There are some large ecommerce websites which spend a lot of money on PPC advertising. But if you try to order anything from the website, atleast 50% of the time, you will get some error during the checkout process and are returned to the home page.
It is both a waste of the buyer’s time and the ecommerce websites money.
Few merchants seem to have a well designed system for error handling while processing payment. I had made a payment using Bill Desk, and since there was an error while processing the payment, I could not note down the transaction id. I then had to wait for nearly 36 hours before the payment could be processed properly and waste a lot of time following up.
Most web hosting companies include a free shopping cart software for Ecommerce . For some web hosts there is a script which installs the software on the website. The shopping cart software allows the visitor to select a particular item and add it to the list of products he wishes to purchase.
The web designer can create a standard web page and integrate the shopping cart by adding the relevant code to the web page, so that the check out and payment pages look similar to the rest of the website.
For Ecommerce website design, there are many ready made free software available as well as paid solutions. For free open source software, the developers do not offer much support , but if the software is widely used, support is available through forums and mailing lists. Shareware or paid solutions offer a free trial period but can be expensive. They usually provide support by email or over phone.
Even if an open source solution is used, some amount of customisation is needed for all ecommerce websites. If the website owner is familiar with web design and programming, this may be simple. If the website owner does not have enough time or is unable to learn how to make the modifications, a programmer may have to be hired and the expenses involved can be significant.
Some popular free shopping cart software are:
1. Zencart
2. Oscommerce
3. Agora
Free templates are also available with this software.