Back in April 2008, my company launched a new initiative to create a direct-sell opportunity with our product line. We spent some time talking to our development team to create a "shopping cart" for our customers, but found that time and money can be saved by using a shopping cart template, instead. I will admit that we should have gone this route from the onset.

The internet has allowed the public to browse, and buy items online for over 14 years now. The last eight years has really seen an increase in this type of traffic. To increase our dollars from regular foot traffic, we decided it was time to branch out to e commerce. We have a useful website for general information about our store, and our products, but no real descriptions. We have now come to the conclusion that a total revamp would be better suited to help bring in new customers, while better serving those we already have.

Our site is not a one-size-fits-all type, but one we had designed specifically for us to meet our needs. That is why we considered having a shopping cart built from the ground up so that we can have what we want customized on the site to our liking. When doing something like this, you will run into issues with data bases, and bank systems that become a headache after a short while. Once we latched on to a few shopping cart templates, and really saw the potential with them, we only really had to decide on which one.
As I mentioned earlier, this became a cost savings measure on top of everything else, and one that would have saved us thousands in the beginning had we looked better into what was available. Templates of this sort are not free, or inexpensive, but well worth the costs in less than the first year if all things are considered.

A good system will be able to do many things for you. We needed to capture customer information for buying habits, and future visits. A big need here is that we can either predict an item need going forward for regular clients, or create custom offers based on previous product purchases. It is not enough to get new customers, but to keep the ones you already have.
You need to make sure that payment options, and banking systems all work well together to ensure you receive the revenue generated by your site. We work with a smaller, community-based bank, and therefore had to make sure we met their standards for electronic deposits. It is your money, and you want to go to the correct place every time.

One of the biggest needs for this involved our inventory and product offerings. With an electronic system like this, we wanted our inventory tied to the sales system to let us know product levels. We wanted to group items by brand, size, cost, and other drill down variances and search methods. This would make our ability to quickly meet the needs of the client possible. If we can create a speedy, and pleasant shopping experience, we can create new clients, and further elate our current ones by not having them stand in lines in our store.

The best place to start is the internet to find what you want. There are certainly many brands offered from many companies across the country. Do yourself a favor and spend the time necessary to create a needs list so that you can weigh the options offered by all vendors, and also look at their support to make sure you are able to get going with few problems. I will say this again, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. Do some good research on what you need, and get a shopping cart template to save yourself the time you need to sell more products.