[Updated] List Of Top 8 Best Shopping Cart Software 2017: Detail Reviews

In online marketing, a shopping cart is an e-commerce software on a web server that is integrated allows visitors to an Internet site to facilitate the purchase of a product or service over an online retailer's site. For an online website selling products or services online, the shopping cart is an essential and common metaphor that originally came from the grocery store shopping cart.

It specifies the catalog or other pages allowing online shopping customers to accumulate a list of items, described as "moving items to the shopping cart" or "add to cart" where a user read and make necessary selections to complete the ordering process.

At the checkout, the software automatically calculates a total for the order adding the taxes and applying the discount or coupons, including shipping and as applicable. Typically, it acts as an interface between a company's website, and its infrastructure to the deepest level.

This interface allows the consumer to select the product he/she wants; review what is selected by them to be bought; make necessary modifications or additions, and purchase the merchandise by making or choosing the payment option as provided.

[Updated] List Of Top 8 Best Shopping Cart Software 2017: Detail Reviews

So typically, a user checks off a product or service that are to be ordered and then when ordering is finished, it indicates and automatically proceeds to a page where the total order is confirmed. Further it provides the ability to capture a client's payment information, but in the case of online payments by using credit card , debit cards or net banking they have to rely on the software module of secure gateway providers like PayUmomey and CCavenue, in conjunction with the secure payment gateway , transaction to be completely secure. Therefore, a shopping cart over a web application provides users with the ability to shop hassle free.

Some setup additions are done in the code of the website , and the shopping cart software is installed on the server which hosts the site, further integrating a secure server which accepts sensitive ordering information and transactions. E-shopping carts are usually implemented using HTTP cookies or query strings . In the server based implementations data related to the shopping cart is kept in the session object.

The selection is made by the user on different items from the cart. Further in the process of finalizing the transaction, the information is accessed accompanied by an order is generated against the selected item which therefore cleans the shopping cart.

Payment made by the customer is accepted, or the chosen payment option is processed . Information about the order is distributed to the merchant, payment processor, and other concerned parties. Therefore, a Shopping cart bridges the gap between shopping and buying, so having the best shopping cart software is extremely important for an online web application or web site.

Those who are just starting out and are new to the electronic market may not be familiar with the concept. Numerous people have made online purchases at some point in their lives, but these consumers don't realize the capability of shopping carts and how needful they are. Starting with the basics, a shopping cart has three common aspects over which they will be reviewed further in our context:

Storing product information
Being a gateway for order, catalogue and customer management
Rendering product data, categories, and site to be displayed to the user.

Another aspect of understanding could be as follows: The online shopping carts are much similar to the tangible ones that are at the supermarket, but it wears many more hats. It's also the shelves, the building, the clearance sign, the cash register and often the credit card machine relaying information back to the bank.

Shopping carts because of their crucial unenvied role are now being sold as an independent piece of software, this help company to quickly integrate them into their unique online websites or pages thus decreasing the time and man power involved. Also, now they are being offered as a feature from a service that will create and host a company's ecommerce website.

Mostly all of the shopping carts strictly allow items to be added to a basket to proceed to the checkout process; some shopping cart software also provides additional features that could be used by an Internet merchant completely manage an online store. Data like products, categories, discounts, orders, customers are usually stored in a database .

The Available options i.e. shopping carts are divided into three different categories:

Hosted shopping carts:

In this software is never downloaded or added to personal servers else the service is provided by a third-party firm hosted service provider or shortly "hosts." They are to be paid on a monthly basis or yearly as convenient and required.

These services may also charge some percentage of the sales generated by the online store by charging per transaction. They are also responsible for server backups, maintenance, and upgrades. The main drawback with hosted solutions is that customers are directed to another domain for payment processing.

Licensed shopping carts:

This type of shopping cart category allows the business owners to build the shopping cart according to their will and customize it to their specific needs. This is achieved by downloading the software after buying it by paying a onetime fee for attaining the license to use it, although there is much free software as well they do not provide enough options and versatility in their functions.

This software is further installed on the web server. It provides a much greater flexibility in changing features and functionality, and also allows the addition of third-party tools if needed. Further one, a merchant, owns the license to use the software It can be hosted on any web server meeting the server requirements.

Such software is released under an open source license that is nothing is to be paid for using it and hence free of charge but often with limited functionality. The merchant hosts the software with a Web hosting service allowing the users to access and modify the source code of the entire online store.

