As online shopping is taking on a huge role in consumer buying, it is becoming more and more common for online businesses to be popping up in a variety of formats throughout the web. Tons of different products and services are available for purchase online. Because of this new way of shopping, more and more businesses are expanding to online, or are opening up online-only businesses. Every merchant knows there is more than just the wares you are trying to sell that need some work when it comes to being an online business owner. For website use, there must be shopping cart software and a variety of e-commerce tools to help both the customer do the shopping as well as the merchant do the order processing. In order to have a successful balance between the two to grow the profitability of the store, it is important to make sure you know the ins and outs of choosing the best shopping cart software and e-commerce tools as well as how to add a shopping cart to an existing website once you finally get to that point. There are a couple of ways you can add a shopping cart to an existing website. Keep reading this shopping cart tutorial to learn more!
How to Add a Shopping Cart to an Existing Website:
There are a couple ways you can add a shopping cart to your site. First, it depends on how big your shopping cart needs to be. Some plans only come with small-limit shopping carts and that might not be enough to fit the needs of your customers. However, you can still consider using the shopping cart technology that comes with your web hosting plan. Many shared web hosting plans work with shopping cart providers to add this type of e-commerce service right into your website using an easy installer like SimpleScripts. With virtually one click, you can have your online store up and running in no time. If you find that the shopping cart offered for free with your e-commerce web hosting plan is too small, contact the shopping cart company or your web hosting provider to determine if you can upgrade the size and maybe some of the e-commerce services of your shopping cart for your already-existing website for an added cost. This option is by far the easiest when it comes to learning how to add a shopping cart to an existing website. This is part of the reason web hosts that offer e-commerce tools and shopping carts are growing in popularity since so many online merchants are looking for both a website and a shopping cart at the same time.
However, if you already have your website created and set up, not to mention paid for, but your host doesn’t offer access to e-commerce tools, you have a couple other options you can consider. First, you can consider hiring a professional web designer to do the work for you. Your average professional web designer can design your store layout, store management system and basically install it on your website for you. This option is going to save you a lot of time as the merchant, so you can focus your efforts on stocking inventory and handling the day-to-day operations of running a business. However, this option is also very expensive. It can typically run you anywhere from a couple hundred to even a couple thousand dollars for a professional web designer to build you an online store and add a shopping cart to an existing website. If you have the money to do this, you might find a great success over time in saving money on your overall e-commerce costs because your store is your own. You won’t have to worry about paying transaction fees to another shopping cart provider or worry about having to pay for every little feature. This is a great investment if you are willing to consider hiring a professional web designer to build your online store for you.
However, not ever new business is in the boat to be able to shell out tons of money up front for a professional service. For some, it might be easier to start out with less cost up front and pay a little more over time. This is when considering going with an easy-to-use shopping cart solution is a viable option to consider. You pay a monthly fee with services like these and sometimes a small percent transaction fee. You can get set up with a variety of payment gateways as well as easy shopping cart design tools so you can design your own shopping cart and online store using a selection of templates to choose from. While you do eventually pay more over time, for some this is a much easier and more doable option when it comes to adding a shopping cart to an existing website. The best part about choosing the best shopping cart solution providers around is that you also get access to other e-commerce tools and you can also get it installed on your website quickly and easily without having to have programming experience a professional web designer do it for you.
Ultimately there are quite a few decisions you need to make when you want to add a shopping cart to an existing website. Simply weighing your budget, store needs and what option will work best for you is the best way to make this decision for your online business. Be sure to check out the huge variety of top-ranked shopping cart solutions online today to see if any of these options are a good fit for you, your business structure and your existing website for your online store.