This article addresses:

1. Types of e-commerce shopping software.

2. Features the software might have.

3. Product page requirements and design limitations.

4. Selecting e-commerce shopping software.

A lot of e-commerce shopping solutions are available. Many do their job well and have a good reputation. However, the only ones this article will recommend are our own. We have not used other people's shopping software enough to provide specific titles with a personal recommendation.

Types of E-Commerce Shopping Software

Broadly speaking, there are two types of systems — cart and non-cart.

Cart system:

A cart system is a program that allows items to be selected for purchase and the order finalized later. The system keeps track of which items have been selected by each individual customer and, minimally, allows the site visitor to add items to the selections. Analagous to a shopping cart in a grocery store, you keep putting your selections into the basket and, when you're done, you go to checkout.

Non-cart system:

A non-cart system is where the customer selects one or more items for purchase on a single page and is taken directly to a payment form. The system does not have to maintain a separate record of items selected for later finalization because the sale is finalized immediately.

An example of a single product non-cart system is the product purchase link system that ClickBank uses; the customer clicks the link and is taken directly to a payment form. A purchase from the Master Series CGI Scripts at http://willmaster.com/a/12/pl.pl?cgi is done this way.

An example of a multiple product non-cart system is the Customer Friendly, Cart-less E-commerce Site demo at http://willmaster.com/a/12/pl.pl?cfces which is essentially a one-page order form where the customer can select products and then click to go directly to a payment form.

Features the Software Might Have

Features to look for in shopping programs, some essential and some nice to have available, whether cart or non-cart, are as follows. (This list is not all-inclusive.)

1. Shopping systems, especially those distributing immediately downloadable products, should have a method of authentication to ensure the customer has actually been approved by the payment system and isn't just hacking in to steal the product.

   For merchants who use ClickBank, we have three purchase authentication tools available.

1. Simple ClickBank Authentication at http://willmaster.com/a/12/pl.pl?scba verifies that the customer came from a ClickBank domain URL and that the ClickBank receipt number is of a valid format.

2. Advanced ClickBank Authentication at http://willmaster.com/a/12/pl.pl?acba uses ClickBank's Secret Key method to authenticate the purchase.

3. Master Shopper CB at http://willmaster.com/a/12/pl.pl?shoppercb will not only do authentication with your choice of either of the above methods, it will also administer temporary download links.

2. Merchants with downloadable products might experience enhanced peace of mind if the downloads were accomplished through temporary links.

3. The software must have the ability to interface with your payment gateway, or your own secure server if no gateway is used.

4. Order details can be sent to the webmaster and details can be stored on the server in case the email goes awry. The email might be customizable to suit the webmaster.

5. Optionally, a "thank you" email can be sent to the customer with order and contact specifics. The email might be customizable by the webmaster.

6. Shipping calculations for various shipping methods and destination areas might be necessary.

7. The ability to calculate tax at various rates and for specific shipping destinations must be built into the software. In the United States, and probably many other countries, governments are looking for or have found ways to tax internet transactions. Software that can't calculate tax is or will soon be deficient.

8. The software might let you provide discounts of either a fixed amount or a percentage, and calculation depending on number of products ordered and/or the total of the order.

9. The software might give you the ability to handle coupons, which can be valid once or many times, with or without an expiration data and which, optionally, can be valid only on orders above a certain total.

10. If a cart program

• The cart should let customers change item quantities and delete items.

• The product total should always be readily available.

• It should be easy to go back and forth between the cart and the product page. (A nice touch would be to put the cart into a popup window so the product page continues to be available in the main browser.)

11. Personal and shipping information should be reviewable before finalizing.

12. The software should be easy for the webmaster to use.

13. The software should be easy for the customer to use.

14. Technical support should be readily available because if this tool breaks then your money stops until after it's fixed.

Product Page Requirements and Design Limitations

E-commerce shopping programs generally have one of three types of product presentation page requirements. The first two give you almost unlimited freedom in designing your pages. The third generates product pages on-the-fly, which can be a bit restrictive design-wise, but is usually a negligible tradeoff compared to maintaining many hundreds or thousands of static product pages.

1. The shopping program has no product database.

   You design your product pages as you please. The field names of and/or the values in the hidden, selection, and/or text input fields tell the shopping program all the information it needs — product name, price, etc. This usually requires meticulous attention to detail when creating the buttons and order form fields for your product pages. The upside is that you don't maintain a separate database; if a price changes, for example, you just change it on your product page and you're done.

   This type of system is suitable only for sites with few products. The number of products that can be maintained efficiently and with joy depends on the webmaster's patience and ability to pay attention to minor details (a misplaced comma in a form field value, for example, could break the system).

2. The shopping program has a product database but does not generate product pages on-the-fly.

   With many shopping programs of this type, you have full control over the design of your product pages. Yet, creating the pages is easier because your form field names or values only need to contain a product code. The product code used in the form matches the product code of a record in the program's database. The program, then, finds the product specifics (name, price, etc.) related to the product codes in the form.

   This type of shopping cart program is suitable for sites with up to several hundred products. The number of products this type of program is able to handle is generally many more than the webmaster's ability or willingness to maintain static product pages; the webmaster is likely to reach a limit before the program.

   A good shopping cart program of this type is Master Shopper Lite found at http://willmaster.com/a/12/pl.pl?shopperlite

3. The program has a product database and generates product pages on-the-fly.

   With this, you create templates that are used to generate product pages on demand. The database contains all the product details, probably including short and long descriptions, photograph, and thumbnail. The program will probably receive calls for product pages via a product search engine or via a special link on the page (the special link typically utilizes the search engine, too, but doesn't require the customer to type search terms). When a product page is created, the shopping cart program grabs a copy of the appropriate template, creates the page complete with properly encoded form fields, and presents it to the customer.

   This type of shopping cart program is suitable for sites with hundreds or many thousands of products. The upper limit of the database is usually stated on the sales page. If not, ask.

   Some of these types of shopping cart programs have an upper limit of millions of products and others a few thousand or less.

   Once the templates are created, more products can be added to the database without manually creating additional product pages.

Selecting E-Commerce Shopping Software

First, determine what software you require.

• If you will have only one or a few products, and all products are to be presented on the same page:

  A non-cart solution may work well for you. Some shopping cart software works well even if you don't need to use the software's cart feature.

• If you will have a few to several hundred products and the product presentation pages will require more than one web page:

  Cart software will be required. You'll need to choose between software that does or does not generate product pages on-the-fly. With less products, cart software that does not generate pages may work well for you. The more products you will have, though, the more you should consider software that does generate product pages on-the-fly.

• If you will have several hundred to many thousands of products, select shopping cart software that will generate product pages on-the-fly. Without automatic page generation, maintaining hundreds or thousands of static product pages, if not actually impossible, will quickly become a burden.

Next, determine features for your software.

Make a list of features the software must have. Make another list of features that would be nice. Consider the availability of customer support when making your lists. If you're working within a specific budget (and even if you're not), decide whether or not you consider it appropriate to pay for bug fixes or for upgrades when new versions of the software become available.

Go shopping.

Shopping for shopping software can be a time-consuming task. But at least you now have a general idea of what you need. Knowing your needs can save time because you can abandon sales pages of deficient products as soon as the lack is obvious, thus leaving more time to study the better prospects.

By: Will Bontrager

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