Best Shopping Cart Software
Shopping cart software is an essential e-commerce software for online retailers, helping businesses create a smooth buying experience by allowing customers to add, review, and purchase items in a virtual cart. Used by businesses of all sizes, this software makes the checkout process faster and easier for both customers and merchants.
Shopping cart platform includes features like product catalog integration, inventory tracking, and support for multiple payment methods, making store management simpler. Customers can easily add products, calculate totals, and securely complete their purchases. For businesses, the software helps with order processing, inventory management, customer tracking, user accounts, discounts, and shipping cost calculations to improve the shopping experience, leading to higher sales and satisfied customers.
Other related software that sellers use in conjunction with e-commerce shopping cart software or independently are catalog management software, e-commerce personalization software, and e-merchandising software.
To qualify for inclusion in the Shopping Cart category, a product must:
Best Shopping Cart Software At A Glance
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- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Salesforce B2C Commerce empowers customers to quickly grow profitability. Customers of all sizes can build pixel-perfect experiences and embed commerce into every touchpoint with templates, composabi
- Salesforce Developer
- Software Engineer
- Retail
- Information Technology and Services
- 40% Mid-Market
- 34% Enterprise
584,242 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Ecwid by Lightspeed is the easiest way to add an online store to any webpage or social media profile. Used by hundreds of thousands of merchants in 175 countries, Ecwid by Lightspeed has everything yo
- Owner
- Business Owner
- Retail
- Apparel & Fashion
- 96% Small-Business
- 3% Mid-Market
18,953 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Salesforce B2B Commerce empowers customers to meet complex buyer needs and drive B2B sales efficiency. Start selling faster with guided store setup, out-of-the-box customer records, generative produ
- Salesforce Developer
- Business Development Representative
- Computer Software
- Information Technology and Services
- 36% Mid-Market
- 33% Enterprise
584,242 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Weebly is now a part of the Square product suite. This means never missing a sale and letting your customers pay how they want to. Whether it's at a pop-up shop or your own online store, Square takes
- Owner
- President
- Marketing and Advertising
- Information Technology and Services
- 75% Small-Business
- 16% Mid-Market
307,688 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
With Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento Commerce) you can build multi-channel commerce experiences for B2B and B2C customers on a single platform. From catalog to payment to fulfillment, Adobe Commerce
- Owner
- Software Engineer
- Retail
- Information Technology and Services
- 61% Small-Business
- 30% Mid-Market
973,290 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Shopware, founded in Schöppingen in 2000, offers a holistic omnichannel digital commerce platform for sophisticated mid-market and lower enterprise merchants, with high flexibility and various options
- CEO
- Retail
- Consumer Goods
- 72% Small-Business
- 25% Mid-Market
6,440 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
X-Cart is a powerful all-in-one eCommerce platform tailored to the needs of automotive aftermarket businesses. Designed to simplify complex catalog management, optimize order processing, and create co
- Retail
- Information Technology and Services
- 85% Small-Business
- 13% Mid-Market
3,561 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
PrestaShop is a leading global ecommerce company serving customers in over 190 countries. We provide inclusive, customizable, scalable and well-supported solutions, to empower each entrepreneur to ful
- Web Developer
- Retail
- Apparel & Fashion
- 73% Small-Business
- 25% Mid-Market
36,056 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
ThriveCart is the leading sales platform for coaches, digital course creators, entrepreneurs and online businesses looking to boost revenue, drive conversions and scale audiences. Its no-code funnel b
- Marketing and Advertising
- 96% Small-Business
- 4% Mid-Market
314 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Shift4Shop is a feature-rich eCommerce platform serving thousands of businesses of all sizes in a wide range of industries across the globe. Offering an unmatched free eCommerce solution, the company
- Owner
- Retail
- 76% Small-Business
- 19% Mid-Market
15,224 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Opencart is an easy to-use, powerful, Open Source online store management program that can manage multiple online stores from a single back-end. Administrative area simply by filling in forms and clic
- Founder
- Web Developer
- Information Technology and Services
- Computer Software
- 84% Small-Business
- 14% Mid-Market
5,482 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
SamCart is the eCommerce platform for creators and online sellers. Over 80,000 creators use SamCart to sell over $4 billion of their own products, goods and services. SamCart has the highest convert
- Owner
- Health, Wellness and Fitness
- E-Learning
- 94% Small-Business
- 4% Mid-Market
10 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
ShopWired is the UK's leading ecommerce platform allowing merchants to build, launch and grow their online store with the tools we provide. Using ShopWired merchants can build beautiful store fronts
- Director
- Owner
- Retail
- Arts and Crafts
- 96% Small-Business
- 4% Mid-Market
4,237 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
User-friendly e-commerce software platform with mobile app. Merchants can create their website and sell products to B2C and B2B (both) customers. API integrated with all major payment gateways and shi
- Apparel & Fashion
- 83% Small-Business
- 13% Mid-Market
123 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
AbanteCart is a shopping cart for any business to sell products on an existing website. This shopping cart tool gives businesses full control over their online retail channels. No matter what products
- 50% Small-Business
- 40% Enterprise
1,276 Twitter followers
Learn More About Shopping Cart Software
What is shopping cart software?
