What WordPress Shopping Cart Should I Use?
This is another of the most frequently asked questions that our staff receives from clients who are considering implementing e-commerce on a WordPress Website.
Several of the items that you will want to consider while doing your research for a shopping cart for your website is the aesthetics (how it will look), usability issues, will your products have different attributes (size, color, etc.) how well it integrates with your current platform and your payment gateway and of course security of the data and processing and if you have your own SSL certificate installed on the server.
As providing a secure environment for your customers is of paramount importance lets begin our discussion by covering some of the basics.
You should first start researching to make sure that your hosting provider is PCI (Payment Card Industry) Compliancy is up-to-date as both Visa and MasterCard require that hosting providers revalidate their compliance annually.
Also confirm that they will allow you to install (or they will install) your own SSL certificate.
Once these issues are addressed, here are three Word Press Shopping Cart Plugins that we would recommend that you check out;
WP Commerce is one of the oldest shopping cart plugins available and here are some of its advantages:
- Works with virtually any WordPress Theme with little or no customization.
- Offers short code support (http://codex.wordpress.org/Shortcode_API)
- Works with physical or digital products
- Has flexible shipping options
- Has support for multiple gateways
- Offers shipping discounts
- Allows use of custom post types
- Third Party ad-ons are offered (at extra cost)
- It’s Free!!
Shopp WP Plugin Shopping cart introduced in 2009 by its developer Jonathan Davis. Some of Shopp’s advantages are:
- Presently support for 18 payment gateways
- Six built in calculators
- Two Hundred template tags
- Ability to store data on a on-site server or Amazon S3 Server
- Offers multiple payment options
- Offers Smart categories
- RSS Feeds for all categories
- $55 (plus shipping/gateway add-ons)
One disadvantage that has been noted in reviews of the Shopp Plugin is product support.
If you go to their website you’ll find that to even ask a pre-sale question that you have to be logged in and that it’s noted that replies can take as long as three days.
On the Echohosting.net website they wrote “We selected a product that had no support. If you are lucky enough and confident enough with your skills you may want to purchase Shopp’s plug-in. If your end up needing support, good luck. Nobody responded to our support requests or answered any emails. In a word, their support was non-existent. $75 down the drain.”
PHPurchase – WordPress E-Commerce Plugin – One of the best E-Commerce solutions that we have found on the market today, some of its features;
- Multiple Payment Gateways
- Ability to calculate tax by state and zip code
- Printer friendly receipts
- LOTS of short code support
- Ability to integrate with membership and subscription websites through Authorize.net
- Integration with GavityForms (One of the best contact forms)
- Ability to offer payment plans
- Affiliate program integration
- Multiple shipping options
- Price: $49/$99
Do you have a WordPress website that has a shopping cart? If so we would love to hear your comments and reviews.
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3 Responses to What WordPress Shopping Cart Should I Use?
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We use 1shoppingcart with a “Thesis” WordPress theme.
It works perfectly, has great flexibility and their support is second to none.
We also use to track our affiliate sales, commissions etc.
Hope this helps\Michael
Forgot to mention..basic price is about $30.00 per month; with the affiliate add-on and autoresponder feature it’s $99.00 per month
Whatever you do, realize there are no “advantages” to Shopp.
The software breaks with every update – the repair of which will cost you $$ – after their “support” leaves you twisting in the wind for days on end – then invites you to “pay for faster service” – or for private contracted assistance to repair your ruined livelihood.
Google around and find that web developers everywhere HATE Shopp scam-ware and their UNsupport.