Ecommerce shopping carts - self-hosted, open source, and subscription solutions

I am these days very interested in shopping carts. No, not the metal kind (even though they are kinda cool). I’m talking about online “shopping cart” and ecommerce systems.

Which shopping cart system is the best?

Well, it depends on how much expertise you have in web development and what your business model is.

If you know a lot about web development or have the money to pay somebody who does, you can have many shopping cart solutions adapted to your business.

Most folks I reckon will want to skip the time or expense of customizing an existing shopping cart and integrating it with their existing web businesses.

Narrowing The Field

The way I look at it there are two basic forms of shopping cart:

• The ones used to sell shippable products
• The ones used to sell download products like ebooks and software

Many of the solutions designed to sell either download or shippable products can be adapted to selling the other. I think you’ll find, when you investigate that your business model will come into clarity when you study shopping cart solutions.

Most “ecommerce” stores you see most of the time use some of the myriad varieties of shopping carts. Many of these shopping carts are open-source solutions. What this means is that you or anybody else can modify the code. Theoretically this results in strong code and reliable programming.

Some of these carts are very good. Open-source also means, on a darker note, that hackers can study the code and find vulnerabilities, identify sites with those vulnerabilities, and hack into them in order to wreak havoc and steal.

I’m not trying to scare you. Really.

I think open source is great. I use a lot of open source stuff. This blog runs on WordPress. WordPress is open source. So open source stuff, when it’s had time to “mature” is often pretty stable, well designed, and secure.

Here’s a link to a site with a Roundup of about 25 open source carts

Of course the variety of choices is pretty dizzying. Choosing the wrong cart could cause you big headaches down the road if you find out later it won’t grow with your business needs.

Most of the open source carts are best-suited to shippable products. Few, if any, have affiliate-management program integrated with them. If you want to have affiliates driving traffic to your site, you’ll need to integrate the scripts you are using so your customers have a smooth experience and your affiliates feel secure they will be paid.

Carts For Download Products

For ebook and software marketers these open source carts can be modified but I wouldn’t bother, personally. That’s because there are a lot of other great options for selling “downloadables”.

Some of the carts for downloadable products are scripts you run on your own hosting account. Others are subscription services you pay for every month.

Some of the better carts for download products aren’t free like most of the open source carts above, but they usually offer features you don’t find in the carts meant for selling shippable products.

Carts designed for downloadable products often include link generators to create links that expire for security of your products. For software with registration codes that’s not much of an issue because you control access based on who paid for the registration, but for ebooks you want to make sure the only people who get to download the product are those who paid for it.

Another useful feature some of the carts for download products have is an affiliate-management system. Some have coupon-systems, systems for making back-end offers, and so forth. The list of available features on some of the carts is pretty extensive because internet marketers are clever people who are always inventing clever ways to sell more downloads.

Infusionsoft and Nanacast

I don’t personally use either of these systems. Both are monthly subscription services. I’ve bought stuff from marketers using both though and both have some rich features. Part of what inspired me to write this blog post was a video by a technical expert in ecommerce. He compares Nanacast to Infusionsoft. He has a lot of experience with Infusionsoft, but for his own business he chose Nanacast. After hearing his comments, I can see why.

Here’s the link: Jesus, a.k.a. BlueSquares talks about Nanacast vs. Insusionsoft

Another well-known cart is 1ShoppingCart

I don’t use any of the carts I’ve mentioned for my downloadable products business. I use a solution I host myself so I pay no monthly fees. It has the features I want and is very flexible. It’s called Delavo. I liked it so much I became an “ambassador” which means I’m authorized to distribute the core script as I like.

I don’t just give Delavo licenses away however, even though I can. I want to make sure whoever I give a license to is going to use it so I only include it as a bonus. I can set it up for you with a year of hosting for your domain for $99. I’m not selling the script, just the 1-year hosting and my services of setting up the script for you and supporting you in getting your system up and running to your satisfaction.

If you’d like to learn more about Delavo, I recommend you download my free report DELAVO™ Unraveled – 21 Reasons Why YOU Cannot Afford Not To Use DELAVO™. You can learn about Delavo and see if the potential inspires you.

I hope you’ve learned something here today. Please leave comments and questions below. I’ll write more on the subject if readers show interest.

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