Regardless of how attractive and well-designed your website is, it may seem like […]
It seems like ecommerce is growing rapidly nowadays. People enjoy online shopping mostly due to the numerous choices and promotions. Considering the benefits of the online shopping experience, many businessmen decide to start their own business online, developing a shopping cart. While some entrepreneurs choose carts which are hosted by a company, there are many who decide to create outstanding self hosted shopping carts.
Being new to the online business and thinking of a platform to host your ecommerce site, you’ll have to choose one of two options. Speaking of deciding on the type of shopping cart, there are some immense differences between the two platforms. While you may find hosted carts simple to start with, self-hosted shopping carts offer you valuable advantages that many retailers find much more important.
Having a hosted platform is all about having a third-party company to support and manage your shopping cart. As encouraging as it may sound, there are many elements that are more favorable when having a self hosted cart. Self hosted shopping carts have given rise to the online retail stores worldwide. Hosting and managing a cart offers numerous benefits, some of which you'll find in the following lines.
One of the major advantages of having a self hosted shopping cart is that it is free when it comes to viewing, altering, running and copying modifications. Self-hosting and self-managing a cart means easy access to the source code and saving money at the same time. So, if you have just started your own business, with a limited budget and some knowledge, a self-hosted cart is surely worth your effort.
Meanwhile, having a hosted cart requires you to pay a monthly fee so the host provider can manage and run it instead of you. In the long run, the cost of having a hosted shopping cart is much higher, compared to the self hosted choice. Besides, self-hosted platforms are all about full control and various choices.
Having a self-hosted cart gives you complete control over your own online store and the way your consumers make a purchase. In the meantime, hosted platforms offer limited choices since the hosting company does all the work.
Another benefit of the self hosted platforms is easy data transferring. When the ecommerce site owner decides to move to a different platform, all data can be easily transferred. This benefit gives the shopping cart owner more freedom and is very important when they want to make some major changes.
Hosting your own shopping cart is the right option to choose when you want more than a few popular features to pick from. When your shopping cart is hosted by a company, you don’t have many options. Usually, hosted platforms offer some basic elements (catalog and shopping cart), but are poor in terms of templates in many foreign languages.
Depending on how quickly your business is growing and expanding, you may soon find such limitations very unfavorable. Having the option of creating a cart in a certain foreign language that is not offered by a hosting company may be your key to success. So, if you require a lot of customization in order to create an outstanding ecommerce shopping cart – you should definitely go with the self hosted option.
Self hosted shopping carts enable more complex hosting. This means that you can make different sites share the same resources, such as product and service lists. This is essential for most online businesses, but is not offered by a hosted solution.
Moreover, if your business is expanding rapidly, you may want to get a higher level of back-end integration with your shopping cart software. Again, the hosted shopping cart option may not provide such an opportunity.
The main point of a self hosted platform is offering your customers an outstanding experience while they are making a purchase online. Focusing on maximizing customer satisfaction will always give you an advantage in terms of competition. If your customers rate your shopping cart as excellent, it means that you are on the right track to get the competitive edge.
Self hosted carts can help you create a consistently positive customer experience by exceeding the standard options for purchasing products and services. This type of platform solutions lets you provide a superior service for the customers and turn them into loyal buyers. If your ecommerce store, along with the shopping cart, impresses them, they will continue doing business with you.
Another essential benefit of self hosted shopping carts is the opportunity to initiate customer referrals. People always respond well to referrals, especially demanding customers. They are crucial for increasing the number of sales and vital for the success of every business.
By focusing on improving the customer's online shopping experience, you can compensate for the areas of your business which are not as strong as your service. A self hosted platform gives you the opportunity to improve your customer service in such areas and get a positive customer referral out of every customer. Positive referrals are the best marketing tool that will directly increase your profits and the success of your business in general.
Choosing self hosted shopping carts can be highly beneficial for your business. Some previous knowledge is required to set up and run a new ecommerce store, but these carts help you develop your business without any limitations or setbacks.
The self hosted platform costs are affordable, while the opportunities are limitless. You can be as creative as you want and create an eye-catching, outstanding ecommerce website with a fabulous shopping cart.
It is essential to remember that choosing the right platform is the key to success for your business. Therefore, choosing the right shopping cart option is vital. Self-hosted shopping platforms provide you with limitless control to set up and develop a shopping cart that fits your needs and customer expectations.
