information is protected through encryption and a highly secure online transmission process.

- Allow customers to call up information about the items being purchased without having to leave the checkout page, with links to windows that contain the product information page.

- Make it easy for buyers to add or remove items, change quantities, or select different models and styles of a product once they are on the checkout page.

- Pictures, pictures, pictures. Show the customer what they are purchasing. Don't hide it in any shape or form.

- Indicate the progress buyers are making during the checkout process, revealing the number of steps involved, showing which step they are on at a

Oh, the wonders of the online shopper and the confused merchant. I sometimes wonder what happened to the striving entrepreneur that understood that to make money, you must spend money and that a cheap product or service was not a bargain. It is cheap.

Lets start with the basics of shopping carts:
Open Source Shopping Carts are extremely cost effective and helpful for the small time, young entrepreneur. If you are starting your first business and have $2000 total saved up to spend on marketing, business plan, equipment, and website. Then yes open source shopping carts like, oscommerce & Zen cart will work well. However, please be realistic. If you expect to sell and and high conversion rates, put some money into your shopping cart so you can get the results you want. For example, would you purchase a pinto and enter the formula one?? No of course not. Shopping carts and other things are much the same.

If you want results and quality. It comes at a higher price than the lesser.

The bottom line for shopping cart web design. If your web site looks cheap or doesn't function correctly, your potential customer will rightfully assume that your product or service is also cheap and doesn't work correctly.

Online shoppers are finicky. Those who aren't experienced customers--who haven't yet discovered the convenience of two-day delivery or easy returns--tend to be skittish during the entire shopping experience. A well-planned, secure shopping cart should make the checkout process easy, clear and flexible for the shopper.

Jupiter Research found that 54 percent of Internet shoppers have stopped buying from certain online stores in the middle of a transaction because they have concerns about service, delivery, shipping or handling. Other estimates range as high as 60 to 90 percent abandonment of shopping carts on some e-commerce sites.

Sometimes it's because of confusion; other times, frustration over the process or lack of information or uncertainty of the merchants credibility. Some shoppers just use the cart as a place to hold items they're considering and, in the end, never buy.

When setting up an online shopping cart for a business, consider the following tips:

- Don't force the shopper to go through a lengthy process of logging in, creating passwords and filling out voluminous forms. Privacy issues and complexity of the process can lead the buyer to end the process before even registering.

- Include a link to a page detailing customer service policies, such as warranties, delivery guarantees, return policy, and shipping fee structure.

- Provide "help" tips, a frequently-asked-questions (FAQs) page and a toll-free phone number for consumers to use if they have problems or questions relating to checkout.

- Offer assurance that credit card information is protected through encryption and a highly secure online transmission process.

- Allow customers to call up information about the items being purchased without having to leave the checkout page, with links to windows that contain the product information page.

- Make it easy for buyers to add or remove items, change quantities, or select different models and styles of a product once they are on the checkout page.

- Pictures, pictures, pictures. Show the customer what they are purchasing. Don't hide it in any shape or form.

- Indicate the progress buyers are making during the checkout process, revealing the number of steps involved, showing which step they are on at a

put some money into your shopping cart so you can get the results you want. For example, would you purchase a pinto and enter the formula one?? No of course not. Shopping carts and other things are much the same.

If you want results and quality. It comes at a higher price than the lesser.

The bottom line for shopping cart web design. If your web site looks cheap or doesn't function correctly, your potential customer will rightfully assume that your product or service is also cheap and doesn't work correctly.

Online shoppers are finicky. Those who aren't experienced customers--who haven't yet discovered the convenience of two-day delivery or easy returns--tend to be skittish during the entire shopping experience. A well-planned, secure shopping cart should make the checkout process easy, clear and flexible for the shopper.

Jupiter Research found that 54 percent of Internet shoppers have stopped buying from certain online stores in the middle of a transaction because they have concerns about service, delivery, shipping or handling. Other estimates range as high as 60 to 90 percent abandonment of shopping carts on some e-commerce sites.

Sometimes it's because of confusion; other times, frustration over the process or lack of information or uncertainty of the merchants credibility. Some shoppers just use the cart as a place to hold items they're considering and, in the end, never buy.

When setting up an online shopping cart for a business, consider the following tips:

- Don't force the shopper to go through a lengthy process of logging in, creating passwords and filling out voluminous forms. Privacy issues and complexity of the process can lead the buyer to end the process before even registering.

- Include a link to a page detailing customer service policies, such as warranties, delivery guarantees, return policy, and shipping fee structure.

- Provide "help" tips, a frequently-asked-questions (FAQs) page and a toll-free phone number for consumers to use if they have problems or questions relating to checkout.

