Consumers continue to gravitate towards online stores due their enticing convenience and availability for 24/7. With the increased inclination, customers are demanding more and more sophisticated e-commerce software. Fortunately, you can choose advanced features for your e-commerce shopping cart to help you increase your sales and succeed in the online business.

Online shopping carts are the equivalent of engines that help keep online stores running swimmingly. You would want to choose an e-commerce cart that not only looks after your needs but also meets the needs of customers. While the primary determinants for your shopping cart are budget and unique goals, several e-commerce cart features will help you in boosting the confidence of clients as well as encouraging repeated sales.

1. Payment Options

Most of the visitors of online stores prefer payment by credit cards. Opening a merchant account is the best way to use your online shopping cart software to process credit card transactions in real-time. However, you should not incline yourself to only the credit card payment method. Choosing an e-commerce software that allows alternative payment methods, will be of help in retaining customers who wary of giving delicate financial info online.

2. Site Search and Browse

Speed is what draws shoppers to online stores – and it all starts with time-saving search. Consumers expect online stores to create an allowance for them to find the product they need promptly. Customers also like navigating via categories, brand, and along with browsing by price. If your e-commerce software does not provide a place for searching by clients, shoppers will most likely decide to look elsewhere for their satisfaction.

3. Product Reviews

Online stores maximally promote their products to merit shoppers. However, no matter how they promote products, having reviews by other buyers will have a significant impact. Study shows that about 63% of online shoppers are more likely to purchase from an online store if it has product reviews and ratings. Let the ‘word of mouth’ work for you by choosing an online shopping cart that creates room for product reviews and ratings.

4. Registry/Wish List

Shoppers at online stores frequently buy gifts for particular occasions. This reason is what makes many e-commerce shopping carts embed a registry option, which makes the process simpler. The so-called ‘wish lists’, also help customers in saving their time at online stores. This time saving comes from the option that allows customers to save items and come to make purchases at a later date. More often than not, when your online shopping cart allows shoppers to deal with their items as they wish, will result in a higher satisfaction.

5. Real-Time Inventory

It is a prevalent complaint by many customers who frequent shop online stores – a shopper takes on a lengthy process to place an order only later to find out that the product they ordered for was not really in the store. Real-time inventory management is of the essence in maintaining customers at online stores. Online stores should ensure that what their online shoppers sees on their screens is available for prompt delivery to the buyers’ doorstep.

6. Express Checkout

The checking out process for many online stores can be as frustrative – if not more so – as standing in a long checkout line at a brick and mortar store. When your shoppers are ready to buy from your store, you should make the buying process a simple as possible. Some online shopping carts offer an express checkout option to their registered users, which pulls up their stored payments and their billing information when they log in.

7. Order Tracking

An efficient e-commerce shopping cart should be of great help in informing your customers of every step – even after placing their orders. To build customer’s confidence in their purchase and your brand, consider a system that allows you to display automated order confirmation and shipping notification emails. If a new customer registers at your site, they would want to be able to track every step of their order and delivery by just logging into the account they created upon registration.

8. Special Offers

Looking for a way to woo prospective customers in, as well as existing customer that have remained inactive for a while? Online shopping carts can help you with that. E-commerce shopping carts can be of great assistance in promoting special offers like coupon codes, discounts, gift cards and free shipping. These offers serve a dual purpose. They motivate shoppers to take advantage of your offers, while allowing you to compete fairly in the current competitive online market.

9. Website Security

You should ensure you choose an online shopping cart with an inbuilt Secure Socket Layer (SSL) data encryption for site security. Naturally, customers feel more confident with an online store displaying an SSL certificate on their homepages. The extra security will ensure the safety of the personal information of your clients, thereby increasing their chances of making a purchase and making a repeated purchase later.

10. Functional Product Images

In an e-commerce site, product images are among the best communication tools with customers. Although product images are usually a standard feature on all shopping carts, it is of benefit to your clients and you to find a flexible solution that allows you to resize the images. Customers on the online stores prefer large and bright images. Additionally, if your e-commerce platform supports zooming of the product images, more customers will want to buy from your store.

11. Easy Integration with Third Party Solutions

Choosing an online shopping site with a modular construction allowing you to add third-party solution easily is of paramount importance. For example, you would want a proper management of your newsletters on your online store. Your site should be able to integrate easily with such solutions from third parties. Such a feature will not only allow you to customize your site but will also be helpful in making your customers’ shopping experience a great one.

For the success of any online stores, e-commerce shopping carts are of the essence. When choosing an online shopping cart for your enterprise, keep customer satisfaction a priority and customers will reward you with their loyalty. In order to get a wider reach, it is advisable to select an e-commerce platform that is very responsive and optimized for mobile viewing.

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