Hosted shopping cart solutions are the most recommended for those who are up for beginning their venture and are new to the owners aren't electronic market because they require less technical expertise.

That's not to say all new online retail store adept in IT, but a hosted solution may reduce the time for setting up a new software by itself or adding a new licensed software to the servers which ultimately helps to focus on other aspects of operations.

There are numerous providers of shopping cart software on the market today, and companies must first evaluate their individual needs before making a final decision on which solution is best for them. Here we will be doing the same by enlisting some of the best shopping cart software in the market. So, let's get started with the best shopping cart software which you can use today.

[Updated] List Of Top 8 Best Shopping Cart Software 2017 With Detail Reviews

1. Shopify

Shopify with its shopping cart software delivers both quality functions and beautiful interface that are much needed to attract the customers. It's one of the most popular e-commerce solutions, and right now the best and the most trusted and is being used by over 150,000 stores worldwide. It offers excellent features with an equally good customer support.

It has an amazing 99% user satisfaction rating by statistics. Its entry subscription completely values for money providing the b best-in-class features for this price. Shopify also offers a free trial plan which one can use to check out the features, compatibility with their web application and understand how it can boost the business. One just needs to sign up for the free trial.

Shopify has clients mostly from the small and medium businesses, but now many large enterprises are inclining towards it because of its amazingly powerful analytics, great extensible functions, and perfect 24/7 tech support.

It also offers a native app for iOS that can give backend capabilities and not just storefront functions. If one needs an even advanced version of the software, Shopify Plus is the solution which has some more complex features and tools.

Ultimately we can sum up to the conclusion that Shopify is a complete shopping cart software focusing the small and medium-sized businesses and is highly recommended as the top choice because of its worry-free, easy-to-use, robust shopping cart software system.

It has a slightly lower user satisfaction rating when compared with Shopify but is still a whopping 98%. This software targets the small and medium businesses requiring a powerful shopping cart solution. 3dcart is easy to use and comes with a powerful functionality supporting great customization and integration options

Why is 3dcart being added in this list of popular shopping cart software can be answered by specifying its features? One can set up the app pretty quickly as it is very easy and can start selling the same day. What makes it more convenient is its drag-and-drop feature, tick-box settings, and more than 100 amazing conversion optimized designs.

It also offers a wide range of product attribute variations and options. 3dcart is unique because being shopping cart solutions its marketing capabilities to help you promote products are unbeatable. It supports intuitive navigation which helps to guide buyers through the buying process.

3. ShopSite

ShopSite shopping carts solutions have a customer satisfaction rating of nearly 93% which is quite decent and makes it very much competitive. With a very minimal monthly price, one can get ShopSite up and run in minutes. It is very efficient is generating mobile-optimized pages. Instantly one can get SEO-compliant pages.

It also supports over 50 themes and 25 payment gateways and added coupons, gift certificates and more that attract the consumers. Unlike more comprehensive shopping cart solutions, ShopSite stands out by letting their users build the website or customize its part with no HTML skills. Tech support is ready to help with screen references that display answers specific to the page.

ShopSite being a basic eCommerce solution is extremely fast to setup and easy to use, here are some of the benefits of ShopSite
Supports built-in features like mobile commerce, Facebook stores, coupons, gift certificates, etc.
One need not be limited to a specific host while using as you can host your store anywhere saving ridiculous hosting fees.
Wide selection of compatible payment gateways enables the customers to pay with their preferred methods.

Pinnacle Cart shopping cart solutions provide a complete and shockingly versatile solution package for online sellers. It has everything a business needs for electronic sales just lacks a point-of-sale option.

If you are new to the market and you are just getting started with online sales, you can create an entire e-commerce trade through Pinnacle Cart.

It can provide you an established business and a distinct individual website. It helps one to continue using its existing merchant account, web address payment processor, and payment gateway, Pinnacle Cart even also provides a completely free migration service which helps sellers to move their e-commerce sales from another shopping cart provider.

Once a client signs his/her business with Pinnacle Cart, he/she can try it for a free 14-day trial. This can be achieved by using the three-step quick start guide. It offers a downloadable manual which is available l, as well as a knowledge base access to the online forums and 24×7 telephone support if the user experiences any problems. The key Features that make Pinnacle cart stand out are enlisted:

5. Magento

Unlike hosted solutions such as Shopify that charge a monthly or yearly fee, Magento is a completely free, open source shopping cart solution that can be used run a business that sells products or services online by installing on your server. It supports everything from allowing customers to make purchases from the site and for to collect payments and track orders.

