eCommerce Shopping Cart Solution Reviews

Years ago ASP carts were notorious for having long garbled URLs and bloated code. Both no-no’s when it comes to SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Some for the more forward thinking shopping cart solutions added a mod_rewrite to their product that translated the ASP garbled URLs and code into clean easy to read html. The result was unmistakable. The stores using these solutions rankings improved once the product pages were re-indexed by the major search engines.

MonsterCommerce took a different approach. They allowed their clients the ability to generate a separate copy of their product catalog in html. MonsterCommerce called the feature the SEO catalog. The only problem is that the SEO catalog doesn’t rewrite/convert the asp page into html; rather it makes a copy of them in html. This is a dangerous thing to do in terms of SEO as the search engines frown upon duplicate content. A few merchants reported in our forum that they were penalized for using SEO catalog when some of their pages started to be deemed supplemental by Google. Not good.

Just about every merchant will get the dreaded chargeback notice sooner of later. Unfortunately, it’s part of ecommerce and truly hard to avoid. Bearing this in mind, merchants are forced to stay on their toes as the credit card company place all the risk upon merchant's shoulders. An important part of running a successful ecommerce website is minimizing chargebacks so as to not only avoid monetary loss but also to stay in business. If you store racks up too many chargebacks, it won’t be long until the store’s merchant account is revoked.

What is a chargeback?

A charge back occurs when a customer disputes a charge on their monthly statement. The customer calls the issuing credit card company and answers a few question on the charge in question and then the chargeback process is set in motion. A letter is then sent notifying the merchant of the chargeback or charge dispute and from this point forward, it’s up to the merchant to prove the charge is legitimate. If the merchant can’t successfully argue this case, the charge is reversed and money is automatically withdrawn from the merchant’s bank account. To make matter worse, the merchant is then charged with a chargeback fee that is typically in the $20.00 dollar range.

What are the hardest things about running an online store? Using the technology? Fighting off competition in a low barrier entry industry? Sourcing products? Sure. All are big concerns. One surprise challenge for new online store owners is customer expectations. For instance, customers might have the following expectations when shopping your store:

You are available to answers their questions via the phone 24 hours a day seven days a week.

Business days? Never heard on them… “I paid for second day air shipping. How come my order didn’t arrive on Sunday?”

Or, “I placed my order an hour ago. Where’s my tracking number?”

One thing that set 3dCart apart from the other asp hosted shopping cart solutions is their free store design for all new customers.

Most other solutions will either offer new stores a selection of canned templates to choose from or charge an extra fee to work up a custom design (typically a hefty fee). Not so for 3dCart.

3dCart will assign you a graphic designer to work with you in developing a customized storefront. The quality of the designs rival that of any other paid service – scan 3dCart.com for yourself and take a look. This offering alone can save a new storeowner $1,000 – $5,000 off the initial startup costs.

The industry is racing to tighten security standards and the online merchant is now burdened with becoming an expert in all the different credit card industry regulations. The onus is on the merchant to protect all the informationthat they gather. Each credit card company has very specific regulations that all merchants that process their cards must follow. Leading the charge are the CISP and the PCI regulations.

About the CISP and PCI regulations:

CISP compliance is required of all merchants and service providers that store, process, or transmit Visa cardholder data. The program applies to all payment channels, including retail (brick-and-mortar), mail/telephone order, and e-commerce. To achieve compliance with CISP, merchants and service providers must adhere to the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard, which offers a single approach to safeguarding sensitive data for all card brands. This Standard is a result of a collaboration between Visa and MasterCard and is designed to create common industry security requirements, incorporating the CISP requirements. Other card companies operating in the U.S. have also endorsed the PCI Data Security Standard within their respective programs.

Some Questions to Ask a Shopping Cart Solution Before You Sign Up

1. Does your shopping cart solution integrate with my payment gateway?
If you are moving from one solution to another, it’s
important to make sure that your payment gateway will be compatible with your
new solution. If not, you may need to sign up with another payment gateway.
This could require additional setup fees and a curve in
learning a new virtual terminal.

2. Is your shopping cart solution PCI/CISP complaint?
Security and having a hacker-safe store is very important. The credit card
companies mandate security measures so make sure your

eCartReviews Blog Unleashed
Welcome the first entry for the eCartReviews blog. My name is Brian and I’ll be updating this blog. I’m an e-commerce merchant with a number of stores with various host shopping cart solutions. The blog will be used to discuss a range of e-commerce topics that impact merchant. Topics will include e-commerce hosted shopping carts, merchant accounts, SEO and any technology that impacts the industry. I welcome feedback and invite all reader to visit our forum.

Our forum is full of helpful merchants with a wide array experience with all the inner workers of e-commerce. It is a pleasure to maintain this forum made up of a unique group of friendly and knowledgeable merchants, vendors and solution providers. www.ecartreviews.com/forums