Shopping carts or shopping cart software are tools used by companies to sell products and services online. For customers, it facilitates the overall process of browsing through the products, adding products to the cart, and making a payment to purchase the products in an online store. More advanced tools integrated with the online shopping cart enable unique customization for the customers.
For businesses, it allows them to collect multiple data and dive deeper into the customers’ purchasing patterns helping them make better sales and marketing decisions. In its most basic form, shopping carts bridge the gap between the buyer and seller in an e-commerce ecosystem. At best, an e-commerce shopping cart meets the requirements of both the business and its customers proportionately.
What are the common features of shopping cart software?
Shopping cart solutions provide a wide range of features that vary by vendor. However, there are some common features buyers must keep in mind before making a purchase.
- Catalog management: A shopping cart allows a listed representation of all the items or stock keeping units (SKUs) that the buyer sells online. Clear product titles, images, price details, and an option to edit quantity or size help improve the overall usability of the cart. This information helps buyers find, add, or delete items from the cart, across their preferred categories.
- Abandoned cart solutions: Shopping cart abandonment is a recurrent issue for e-commerce stores. Most of the time, customers don’t buy and simply browse for options, which leads to abandoned carts. Abandoned cart savers help marketers target the buyer by sending messages, emails, and notifications to remind them of the products left in the cart.
- Payment gateway integration: Online shopping cart software must provide its customers with a seamless payment experience as it is a crucial part of the overall checkout process. Payments made via debit or credit cards, e-wallets, cash on delivery (COD), etc. must be seamlessly accepted. The more payment methods offered, the more likely it is to address the customer’s preferred payment.
- Tax and shipping rates calculation: Enabling automatic sales tax calculation allows users to know how much tax is implemented into their product and improves overall business transparency. Shopping cart software also calculates shipping rates based on the billing address provided by the customer.
- User-friendly interface: Customers must feel comfortable navigating through the shopping cart to the final checkout. A complicated user interface poses a risk to customer engagement and conversion. To maximize user experience, e-commerce websites along with online cart systems make it easier for customers to shop.
Who uses online shopping cart software?
Shopping cart platform simplifies the relationship between buyer and seller by handling multiple activities in the business process. Below are some common users of the software.
- E-commerce professionals: E-commerce professionals who manage an online storefront and sell their products or services to customers worldwide must integrate shopping cart software into their existing websites. The type of e-commerce shopping cart needed can be decided by considering the nature of the business, target market, and product offerings.
- Web developers: Developers who work for e-commerce companies often customize shopping carts to make them easier to use or to integrate them with other solutions, such as accounting. While shopping cart software provides standard online stores, customization is often needed for advanced features. This is particularly important for free open-source shopping cart products with limited functionality.
- Web designers: Designers are responsible for creating intuitive and visually appealing shopping cart interfaces. They focus on optimizing navigation and reducing friction points to enhance the user experience and lower cart abandonment rates on e-commerce websites.
What types of shopping cart software exist?
Every e-commerce site must have a shopping cart functionality that enables customers to buy their desired products. Shopping carts are differentiated by how they’re integrated into a website and how the backend process is managed.
Fully-hosted shopping carts
These are software-as-a-service (Saas) e-commerce solutions that are fully owned and managed by vendor firms. Hence, the company that created it handles all the development and upgrade of the software. These hassle-free solutions only require a monthly fee or subscription-based pricing to access all the vendor’s core features. The user just needs to sign up and set up a store.
