Shopping cart software is a special application on a server that enables users “to select items for eventual purchase” (Farris et al., 2010). It takes its name from its similarity to a real-life grocery store shopping cart, and is often represented by a shopping cart icon. When a person opens his or her own online store, they are looking for ease of use. A perfect eCommerce platform for a beginner does not confuse him or her with advanced features and sophisticated dashboards; it should be plain, simple, and comfortable to work with. According to Zorzini (2016c), the most notable eCommerce shopping carts that answer these demands are Shopify, Bigcommerce, Volusion, 3dcart, and Big Cartel.
This research is based on articles by Catalin Zorzini – a web design blogger, a journalist, and an eCommerce platform user himself. He compares and describes the most profitable and notable eCommerce shopping cart software. One may call him a professional eCommerce reviewer, as he does have much experience using shopping cart applications.
Shopify is one of the most popular eCommerce shopping carts. Its biggest advantage is that it is significantly user-friendly: it has a convenient dashboard, gives the user instructions along the way, helps the user import products from one store to another, and can stand up under heavy traffic. Some of the users of this application include Github, the Foo Fighters, and Amnesty International (Robie, 2016, par. 2).
Bigcommerce is similar to Shopify in a lot of ways. However, its current pricing policy makes it difficult for users and companies to manage their profits: “If you start to make more than $125,000 in revenue, Bigcommerce pretty much forces you to switch to an Enterprise plan” (Zorzini, 2016c). This can increase the user’s cost from $900 to $1,500 per month, which is not convenient, even for the customers who agree to work with reasonably expensive plans. On the bright side, both Shopify and Bigcommerce have the widest range of applications and add-ons to choose from (over 100 different kinds) that are always easy to activate.
Volusion is notable for its minimalistic product creation screen and its cheap pricing plans (one of the least expensive among the eCommerce shopping carts). Its dashboard is simple and does not force the user to search for additional instructions on the Internet. Volusion’s functions are plentiful, including special tools designed to allow users to sell products via social networks like Facebook or Twitter. Its multitude of built-in features can give the user quick access to blogs, newsletters, and email (Zorzini, 2016c).
3dcart “has a powerful API for integrating with various other apps and tools” (Zorzini, 2016b) and can link your online store to other stores like eBay or Amazon. 3dcart is very helpful in terms of explaining to the user how to operate the platform – there are even tutorial videos on the dashboard. It offers five pricing plans, including yearly discounts: when the user pays on an annual basis, the platform reduces monthly costs, resulting in three months of free use a year.
Finally, there is Big Cartel, the simplest and, at the same time, the least favorable of the five. The design of its set-up area does not seem intuitive; the user might not understand what to do first. It does not have a drag-and-drop function like Shopify or 3dcart, and the tools on its dashboard are not really helpful, either. Besides, working with Bigcommerce demands a certain amount of coding experience, which might be frustrating to some users. It does not offer many themes (nine in total), either, which is “unacceptable, since unique branding is a huge part of selling online” (Zorzini, 2016c). The area where you are supposed to change themes is too small, and difficult to work with. The only advantage of this platform is its pricing – its cheapest plan is completely free to use, and the paid plans are still way less expensive than everything else mentioned in this paper.
If the user cannot afford to pay for his or her platform services just yet, there are also some free plug-ins available. In his article “7 Best Free WordPress Ecommerce Plug-ins for 2016,” Zorzini discusses the best eCommerce applications for WordPress that are free to use.
First, he describes WooCommerce, which is the best known and most widely used. Among its most famous clients are brands like Sony Music, Cosmopolitan, Variety, Marks & Spencer for Business, Fortune, and many more (40+ Most Notable Big Name Brands that are Using WordPress, 2014). WooCommerce shopping carts are currently used by over 17.77% of eCommerce websites (Zorzini, 2016a, par. 4).
Next on the list are Easy Digital Downloads, WP eCommerce, Ecwid, Jigoshop, MarketPress iThemes Exchange, and Cart66 Lite. The most notable entries on the list are probably WP eCommerce, which enables the user to customize HTML and CSS and modify the look of his or her online store, Ecwid for working with a variety of different sites, and Cart66 Lite for its feature that allows it to integrate with Amazon S3.
All in all, it could be concluded that Shopify is the most preferable eCommerce Shopping Cart. It enables the user to create and customize his or her store and adjust things like prices, taxes, shipping settings, and more; has a lot of themes to choose from; and contains more additions than any other existing cart, etc. The Search and Theme Editor functions are top notch and user-friendly. Refund operations are easy to perform, and analytics are simple to understand. Presently, this software has no considerable drawbacks.
References
40+ Most Notable Big Name Brands that are Using WordPress. (2014). Web.
Farris, P., Bendle, N. T., Pfeifer, P. E., & Reibstein, D. (2010). Marketing Metrics: The Definitive Guide to Measuring Marketing Performance (Second Edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Robie, E. (2016). Shopify Review 2016. Merchant Maverick. Web.
Zorzini, C. (2016a). 7 Best Free WordPress Ecommerce Plug-ins You Must Use in 2016.Ecommerce Platforms. Web.
Zorzini, C. (2016b). The Ultimate 3dcart Ecommerce Review 2016.Ecommerce Platforms. Web.
Zorzini, C. (2016c). Top 5 Ecommerce Platforms Reviewed: Which Is the Best? Ecommerce Platforms. Web.