Ecommerce Web Design Blog

One of the biggest factors that people don't take into account when buying shopping cart software is the cost of support . There are many 'free' ecommerce solutions in the marketplace, but when something goes wrong with them, what do you do? You could post in the forums relevant to the free shopping cart you are using, but if you don't get a reply or the solution posted doesn't work, where do you turn?What if you are getting a unique error message?

Unless the problem you are having is to do with the server's configuration, in many cases they will also be unable to help. You will then be left on your own and with the expensive problem of trying to hire paid support from the original  developers of the cart or a third-party developer. Depending on your problem, either option could be very expensive.

Some shopping cart software products charge hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month in addition to the cost of their hosting environment just to give you the right to submit a very limited number of problems to them per year. 

If you are choosing a shopping cart for your business, support matters. Our advice is that you should choose carefully.

If you are choosing a hosted ecommerce solution like ozCart (where you are renting the shopping cart software but own your domain name and products), then support is often included in your monthly payment. It's good to check however what support you get for your monthly payments. For example, ask your shopping cart provider:

• Can you get support after 5pm? If you're working a full time job, you will often be working on your store between 5-8pm so look for a provider who has support during these hours.
  
• Can you get support at weekends?
• What support options do you get? Is there an extensive knowledgebase covering the key problems you may face? Is there an email ticket system to ask questions if you can't get what you want from the knowledgebase? Is there phone support or support live chat?
  
• How many support enquiries do you get for your monthly payment?
• Is proactive website performance management support provided behind-the-scenes?
• Is there a willingness of your provider to maintain a secure environment for your store?

Although ozCart from Osc Works does not offer phone or online chat support, our customers are not disadvantaged by this at all. We are proud to offer oustanding ecommerce support 7 days a week, 365 day email support via our ticket system (with unlimited tickets on all our ecommerce packages), plus a members knowledgebase with answers to questions based on past customer enquiries.  Our support team also provides proactive support where critical bug fixes and security patches can be implemented on stores without a ticket submission even being required if we become aware of them.

Choose an ecommerce software provider who includes support as part of their monthly fee and either provides a generous or unlimited number of ticket support enquiries and reasonable rates for extra work if required.

Think about the ecommerce websites you have visited and purchased from. Were they the ones that looked beautiful but took forever to load and were hard to check-out with? Chances are that the sites you bought from were not cluttered, had simple but well-thought out features and were easy to use and checkout with.

Keeping it simple is a design principle that comes out time and again in all forms of design and is advice that sits behind the website customisation philosophy that our graphic designers and website builders employ every time they create a new customer website.  Simplicity sells.

Here are some things to think about when you are adding your products and designing the content to go into your ozCart shopping cart:

• Overly complicated navigation will put your customers off. Who wants to buy if they have to go through 4-5 pages to even get to your checkout. Make it easy to use so that when you have them, they go all the way through checkout.
• Make your shipping, returns policy, pricing and delivery times clear to customers before they buy. This reduces disputes over returns and ensures that customers know what they are buying from you.
• Put yourself in your customer's shoes. What questions might they have about your products? Don't just paste in the manufacturer's descriptions, think about whether those descriptions are adequete for your buyers. Answer any other questions they might have in advance and you'll increase the chances of sales.
• Make your customers know they are only a step away from a real person. Even if you don't have phone support, publish as much information about your business online as you are prepared to disclose. If you have a phone, skype and fax number publish them because then people will know you are just a call away.