Here is something you might not be fully aware of: the terms 'shopping cart' and 'e-commerce platform' are used interchangeably online. There are article titles that indicate shopping carts will be compared, and then the writer jumps right in and writes about e-commerce platforms.
I am sure you will agree with me that they are not the same. Shopping carts are software that enables buying and paying; e-commerce platforms are more comprehensive, enabling a shopping experience, markets, product displays, data analytics, and much more.
In this article, we will focus on shopping carts, what they are and why online merchants need them. Then we will go into the difference between hosted and open-source solutions.
A shopping cart is a software that facilitates selling and shopping. Integrated into a website, the software allows shoppers and website visitors to select items for purchase on the front side and allows businesses to sell and bill for those products on the back end.
The software acts as a digital storefront, complete with an image of a shopping cart where shoppers can put their purchases. But the software does much more than that. It arranges everything to do with orders, billing, payments, and shipping.
Essentially, you can't run an online store without a shopping cart.
Shoppers put their chosen items in the shopping cart, and the shopping cart will hold and save all their choices, and prompt them to follow the steps to complete the purchase.
A shopping cart displays information like
The purpose of a shopping cart is to enable sales on a website. A shopping cart comprises front-end and back-end functionalities. The front end is what customers see. It should be visually appealing and easy to navigate, so a customer knows exactly what to do to make a purchase.
On the back end, the shopping cart features enable selling by storing products, data, and order details, accepting payments, calculating tax and shipping costs, and handling order fulfilment.
A website shopping cart is one aspect of an e-commerce store with specific features and functions to enable buying and selling. A website shopping cart is either add-on software or comes integrated with an e-commerce platform. For instance, the Shopify platform has its own shopping carts, so many people refer to Shopify as a shopping card, but it's much more than a shopping cart.
Shopify is an e-commerce platform, not just a shopping cart.
An e-commerce platform fulfils many more functions, including marketing campaigns. So, if you want to run an online store, it's important to understand that there's a distinction between basic shopping carts and e-commerce platforms.
There are two main types of e-commerce shopping carts, namely hosted shopping cart solutions and open-source shopping cart systems.
An open-source shopping cart is a software for which the original source code is freely available to modify. With an open-source shopping cart, store owners don’t have to pay a licensing fee, yet they have complete control of their website by being able to work with the source code.
Open-source shopping carts are completely customizable. Website owners have more control over the functionality and design of the shopping cart, but this freedom comes with the need for more technical resources to implement and maintain the site. Some open-source e-commerce solutions are Magento, OpenCart, WooCommerce, and PrestaShop.
On the other hand, a hosted shopping cart is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution. These are shopping cart or e-commerce platform solutions hosted and maintained by a third party. Shopify is a good example. Shopify store owners don't have to download a separate plugin; the shopping cart is integrated into the e-commerce platform and available on the cloud, the same as the rest of the store.
The shop owner is not responsible for data security, server backups, maintenance, or upgrades – the SaaS provider provides these. This is the reason why a hosted shopping cart is very popular with people who don't want to be bothered by these issues.
Some hosted e-commerce solutions are Shopify, 3DCart, BigCommerce, and Squarespace.
Open-source shopping cart software is popular because it
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Hosted shopping car software is popular because it
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Basically, when you have to choose between a hosted and an open-source shopping cart solution, you are choosing between solutions that are either easy to use but limiting or customizable but too complex.
The choice will depend on your goals, your skills, and your budget. If you want a basic store with a few products that can work with an integrated shopping cart, then you should go for a hosted solution, especially if you have a limited budget.
If you plan to have a big online store selling many products, and you can afford to employ technical staff, you might get more satisfaction from an open-source solution.
Making the right choice between a hosted shopping cart solution and an open-source solution is important because it will make a difference to your store and customers. The right shopping cart solution will make the shopping cart experience seamless for customers, leading to more sales.
Also, the right software will prevent shopping cart abandonment, which affects the store's bottom line.
If you are planning to migrate your store to another platform, you can make use of the e-commerce migration services of Cart2Cart. Cart2Cart is an automated shopping cart migration service that follows a sound e-commerce migration strategy to ensure safe and secure data migration for online store owners.