Open-source shopping carts
These are 100% customized solutions that a user can host on their own server. As they are freely available, self-hosted shopping carts allow any developer to access the source code and modify cart templates as per requirements. While they have their advantages, managing such open-source software could require high expertise. In most cases, finding centralized customer support could be a real struggle in case of any technical issue.
A hybrid of online and self-hosted options
Self-hosted solutions are usually free but limited in functionality, while SaaS solutions require a paid subscription to use more advanced features, customizations, and customer support. To provide the best of both worlds, some vendors offer both options, combining the flexibility of open-source software with the convenience of a SaaS platform. This approach allows businesses to customize their e-commerce experiences while relieving them of the complexities of hosting, security, and infrastructure management.
What are the benefits of shopping cart software?
A good selection of shopping cart platforms is highly essential for all e-commerce efforts.
- Convenient shopping: Buyers shop online only because they don’t want to go through the tedious process of shopping in-store. Hence, online shopping carts need to provide basic convenience features like catalog management, abandonment cart saver, payment gateways, coupons and discounts, and a grievance redressal system.
- Improved order management: This software enables sellers to easily track an order from its point of placement to its point of delivery. It notifies sellers each time a new order is placed or an existing order is canceled. It also notifies details needed to process an order, such as product variants, item codes, order number, shipping, and payment details.
- Data collection and analysis: Shopping cart solutions contain various data points, such as sales, marketing, or inventory management data, that influence the overall buying process. Hence, it is essential to have an analytical capability that can be integrated into shopping cart software to export this data in different formats for further analysis.
Challenges with e-commerce shopping cart
While shopping cart software ensures reliability and convenience, there are potential challenges that a business or customer might have to deal with.
- Frauds and security: Shopping cart solutions must ensure 100% secure online operation against data breaches and protection of consumer data against possible theft. To protect user privacy such as credit card numbers or bank details, the software must be SSL (secure socket layer) certified and PCI (payment card industry) compliant.
- Errors, crashes, and load time: There are chances that a shopping cart might show some errors while calculating the overall price of products. Similarly, website crashes and load time are the most common issues that make an e-commerce cart dysfunctional. It is essential to make sure the site is up to date and there are no issues.
- No guest checkout: Forcing customers to create an account before purchasing can discourage impulse buys and lead to more abandoned carts, as many shoppers prefer the ease of a quick guest checkout.
What does shopping cart software cost?
Shopping cart software pricing can vary widely based on features, scalability, and support.
Many platforms offer free plans with limited features, making them ideal for small businesses or startups. Monthly subscriptions generally range from $20 to $300+, with higher-tier plans providing more advanced options. Annual subscriptions often come with discounts of 10% to 20%. Some platforms also charge transaction fees per sale. Enterprise-level solutions may offer custom pricing based on specific business needs, and additional tools or integrations can incur extra charges.
There are also freemium models that let businesses try basic versions before committing to upgrades. When choosing a plan, it’s essential to consider all costs, including potential hidden fees and scalability.
Always check the vendor's website for accurate pricing information.
Which companies should buy online shopping cart software?
Businesses that sell products or services online benefit from shopping cart software. Here’s a closer look at the types of businesses that should consider investing in it.
- E-commerce retailers: Businesses running online stores need shopping cart software. From platforms like Amazon to small stores, whether they sell electronic goods or clothes use it to manage product listings, simplify the checkout process, and securely handle payments.
- Subscription-based businesses: Companies offering recurring services or products, like streaming platforms (Netflix) or subscription box services, benefit from shopping cart features that support automated billing and subscription management.
- Food and beverage businesses: Restaurants, cafes, and food delivery services use shopping carts for online ordering systems.
- Business-to-business (B2B) companies: Businesses selling to other businesses like Grainger often require shopping cart features like bulk order processing, invoice generation, and custom pricing.
What are the alternatives to shopping cart software?
Alternatives that can replace this type of software, either partially or completely:
- E-commerce platforms: These are primarily B2C software but few vendors operate on B2B as well. E-commerce software acts as a one-stop solution for someone who wants to build a business online and is looking for a platform to start. Most of the e-commerce platforms come with an integrated shopping cart feature. Some of the leaders in this category, according to G2’s Fall 2024 Grid Report, include Shopify, WooCommerce, Salesforce Commerce for B2C, and Wix.
