The heart of any Web store is the software that it runs on. However, up until relatively recently, software solutions for e-commerce were largely do-it-yourself affairs, consisting of a number of disparate tools lashed together to fulfill the major tasks of an online store.

This situation is changing rapidly. Every day sees the launch of a new software product, each of which claims to be a complete shopping cart. However, close investigation reveals a huge difference in the features that these products offer and the price that is charged for them. It’s not surprising, therefore, that the selection of a suitable shopping cart is a decision that many aspiring Web merchants agonize over.

So, what features should you look for when choosing a shopping cart? There are three basic areas to examine: how easy the store is to set up, how easy it is to process orders through it, and how easy it is to administer on a day-to-day basis.

To an extent, the desirable setup features and options will depend on the skill levels of the individual storeowner. For example, a storeowner with no HTML or CGI experience should look for software that creates a complete store via wizards and templates. On the other hand, more technically savvy merchants will want a solution that provides them with a higher degree of flexibility and enables them, for example, to create their own HTML pages.

Regardless of technical skill levels, there are several features that all merchants should look for. Good documentation and support is a must, of course. Also vital is the ability to import product data from a database file. For example, after you have more than 10 to 20 items for sale, entering product details manually becomes a major chore.

Would-be storeowners should also think carefully before selecting a shopping cart that relies on the use of cookies to track visitors in a store. Although much of the media hype surrounding the use of cookies is dying down, there is still a fair amount of misleading and confusing information around. And as a result, many people still surf with cookies disabled in their browsers and are, therefore, unable to shop in stores that rely on them.

An important part of the setup process is the specification of sales tax and shipping charges. Be careful—many shopping cart solutions currently available have major limitations in these areas. For example, they may have no way of specifying shipping charges for international shipments or they may be limited to being able to collect sales tax from only one U.S. state. The best shopping cart solutions come with preset tax tables that ensure the correct levels of tax are collected on each order. Some shopping cart solutions also interface directly with information from carriers such as UPS and can automatically calculate the shipping cost for each order.

Another area to investigate is the range of advanced features and services that are provided. Services such as domain name registration and automatic search engine submission can save a lot of hassle. And, additional features such as autoresponders and chat rooms can help build a top-class store.

Furthermore, you should also look at order processing. The first two order processing features to check for are the availability of a virtual shopping cart and the ability to transfer data securely using SSL. Most shopping carts now come with these features, but it’s worth checking anyway.

Although the bulk of orders in an online store will probably be placed online and paid with by a credit card, there are still a lot of shoppers who want to shop and pay using alternative methods. In order to maximize your sales, a Web store should, therefore, be capable of accepting orders and payments in as many ways as possible. Available ordering methods include online, fax, telephone, and snail mail, whereas payment methods include credit and debit cards, paper and electronic checks, and digital cash.

And, although most smaller merchants will choose to process their credit card payments offline, it is worth checking that the software is also able to easily handle online processing. This gives flexibility to cope with future growth.

Security is another major concern. Although SSL capability is included with most shopping cart solutions today, some solutions still have major security weaknesses. For example, although they transfer the customer’s credit card details from their browser to the merchant’s server using SSL, they may leave it in an unsecured area of the server where unauthorized parties could access it. Even worse, some send the customers details to the merchant using unencrypted e-mail.

There are some other features that are also worth looking for. For example, discount clubs allow you to automatically give discounts to repeat or high-volume customers. Online order tracking allows customers to instantly check the status of their orders and eases the demands on your customer service team. And, an inventory management facility can automatically remove items from sale once the stock drops below a predetermined level.

You should also ignore all the hype about setting up a Web store and then laying back and waiting for the money to roll in. Running a successful online store requires a great deal of effort. However, you can make things easier by choosing a shopping cart software solution that simplifies the day-to-day running of the store.

The first consideration is the method that is used for accessing and administering the store. Some packages require that changes be made offline and then uploaded to the server. This usually limits changes being made from one specific PC, and this can be a tie. Alternatively, many packages allow stores to be updated online from any Internet-connected PC.

Next, check out how easy it is to add, delete, and amend product data, as well as how easy it is to run special time-limited price promotions. Try to avoid shopping cart solutions that require all changes to be made offline and then for the whole database to be reloaded on to the server.

Also, look out for any additional marketing tools that might be provided. For example, this includes the maintenance of customer buying history and preferences, targeted e-mailing capability, and affiliate program management. These can all prove to be very useful.

Finally (and most importantly), examine closely the reports that are provided. There will be no salesperson in your virtual store to monitor customer behavior and buying patterns—reports are your only source of information. So, without good reports, you will lack data to make fundamental decisions about the effectiveness of your store’s design and product offerings.

Some shopping cart solutions only provide basic analysis of server logs; for example, the number of hits and referrer information. This is totally inadequate. Ensure that the shopping cart solution you choose provides a complete suite of detailed reports; for example, a sales history analysis and information about the most common paths that customers are taking through your store.

So, now that you have built your shopping cart applications, what should you do? Tell your customers to shop until they drop!