Magento offers the following advantages:

It's free. The community edition of Magento is free to download, and one could install it on the server.
It's amazingly powerful. Magento almost has every feature that one needs to build and manage an online store.
It's greatly flexible. Magento provides a function of switching on or off and also programming additional functionality into Magento.
It's very popular.

Magento is getting More and more online merchants to attract to itself, so now it has built an engaged community and logs with a plenty of online documentation and videos. These blogs and videos make learning easy and help to find answers to the queries, and further troubleshooting the problems.

Online sales success is dependent on one's ability to convince their clients and shoppers to add items to their shopping carts which are greatly handled by Magento. Although Magento does support automatic creating of product listings, it provides the capabilities so that one can do it with ease, like:

Some Distinctive features possessed by Magento:

5. GoDaddy Quick Shopping Cart

The GoDaddy Quick Shopping Cart solution is a basic e-commerce tool that provides the ability to design and deploy an online store. This online store is fully functional, and one can sell and ship products and services. Currently, GoDaddy main website does not provide the GoDaddy Quick Shopping Cart for purchase. Instead, if one wants to but it GoDaddy customer support is the only way which makes it a little inconvenient, but this can be ignored because of the features provided.

You can use your GoDaddy account management page to manage the GoDaddy Quick Shopping Cart, along with any domains, web hosting, or other GoDaddy products that are being bought. Customers can purchase products using all major credit or debit cards as well as PayPal. It also has an option for cash on delivery.

There are three levels of service which are available for the shopping cart; each level had increased features, functionalities and benefits. The basic service allows to create a 20-product catalogue; the next level allows a 100-product catalogue, and the top tier allows the sale of an unlimited number of products.

Regardless of the tier level, every GoDaddy Quick Shopping Cart package includes free hosting, although the amount of space the free hosting allows depends on the shopping cart package you purchase.

Also, the GoDaddy Quick Shopping Cart has a three-step approach which is used for making products and services available for purchase. First, the design and look of the shopping cart are selected. Next, products are added to a catalog with the shipping options available for each product. Finally, the store is published by, and products are made available for sale.

Some Distinctive features by GoDaddy Quick Shopping Cart :

Automatic upload of product catalog to eBay

Integrating with QuickBooks
Payments can be accepted from all major credit and debit cards and even Paypal.
Estimation of the accurate shipping costs.
Customizable look and feel of the shopping cart

The aim of any business is to obtain revenue and keep customers happy safely. X-Cart is secure e-commerce shopping cart helps in delivering both. X-Cart can be an online storefront and also can be a mobile point-of-sale (POS) system. So, whether the client is a sole proprietor or an enterprise selling products worth thousands of dollars via the web, this can be used anywhere by anyone.

X- cart being built on open source code has a storefront that enables it to automatically adapts when opened on a phone or tablet or any other small device. Elements have the ability to rearrange themselves spontaneously regardless of the platform which is achieved by the help of predefined libraries, proving it to be a truly universal storefront for use on any device.

C-cart is QuickBooks integration compatible with QuickBooks Pro, Premier, Enterprise, Point of Sale, and International editions which help in automating the e-commerce accounting. The ability to review shopping cart contents from any page within the store is greatly appreciated by the shopper and is also very convenient with an added option to check out from any page.

Also, read:

The checkout is associated with a number of options, you can create an account, social media accounts such as Facebook or Google+ could be used, or the order could be placed anonymously without registering on the site. Amazon pay and PayPal are supported, further simplifying the order process for shoppers.

X-Cart being POS system provides an edge to the businesses as they can manage orders in different ways using a single web interface. The POS supports the business in every aspect -the trade show, over a website, or a storefront. Lets The site administrators can use this flexibility to control everything from orders to inventory. They can accept payments, offer hard-copy receipts, and use barcode labels. Also, the PoS facilitates businesses to process credit card payments on iOS or Android devices.

Some Distinctive features by X-mart:

It offers More than 45 payment gateways.
X-Cart store could be set up by any user.
Managing the virtual private server is made possible with the help of hosting.
Marketing, search, analytics, detailed reports, and more are included.
X-Cart is a PCI DSS-compliant software and hence can be run on private servers.

