E-mail is by some considered to be the first e-commerce feature and nowadays there are endless possibilities to what one might consider as a feature. In the following article we will go through what we consider to be great and necessary e-commerce software's and features for a successful online store.
CubeCart
CubeCart is an e-commerce script written in PHP and MySQL. If you have web hosting supporting these databases you can easily setup your online store using CubeCart. This software is free if you allow their logo on your page and for a small amount the logo will be taken away. If you're familiar with PHP and MySQL there won't be any problems downloading the program and configuring it. As a novice you might have to learn a bit about the scripts before attempting to install CubeCart. There are few e-commerce features that you can attain to such a low price as this company's offering.
OsCommerce
OsCommerce is an open source online shop e-commerce solution. Through this software you'll be able to start up, run and maintain your online store. With over 4500 add-ons you have every possibility in the world to start up your own business and turn it into exactly what you want. It's totally free to download and install and it has grown into one of the most popular solutions on the Internet. What makes OsCommerce popular is the network of users that together evolve and improve the system.
Interchange Shopping Cart
Written in the Perl programming language, Interchange is an open source e-commerce server and application. Interchange is a great option when it comes to performing sales, order processing, content management, traditional retail sales and much more. The Interchange Shopping Cart is a robust system from which you can setup your online store in a matter of minutes. Everything is done from your browser meaning that you won't have to do any programming yourself. With its history of e-commerce Interchange truly is a reliable option.
Zen Cart
The Zen Cart started out as an offspring from the OsCommerce project and is an user-friendly open source e-commerce software written in PHP. With this software you won't have to be an expert at programming to be able to install and use it. Every possible feature that you might need in order to run and control a fully function online store is provided through this software.
Agora Shopping Cart
The Agora Shopping Cart is an open source e-commerce software solution enabling you to easy setup your online business and of course it's available for free. Originally it was mainly directed towards webmasters and programmers but it has since then developed and now a complete novice at the subject at hand can setup an online business with the help from this software. Through forums users help each other with for example new cool graphics and other improvements.
Shared SSL
SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and it encrypts data when it travels from your computer to your hosting server. Shared SSL is a way to use an SSL certificate without actually buying one, you use your web hosting company's SSL certificate. With this type of certificate your hosts name will probably be a part of your business URL name. For many people a shared SSL will be sufficient.
Private SSL
A private SSL is when you buy your own SSL certificate and have a dedicated I.P. address to run the SSL server on. You get a secure URL and your web hosting company's name won't be part of it.
Getting started...
Ok, now you know about some of the most popular e-commerce software's and features. Perhaps you want to set up your own online business taking advantage of any of these. The following three providers have great hosting that offers one, or more, of the above mentioned software's and/or features.
Just Host (OsCommerce)
iPage (Agora Shopping Cart)
Myhosting (Zen Cart)
Do you have any questions regarding E-Commerce and Shoopingt Carts? Please don't hesitate to us an email: editor(a)webhostingsearch.com
Commented by: Lesya, 30 June, 2009
Among the above i'd say go with cubecart. It's stable and won't let you down.
To switch to cubecart fm other shopping cart try web service called cart2cart. It automates the migration and makes it accurate www.shopping-cart-migration.com