Shopping carts help you reach out to new customers when economic times are tougher and the business expenses of running a physical shop put a squeeze on your margins.  A shopping cart website that is well promoted can lower your cost of product distribution and widen your reach of customers.

If you want to get a shopping cart up and running quickly to complement your physical shop, here are five tips to get you started:

1. Promote your website, heavily. One of the biggest mistakes made by customers new to ecommerce is that they expect instant traffic. But selling online in your own store is not like selling on an auction site. A standalone online store has the benefits of not having to pay listing and success fees, but you have to build your own traffic through a combination of advertising, offline promotion and optimising your website to be more relevant to certain (popular) search terms (this is called sarch engine optimisation).
2. Use your physical store to promote your website. Run a referral program to encourage visitors to your physical store to refer others to your site or come back and shop out of hours with you again. Have a 'Have you seen our website?' poster, giveaway card or promotion in-store. Don't forget to promote your physical store in your online store too - if customers know you have a physical presence this can help them feel more comfortable buying from you.
3. Focus on product photography. In a physical store a customer can look, smell, touch or try the product you are selling. Online your product descriptions and photography have to work hard to ensure that they give the customer the experience they desire. Great photography and well written descriptions (not just the manufacturer's provided description) will help ensure your site is unique, inviting and delivers you the best possible value for money for your online store.
4. Guide customers through your site. In your physical store you may have signs to tell customers where to find the things they are looking for and any promotional items such as specials. Use carefully placed banners to achieve this same effect online. Highlight specials and provide useful additional information. For example, if you are a jewellery store, tell your customers how they can work out their ring size.
5. Use consistent branding.  Your store will be more familiar to your existing customers if they feel like they are shopping in your physical store. And for new customers, they will be able to make the linkages between your physical and online store.