How to buy shopping cart software
To select the best shopping cart software for your business, follow the steps below.
Requirements gathering (RFI/RFP)
It’s essential to pick the right online shopping cart for a business. Gathering individual requirements and comparing them with the features provided by the vendor makes the task easier. Some carts provide advanced features but impose restrictions as per different price packages. While others might be cheap but lack some of the basic features required to qualify as a good shopping cart.
Requirements for shopping cart software selection vary by company size. Small businesses typically have a limited budget and hence opt for specific functionalities like catalog management, abandonment cart saver, and online payment gateways. Mid—and large-size businesses would go for something that charges a premium but must be equipped with advanced features that support customization and integration with other tools like Google Analytics, customer relationship management (CRM), point-of-sale, and marketing tools.
Compare shopping cart software products
The software demo is a crucial step before deciding which product to opt for. E-commerce websites must be compatible with the shopping cart to handle the traffic. The volume of business and website bandwidth are some of the metrics buyers should keep in mind before shortlisting vendors. Once that is done, each vendor should be given a chance to deploy their software, run a demo, and go through the purchasing process that the buyer would follow in a real shopping scenario.
Selection of shopping cart software
Choose a selection team
Selecting a team consisting of experts from all the teams that will use the software is highly essential in the purchasing process. Typically, they should include team members or leads who will use the software, those in charge of the software budget, executives who will sign off on the software purchase, IT personnel responsible for implementation and maintenance of the software, and management who will oversee the entire process.
Negotiation
The process of negotiation is important to decide and bring onboard the final vendor. It generally happens after an in-depth analysis and discussion on requests for proposals (RFP)/requests for information (RFIs) offered by multiple vendors. The final negotiation generally takes place between two selected vendors out of which one is selected based on the services, prices, and discounts offered on the deal.
Final decision
The final decision should be taken after all the data and information related to the software from the vendor are analyzed properly.
Implementation of shopping cart software
How is the software implemented?
Businesses can implement shopping cart software into their e-commerce website either during the start of their business operations or they can switch from existing software vendors to another as per contract or business requirements.
Who is responsible for implementation?
Implementation of this software is handled by a designated team that consists of project managers from vendors or technical experts from its partners, as well as an in-house technical team led by technical consultants and supported by the IT department.
What does the implementation process look like?
The implementation process isn't always easy. Basic shopping cart software for small companies requires less effort to implement. However, mid- or large-sized enterprises seeking shopping cart software with advanced features would find it complicated and require technical expertise to implement.
First, shopping cart software stores various data. If a business is switching from one vendor to another, it is essential to migrate the existing data, such as sales data, inventory data, and so on, to the new platform. This secures the data and minimizes the risk of data loss.
Secondly, after the software is implemented, a demo test should be conducted to check its compatibility and performance with the company's other software. Any bugs or issues should be fixed quickly to ensure the system's smooth operation during a real buying scenario.
Thirdly, users need to get accustomed to the new software before they start using it frequently. Different departments would require different modules of the software to learn. For instance, the sales team might use a different module than customer support or inventory. Proper training and guidance must be provided to the employees for ease of use.
When should you implement the software?
Prior planning and scheduling of the software's implementation are essential to avoid problems during go-live. It is also recommended to inform all the departments and stakeholders (vendor, partner, employees, customers, etc.) associated with the software for day-to-day operations.
Shopping cart software trends
- Personalized shopping carts: Increased competition forces companies to go beyond general configuration and optimize customers' buying experience by offering features like tailored product recommendations, targeted marketing, and customized checkout experience. Website builders and shopping cart software developers are more focused on developing tools that make customers feel more welcome and address specific needs.
- Voice search: Voice search is getting increasingly popular for activities like ordering products, tracking packages, and finding product information. Businesses must optimize their product listings and descriptions for voice-based searches to stay competitive.
- Augmented reality (AR): The use of AR allows customers to preview products in their environment before purchasing. This feature enhances the shopping experience, making it more interactive and increasing conversion rates.
- Mobile shopping: Mobile commerce is becoming a cornerstone of e-commerce, with many shopping cart platforms offering mobile-responsive pages by default to cater to the growing number of smartphone users.
- AI chatbots: These are valuable tools for providing round-the-clock customer support. They can handle common queries and guide customers through their shopping experience, improving satisfaction while reducing the need for human intervention.