Ecwid is a web-based online store builder that is designed for businesses and individuals who have existing websites. Unlike other similar solutions, Ecwid doesn't require users to create a new e-commerce website, but rather build an online store they can add to their website.

Ecwid allows users to create online catalogs using the intuitive builder functionality provided. This tool comes with some rich features such as photos, accepting payment via credit cards, shipping rates, etc. Ecwid is a widget and a not a standalone online store which differs it from other e-commerce platforms

Ecwid can be embedded not only on your website, but also on your business page on social platforms like Facebook or Twitter, mobile apps, blogs, and marketplaces.

So why to choose Ecwid? If you already have an existing website and you are running a business over it, then Ecwid is an e-commerce solution for you. With Ecwid, you do not have to build an e-commerce website from the ground up. That option is quite expensive and can take a lot of time before you can launch your online store .

Ecwid speeds up the process by allowing you to build an online store that you can instantly embed to your existing websites, social business pages, blogs, mobile apps, and marketplaces.

Installation is easy as all you need is place a few HTML/JavaScript lines to your website and you are good to go. Your Ecwid store piggybacks on your website, so you don't have to spend a significant amount of time and money creating a separate online store or a new e-commerce website. If your website is powered by either Joomla, Drupal, or WordPress (you must have a WordPress business account), you can instantly launch your e-commerce widget with Ecwid's pre-made integration module.

Aside from the ease of creation and installation, Ecwid boasts of having very responsive storefronts. That means your Ecwid online stores are optimized for all devices and operating systems. Your products and catalogs are displayed correctly on any device - smartphones, tablets, and desktops.

Ecwid offers a point of sale functionality that enables you to accept payments using your Apple smartphone or tablet. This feature delivers unparalleled flexibility, allowing you to accept payments whether online or in physical locations - concerts, malls, stores, and markets. These are few features not offered by many similar e-commerce software and solutions.

8. PrestaShop

Why choose Prestashop? Here are some of the very good reasons:

It is free to a huge community of open source experts who support it to keep it that way.
Building online stores from scratch is very easy. Store elements are customizable allowing the users to bring in their corporate elements and make the stores their own.
Add-on modules can be used to improve Stores and internal functions.
Prestashop online store provides expert and comprehensive training materials for users at all levels
Easy management of product listing, payments, shipping, manufacturers, and suppliers.
Services and applications being integrated with a wide host of leading business

Free - PrestaShop is the industry's first and only freemium, fully hosted and supported open source e-commerce platform, available for download or hosted in the cloud. PrestaShop's open-source software allows merchants to have a customizable, up-and-running store in minutes and without the license fees or revenue percentages that PrestaShop's competitors charge, making e-commerce more accessible around the globe. The freemium platform is empowering retailers all over the world to create localized, customizable e-commerce stores with ease and scalability.

Open-source - PrestaShop's software is completely open-source, allowing merchants and developers to build infinitely customizable sites, and draw on one another for support and inspiration. PrestaShop's users also benefit from the additional support and innovation of the software's 850,000 members open-source community.

PrestaShop's community members have made countless invaluable contributions to PrestaShop's software - including the translation of the software into 65 languages and the development of thousands of modules and themes available in PrestaShop's Addons Marketplace, further eliminating the technical, language and financial barriers to entrepreneurship.

Issues associated with a Shopping Cart Software

The naming of the shopping cart: Some e-tailers confuse naming their shopping cart something else such as basket, bookbag, etc. This can confuse the minds of buyers. It is advisable to simply term the item 'shopping cart' and add a graphic image of a shopping cart for quick and easy access.
Shopping Cart Abandonment: Many online retailers face the issue of high rates of shopping cart abandonment. To reduce the rates and facilitate easy buying, they should make their check out procedure simple and quick. You can provide info about delivery costs early in the process, show stock availability to let customers know whether a product is in stock, and explain the different stages in the buying process and how long it will take to complete the transaction

Shopping carts, also known as e-commerce website software solutions are a very complicated purchase for businesses. Therefore choosing the right tool and crucial by avoiding wrong ones. Else it can result in significant loss of time and money. Here we gave an overview helping you select the best shopping cart tool for successful processing in electronic commerce is and ultimately the success of your online business.