3rd party ecommerce solutions

Have you ever had to make the choice for your business of what shopping cart to use? You can have your own customized solution developed, or choose from a range of pre-built shopping cart options available like Volusion, XCart, Shopsite etc. Each of these shopping carts provide a host of features available ranging from a robust back end, to a user friendly front end along with SEO compatibility.

At first it’s quite tough when you know nothing about each of the different types of shopping carts and software packages. Which one do you choose is a tough choice to make.

Today I’m going to do a review of an all-in-one externally hosted shopping cart system, called Volusion. My review is mostly based on what I have read on the “Volusion” website and our own experience while integrating “Volusion” for a few of our clients.

All in one solution Volusion provides all the tools to create an online ecommerce company. Their software provides total ecommerce solutions including ROI tracking software, SEO optimization software, hosting by RackSpace.com, email marketing software, affiliate software and much more. This ensures that the buyer will not have to work with different providers for all the above mentioned features thus saving time, energy and money.

The components of the solution are completely customizable, and the site can be designed as per the industry and the target audience. Volusion gives enough creative independence to the site owner to have his website designed as per the requirements.

Some companies charge a percentage of sales from the site owner, but Volusion does not. This ensures that the cost of site maintenance remains the same as your online business grows. Volusion charges only a monthly fee for the hosting of your online store, and additional band width (as your business grows) can be purchased at an additional cost.

The pricing structure for Volusion plans is good, with an entry level plan starting at $20 a month, going up to a $100 platinum unlimited plan. All in all, Volusion seems to be providing good shopping cart software with almost all the required features. There are often inherent problems with jack-of-all service providers, but looking through the features of the Volusion website, they certainly have their game together based on their website presentation.