Using the right shopping cart program can have a drastic effect on the success of your e-business. If you have a poorly designed shopping cart system, you will lose customers regardless of how great your website is. Consider the factors below when choosing your ideal shopping cart.

How many items do you have to sell?
Many people make the mistake of using shopping carts when there are only a couple of products being sold on the website. In this instance, it is much easier to just setup an online order form. Dont overdo it with shopping carts unless you will have more products in the near future. Shopping carts, just like the physical tool, are designed for purchasing a large number of products. You wouldnt haul around a shopping cart in a grocery store just to buy a pack of gum, and neither should you in the online world.

Software or Service Provider
For most small businesses, I recommend using an ASP, which means the shopping cart service is hosted by a third party company. For ASP shopping carts, setup was designed to require no programming skills and very user friendly. Some ASPs also offer packages that include a merchant account and a payment gateway. This takes care of the painstaking process of setting them up separately.

The downsides to an ASP system are the limitations of the control you have over your shopping cart system. For instance, there is only so much you can do to the appearance to your shopping carts. Other features, such as customer tracking, may not be available at all.

ASP Shopping Cart Suggestions

SecureNetShop.com
Uses HTML pages for setup
Offers many options such as customer tracking

GoEmerchant.com
Includes merchant account in package
Painless setup

Popular Software Options

Miva
Can be hosted on your server or a remote server
Browser based admin
Wizard setup
Preconfigured payment processing
Easily expandable

QuikStore
Low price
Must be hosted on own server
Wizard setup
Configuration editor
Catalog Wizard

These are just the basics of what the companies above offer. For more information please visit their website.