I create custom quote carts, large shopping carts using Zen Cart, and small shops for clients, too. Setting up e-commerce for the 1st time can be completely overwhelming. It’s better to hire a web designer to setup your site correctly and then learn how to update your store. This shopping cart was designed with small business in mind. What if you don’t have a merchant account, you work Full-Time, but you want to start a small online business? ECWID is a great solution. If you aren’t processing $2,000 a month and can’t afford a $100 month shopping cart what do you do? To have a merchant account, you need to be processing at least $2,000 a month. Most shopping carts, like Shopify, have monthly processing costs. ECWID lets you setup a few products for a lower cost.

ECWID

10 products, $0 a month is their starting plan. If you want to offer the same product in different colors or sizes, that’s easy to do.You can also setup variables for your products. If you already have a website, like PayPal, ECWID easily embeds into your website. ECWID also supports 45+ languages and 28+ translations. After you setup a store, you need to setup you’re Payment gateway. Online payment processors include the standard: Authorize.Net, merchant accounts, PayPal, etc. STRIPE is now also available. It’s a great affordable solution. ECWID doesn’t have good SEO so you NEED to add some customization for good SEO.

Plans: http://www.ecwid.com/pricing

Shopify

If you want a “medium sized” responsive, shopping cart and you don’t have a website, Shopify is a good solution. You can build a website and a store with Shopify. They have many themes available. If you want better navigation, drop down menus and product categories, you are going to spend $200 on a good theme. Shopify can also be added to a website. Fees will be around $80 a month.

POS

If you have a store location, Shopify has an app, an iOS point-of-sale kit, for streamlining checkout. 3rd party gateway payment integration is standard, PayPal, etc. Now you can accept payments directly with Stripe. Shopify also has Mailchimp integration so you can use emails collected during payment for e-blasts. You can customize theme design with liquid, CSS, and HTML. They have good SEO.

WooCommerce

For WordPress, Shopify, ECWID, and GumRoad are now available for integration. WooCommerce is also an option but you need to make sure you pick a theme that integrates well with WooCommerce and buy the right extensions. Themes cost $150 on up.There are very few FREE one’s. One Theme is StoreFront. If you’re buying a theme, there’s still a lot of coding needed for it to look good. Setting up Coupons in WooCommerce is easy.

WooCommerce now has 100 payment gateways with a transaction fee of 2.9% + $0.30 for each transaction made with U.S.-issued credit or debit cards. For cards issued outside the U.S., there’s an additional 1% fee.(Shopify is .4%, .3% if you have a merchant account with them). If you’re processing transactions in many countries WooCommerce is a good choice because their payment gateway list is extensive.

ECWID: Store demo

StoreFront: Storefront Demo

What’s a 3rd-party payment processor?

A 3rd-party processor, like PayPal, and Authorize.net, lets you accept online payments without a merchant account. They let you use their merchant account with their own terms of service. It can take 30 min to setup.