- Offer assurance that credit card information is protected through encryption and a highly secure online transmission process.

- Allow customers to call up information about the items being purchased without having to leave the checkout page, with links to windows that contain the product information page.

- Make it easy for buyers to add or remove items, change quantities, or select different models and styles of a product once they are on the checkout page.

- Pictures, pictures, pictures. Show the customer what they are purchasing. Don't hide it in any shape or form.

- Indicate the progress buyers are making during the checkout process, revealing the number of steps involved, showing which step they are on at a

e entire shopping experience. A well-planned, secure shopping cart should make the checkout process easy, clear and flexible for the shopper.

Jupiter Research found that 54 percent of Internet shoppers have stopped buying from certain online stores in the middle of a transaction because they have concerns about service, delivery, shipping or handling. Other estimates range as high as 60 to 90 percent abandonment of shopping carts on some e-commerce sites.

Sometimes it's because of confusion; other times, frustration over the process or lack of information or uncertainty of the merchants credibility. Some shoppers just use the cart as a place to hold items they're considering and, in the end, never buy.

When setting up an online shopping cart for a business, consider the following tips:

- Don't force the shopper to go through a lengthy process of logging in, creating passwords and filling out voluminous forms. Privacy issues and complexity of the process can lead the buyer to end the process before even registering.

- Include a link to a page detailing customer service policies, such as warranties, delivery guarantees, return policy, and shipping fee structure.

- Provide "help" tips, a frequently-asked-questions (FAQs) page and a toll-free phone number for consumers to use if they have problems or questions relating to checkout.

- Offer assurance that credit card information is protected through encryption and a highly secure online transmission process.

- Allow customers to call up information about the items being purchased without having to leave the checkout page, with links to windows that contain the product information page.

- Make it easy for buyers to add or remove items, change quantities, or select different models and styles of a product once they are on the checkout page.

- Pictures, pictures, pictures. Show the customer what they are purchasing. Don't hide it in any shape or form.

- Indicate the progress buyers are making during the checkout process, revealing the number of steps involved, showing which step they are on at a

never buy.

When setting up an online shopping cart for a business, consider the following tips:

- Don't force the shopper to go through a lengthy process of logging in, creating passwords and filling out voluminous forms. Privacy issues and complexity of the process can lead the buyer to end the process before even registering.

- Include a link to a page detailing customer service policies, such as warranties, delivery guarantees, return policy, and shipping fee structure.

- Provide "help" tips, a frequently-asked-questions (FAQs) page and a toll-free phone number for consumers to use if they have problems or questions relating to checkout.

- Offer assurance that credit card information is protected through encryption and a highly secure online transmission process.

- Allow customers to call up information about the items being purchased without having to leave the checkout page, with links to windows that contain the product information page.

- Make it easy for buyers to add or remove items, change quantities, or select different models and styles of a product once they are on the checkout page.

- Pictures, pictures, pictures. Show the customer what they are purchasing. Don't hide it in any shape or form.

- Indicate the progress buyers are making during the checkout process, revealing the number of steps involved, showing which step they are on at a

information is protected through encryption and a highly secure online transmission process.

- Allow customers to call up information about the items being purchased without having to leave the checkout page, with links to windows that contain the product information page.

- Make it easy for buyers to add or remove items, change quantities, or select different models and styles of a product once they are on the checkout page.

- Pictures, pictures, pictures. Show the customer what they are purchasing. Don't hide it in any shape or form.

- Indicate the progress buyers are making during the checkout process, revealing the number of steps involved, showing which step they are on at any given time and allowing them to return to earlier steps to make changes.

- Show the shipping costs at the front end of the checkout process. For some products, these costs determine whether the shopper will buy online and the quantity they will buy.

- Clearly indicate a button or link to move on to the next checkout step and make it more prominent than other links on the page.

-Provide multiple options for payment, including credit cards, checks or an online payment service.

Give the customer the choice on which form to pay with. Credit card, paypal or check. Why does it matter to you. It's a customers choice, let them have it.

Cash flow can make or break a company, especially in its early stages. That's why many online businesses often encourage credit card payments, although it's also helpful to give buyers alternative opportunities to pay with checks and money orders. Offering a variety of methods for shoppers to pay online increases the opportunity for these buyers to pay in the method they prefer.

Accepting payments online increases revenue and cash flow because money goes into the account immediately. Even more compelling is that there are more than 1.2 billion consumer credit cards worldwide. Credit card payments aren't returned for non-sufficient funds--and credit card holders tend to do more impulse buying than those who write personal checks.