the relevant information, passes on some to your database and some on to your payment processor. Once the payment has been accepted, the software then delivers the purchased item to the customer, usually by emailing a download link, but sometimes by directing them to the download page, as well.

You can set up this entire experience with just a few forms to fill out in the administrative back end of your software. Where as if you tried to do this without the proper software, you'd have to go through a lot more steps and trouble.

Is the e-commerce cart software costly?
Ah, here's the rub. The answer is … it depends. Each e-commerce software vendor has a different pay scale based on whether they host the software or license it to you, how many features they provide, etc. You can pay for e-commerce cart software in a one-time lump some, via a set number of monthly payments, or on a monthly basis as long as you choose to use it. So, is it costly? It can be, but you need to balance that against the increased profit you will gain by using it. Investing in digital shopping cart software can actually improve your bottom line, making the investment seem like a very small price to pay.

Now that you are convinced that you need an online shopping cart, where do you get one? Learn more about the option I use in my business, which I find cost effective and flexible, by visiting my blog at http://digital-shopping-cart.blogspot.com.