Key Considerations for Building a Shopping Cart for Your eCommerce Site
Tags: ecommerce
Published: 2020-08-26 13:01:18

---
title: Key Considerations for Building a Shopping Cart for Your eCommerce Site
published: true
description: 
tags: ecommerce
//cover_image: https://direct_url_to_image.jpg
---
Combating shopping cart abandonment has been one of the most challenging tasks eCommerce businesses, and thus many companies rely on developing a custom shopping cart. One of the biggest reasons customers leave an eCommerce website even after adding products to the cart is a poorly designed shopping cart. Let’s see what the options are when it comes to developing a shopping cart for an eCommerce store and what you should always keep in mind.

[As the reports suggest] (https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate), the average shopping cart abandon rate of an eCommerce website is close to 67.91%. It’s painful to see hundreds and thousands of people visiting your online store and then abandoning the shopping carts without buying anything.

Even if you are a renowned brand, the poor custom experience can make customers leave your site without purchasing products. To find the answer, you should ask yourself a few questions:

1) Does your website make it difficult for shoppers to make a purchase?
2) Does your shopping cart provide a great shopping experience?
3) Do you allow customers to make a payment without forcing them to log in? 
4) Does your website provide enough information about the product and also recommend similar products to the customer?
5) Do you display upfront costs for the product or are there hidden charges?

So let’s see what types of shopping cart options are available.

It’s essential to check out the options and possibilities for someone who  intends to get an eCommerce mobile app or website developed,
 
##Hosted Shopping Carts
If you have no technical background or you’re a solopreneur managing things on your own, the chances are that you would have preferred this basic shopping cart. In this, a 3rd party provider offers you shopping cart services on your platform. They are responsible for three fundamental aspects –

* Maintenance of your shopping cart
* Server backups
* Tech and security upgrades
 
These shopping carts are free and that’s their selling point. However, when customers are required to check out and make the payment, they are taken to an entirely new domain where they have to enter their details and make a purchase.

##Licensed/Custom Shopping Carts

Licensed or custom shopping carts offer you complete liberty and flexibility in building your own shopping cart. You could consider your business’s specific requirements and have your shopping cart customized to meet those requirements. Since you are entirely in charge, you can add new features, remove obsolete ones, include 3rd party shopping cart integrations, and do more.

##Common Shopping Cart Problems

Generic or hosted shopping carts come with their own shortcomings, which translates into poor customer experiences.

* Since a hosted shopping cart comes as a generic solution, it might meet all your business requirements.
* No custom features and functionalities
* customers are redirected to a different domain when making a purchase which might raise a question about the security of their credit card details
* Additional hidden changes
* Mandating customers to create an account to buy online
* Lack of different payment methods or options

##Why a Custom Shopping Cart Makes a Perfect Choice

A custom shopping cart makes more business sense for many good reasons. 

* The Custom shopping cart can be consistently upscaled and downscaled as per the business needs.
* It suits all market niche, market segment, business model, messaging, brand values and more.
* Perfect to deliver omnichannel commerce experience
* Meets all your unique distribution needs for bespoke products
* You can have advanced marketing features

Your customers deserve a better shopping experience and you can achieve it with a custom shopping cart. But there are essential things to consider when building a custom shopping cart for your eCommerce store. 

* Make sure that the shopping cart shows your customers the complete picture, including quantity and price per quantity, price, seller details, shopping options, coupon code options and more. 
* Add cart modification features at the checkout page because a customer’s mind is always wavering.
* Besides letting customers add items to the cart, there should be an option to add products to a wish list to buy later.
* When a customer adds items to their cart and leaves (or accidentally closes the tab or app), your shopping cart should be smart enough to remember their products in the cart. 


Other inevitable elements are:

* Your business details and contact information
* Product guarantees
* Estimated date of delivery
* Links to return policies
* Links to terms and conditions
* Links to frequently asked questions
* Trust badges
* Clear CTAs
* And accepted methods of payment


To get in-depth information about [custom shopping cart development and considerations] (https://www.simform.com/custom-shopping-cart/), visit our blog post on this topic. If you want to share any suggestions, kindly comment.