Custom Shopping Cart Design

One of biggest questions a customer can ask when thinking about selling a product online is this:

Can I use an off the shelf cart or do I need a custom design?

This is a question that the customer must discuss with their developer. The developer's answer will be based on several factors that may or may not yield the best results for the customer.

Shopping cart decision tree
Start Here
My products have dependencies that are very complex: If a product has option A, then it can't have option B, but it can have option C.
The options for my products are products themselves that radically change the price point or shipping options. Example: Products with option C can't be shipping outside of the local area. Example 2: Items with packaging A can be shipping, but packaging B is for local delivery only.
Some or all of my products have complex shipping: Example: Items can't be shipped by UPS or USPS or shipping needs to be handled separately
My products or service has limited qualities based on specific options: Example: Service are time dependent, such as 10am appointments. Example 2: Appointments need to be tracked separately.
My product or service will use very complex coupons/discounts based on geography, limited qualities, based on specific product options or are time dependent. Example: A coupon may only work if product A and B are purchased at the same time.(This has limited support in off the self carts)
My product requires bidding (ebay style)
You can likely use a standard off the shelf cart

From the above decision tree, it is clear that the products are really the driving force in the decision if a standard shopping cart is the best choice or not. This is an important element in the decision process and MUST be considered before work is started on the web site.

Using the wrong shopping cart type will make a project VERY expensive, because it will fail and need to be redone.

Remember, not every developer can support every type of shopping cart. Make sure you choose the correct developer for the type of cart that you need. If a developer offers a cart solution that doesn't seem to fit the needs of the project, consider this a red flag.

The choice of a custom cart or an off the shelf cart is a difficult one, most projects work with standard off the shelf carts, such as X-cart or hosted cart solutions such as Magneto. For those projects that don't fit the off the shelf model, a custom cart will be more expensive, but it will be the only way to sell product with the required customizations.

The majority of upset customers that approach us tell us for help with existing carts, tell us that their current cart solution does not seem to work or their developer tells them that it doesn't support specific options that they feel are necessary to sell their products!

Customers can avoid these problems by clearly defining the products with their developer prior to starting on the cart design. The following must be known prior to starting a cart project. If this information is not known, then it is too early to engage a developer:

• Products that will be sold
• Options available for these products
• Price structure of the products
• Price structure of the options
• Shipping options that will be used
• Packaging option
• Discount coupons/discount or wholesale pricing
• Discounts for specific types of customers
• Limitations on purchase (Who, what, when)
• Payment methods

Do not assume that if your cart solution does not appear to have the functionality required early in development stages that it can be added later. For example, X-cart

Finally, if there is any question if the cart is the correct choices, it is strongly suggested that you have your developer install the cart and then enter a sample product, the options, coupons and shipping information so that the cart can be tested. If everything works as expected, then the cart is the correct choice. If something doesn't work, don't continue with that choice.

If you have any questions we would be glad to help you go over your options and look at your current proposal to insure that you are asking the right questions.