Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Shopping Around for the Best Hosted Solution

Naturally, marketing features and administrative tools aren't the only features that can sway your decision in selecting a cart. You can make your decision based on how the cart is delivered to you (or set up for use). For instance, one easy alternative is to use a hosted solution. The shopping cart is then stored on someone else's server and you pay to have access to it.

Hosted shopping carts have four specific advantages:

• Cost: A hosted solution is a more affordable option, especially for a first e-commerce endeavor. For a small monthly fee (sometimes for less than ten bucks), you gain access to an extensive set of shopping cart features.
• Simplicity: Because most shopping carts easily integrate into existing Web sites, theoretically they should be easy to get up and running.
• Support: You get access to customer and technical support. And, because it's a hosted solution, the support hours are usually around-the-clock. When your learning curve is still steep, it's nice to know that you have a place to turn for help, at any time of the night or day!
• Flexibility: Try it and see whether you like it. When you use a hosted solution, you don't have to make a long-term commitment. If you're on a monthly plan, you can terminate the agreement fairly easily. As long as the shopping cart has a good exporting feature, you can move your products to another solution if your current one isn't working.

Some terrific hosted shopping carts are available, ...