The growth of online spending and online money making makes it crucial for you to choose the right shopping cart platform for your business in order to have a competitive site for your customers, targeted website traffic for advertisement, and affiliate marketing for revenue.
Some of the most important features of any platform that have to be considered are, security, scalability, reliability, and support. Some examples of the best open source shopping cart solutions are, osCommerce, Opencart, Cubecart, and Zencart. These are robust, professional, and powerful shopping cart solutions that offer great flexibility.
There are many different open source shopping cart platforms available at varying obvious and implicit prices, but the choice can be a little bit overwhelming for the inexperienced.
Firstly, when choosing a shopping cart platform it is vital that you take these aspects into account as you not only want to make it as easy as possible to accept payments from your customers, but you want them to feel assured in the knowledge that their transactions are completely secure. It is also important to evaluate the different costs associated with each platform.
Secondly, with open source options you have amazing flexibility at your disposal, as you are not restricted to the limitations of the code as you are with proprietary software. An open source shopping cart can be compared to a custom built car, in other words, it can be designed to suite your needs and preferences.
Thirdly, although open source software is free, it does not come without any expense. In order to obtain the flexibility and customization that many prefer, open source solutions have to be built from scratch, which can take much time and effort. Another factor to consider is installation. Many open source shopping cart solutions can be incredibly difficult to install and use, unless you have a degree in IT.
Finally, a thing to consider with open source solutions is that there are no free upgrades and no support. The lack of support may well be the determining factor as to whether you chose the open source option or not.
In conclusion, when it comes to deciding what shopping cart platform you will chose for your business, consider all your options carefully. Work in line with your budget, and choose the right open source shopping cart platform that best suits your needs.