November 2, 2008

How Your Online Shopping Cart Affects Sales

Think about the last time you went into Starbucks, Macy's, or Payless to buy something. I bet the experience you had during check out affected the next time you would visit that retail location. In fact, if the line was too long I bet you might have said forget it and left without buying anything.

The online shopping experience for the customer is equally critical. That's why Amazon.com invests vast resources to ensure that its checkout experience, in addition to the overall shopping experience, is as good as possible. If you haven't given your retail web site a serious review you should. You might even consider surveying your customers and ask them what they think. Halloween is over and the holiday shopping season is only a few short weeks away.

The more quick and easy your checkout process is, the more likely your customer is to complete the purchase instead of abandoning the cart without buying. For example, shopping cart provider Interspire offers a one page shopping cart system. One page shopping carts are nice because the online shopper can do all of their 'check out' things in one place and not have to click page after page after page.

According to Interspire's recent press release, Interspire Shopping Cart 3.5 encourages increased conversion rates with its simple checkout, and offers integration of multiple payment options including Google Checkout. It also offers several features to make store management easier for the seller, including iPhone-friendly login access to the store control panel, automatic currency conversion, Quickbooks syncing, and analytics.

Pricing for the Interspire Shopping Cart Starter Edition is $295, Professional Edition is $995 and Ultimate is $1,795.

Laura Leites, Assistant Editor, Smallbiztechnology.com

Photo credit: Greefus Groinks

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