Advice on the Best Ecommerce Solutions and Shopping Carts

So you want to add ecommerce… well, young Jedi, here’s how it breaks down, in order of complexity and pricing.

Scenario 1: Single item (small quantity, one-size-fits-all, one price)

You want to sell a single T-shirt design. Or a single painting. Or a subscription to a single newsletter.
PayPal is the answer to your prayers. All you need is a (free) PayPal Business Accountand they will provide you with a “Buy Now” or “Subscribe” button plus the code to insert it into your website/blog. They will take a 3% cut of every sale, but that’s less than a bank charges if you take credit cards over the phone. Plus they will automatically accept and convert currencies.

Etsy store for Brazen Design

Scenario 2: Variations on a few items, handmade
Let’s say you want to sell a line of hand-made/vintage clothes/cards/art/art supplies. Your best bet is Etsy.com. It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it has a built-in fan base geared towards buyers who like crafty, quirky, hand-made stuff. Update: Sep 18, 2012: Or, Goodsie.com,  $15 – $40/month, basic navigation, but no community of referring sellers like Etsy.

Scenario 3: Externally hosted shopping cart (multiple items, commercial)
What about more commercial options, like a limited line of T-shirts with variations in color, size, etc, or your own line of pasta sauces? As soon as there’s a chance that your customer will buy more than one of something, you’re talking shopping carts. The first option is an externally-hosted cart: you pay an average fee of $20 – $100 each month, and all shopping cart activity occurs on a separate (i.e. externally hosted) website. The two best known vendors are Shopify and Big Cartel. Big Cartel is more for independent artists and musicians; Shopify is for general ecommerce and by far the most popular platform.

Pros:

• cheaper than a custom integrated shoppng cart
• fairly easy to set up for non-coders
• shopping cart is integrated into your site’s navigation
• you can sell hard goods, digital goods (PDFs, ebooks) and services
• all customer data and credit card info is processed directly by them, not you (this is a huge deal with fraud on the rise)
• templates can be customized by your web designer to match/resemble closely the rest of your site
• shipping/distribution option available (for an extra fee)
• inventory and order tracking

Cons:

• you pay the monthly fee whether or not you sell anything that month
• extra features (discount codes, realtime stats) cost a bit more
• if you use a template, the look/layout will not automatically match your site/blog
• customers may be concerned when redirected to another site
• tech support can be hit-and-miss, and is mostly via email/wiki forum

Scenario 4: Self-hosted shopping cart (multiple items, commercial)
If you are planning on making ecommerce the focus of your business, (i.e. online only, no brick-and-mortar shop or showroom), and you expect  your annual sales revenue to be greater than $75,000/year, you will probably need a custom solution. If you are competing with brick-and-mortar vendors (who have a credibility advantage over you), you need all the brand cohesion and credibility you can get. So the more polished the website and shopping experience, the better.

Pros:

• no ongoing monthly charges
• no limits to the amount of items, photos, colors, sizes that you can have
• website costs remain the same regardless of how many items you add
• you can sell physical goods, services or downloadables (ebooks, software, songs)
• automated transaction processing and order tracking can be integrated with your back-end supply chain
• realtime (instant) stats that are tailored to your needs
• automated, branded emails to keep customers up to date re-orders
• all shopping cart activity takes place on your server (no redirecting)
• you decide the level of security for data and transactions
• custom design that matches your site exactly for maximum customer reassurance
• shopping cart is integrated into your site’s navigation
• you look like a serious professional outfit (which you are, right?)

Cons:

• more expensive upfront
• security of customer data (privacy and credit card info) is your responsibility

Conclusion: Unfortunately, when it comes to ecommerce, there’s no such thing as one-size-fits-all. An externally-hosted solution is perfect for a small business or an artist/musician. It’s cheap and DIY. It allows you to dip your toe into ecommerce with very little investment of time or money. I encourage all but the largest businesses to start there, and switch up to a custom self-hosted option later as sales increase.  However, if you want to avoid a mismatch between the shopping area and your main website, which translates directly into a loss of customer confidence and a high number of abandoned carts, hire a designer to customize a template for you. Customers will accept some differences if the branding is fairly consistent, particularly for a small business.   However, it’s not really an option for a big business where expectations are generally high in terms of professional branding and infrastructure. You’re better off with a custom shopping cart that is tailored to your needs from the outset.

Last updated: June 28, 2012