1ShoppingCart
An Online Shopping Cart Review …
Welcome back to another issue of Working IT Out!
Last issue I explored sidebars and gave you some great dating tips in the process. Today, I’m going to leave my dating pitfalls at home while I talk about a company we have been using for our online shopping cart solution called 1ShoppingCart.com.
Now I have a real love-hate relationship with 1ShoppingCart so you’ll have to bear with my seemingly multiple personality disorder as I dissect 1ShoppingCart.
The first question I have to ask myself (Notice the multiple personality issue already cropping up, quiet me I’m trying to write this article) is why talk about 1ShoppingCart?
There are a lot of fish in the sea when it comes to shopping carts so why pick 1ShoppingCart?
Simple, this is the solution I have been using to solve several key pieces of direct response marketing as they relate to our shopping cart.
In this issue we’ll talk about:
- Is a jack of all trades solution acceptable?
- A good all-in-one solution for most business owners that want to sell products online …
- How there is more than one way to skin a cat but, you need to start somewhere to know your needs …
- And much, much more!
1ShoppingCart is a good start when trying to decide what your needs are going to be because they are a jack of all trades for the would-be business owner.
When we were in the market for a new shopping cart we had to consider several different factors.
- We need a shopping cart for our small but, growing list of products.
- We must be able to track our current clients as well as our potential clients.
- We need to be able to segment our lists according to the products the clients have purchased.
- We need to be able to track our various campaign statistics, such as click-though rates and sales.
- We need an affiliate program that can promote our products.
These were not tall orders but it seemed impossible to find a solution that was less than $5000 and had the support we could call-up when we had questions or concerns.
In swoops 1ShoppingCart with the all-in-one solution.
Now, their gig was that they can offer all the services we require and they’re only $79 a month for 10,000 clients and expandable to 1 million clients.
So we thought, perfect, an all-in-one solution that is affordable is a great way to start.
1ShoppingCart
Jack of All Trades Master of None
The one problem with using a “boxed” solution is that inevitably you will want to do things that the software was not designed to do.
For example, in 1ShoppingCart you can have autoresponders set up that automatically send out e-mails at timed intervals to subscribers you opt in to the autoresponders.
This is an extremely common and effective practice.
A common place you’ll see this is when you click on a banner or link to read a free report and the first thing they do is ask for your e-mail address.
This page is typically between the link you clicked on and your destination page, aptly named a squeeze page.
Now where autoresponders come into play, is that once you enter your name and e-mail address into the form you are opted into a particular autoresponder list.
This list can then be used later to track:
- How and where the client was brought in.
- It can be used to segment these clients to be included or excluded from a particular promotion.
- It can be used to deliver a thank you, welcome aboard or premium delivery e-mail.
- It can be used to deliver a timed series of e-mails, such as:
Day 1: Deliver a thank you; Day 2 Deliver a promotion to a similar product; Day 6: Deliver another follow-up promotion and so on.
Most of us would agree that theses are essential pieces of data for direct response markets.
The ability to have autoresponders is one aspect that I really like about 1ShoppingCart, however, I prefer to get html e-mails, many other people prefer to get text only e-mails. 1ShoppingCart does not allow you to do both, you have to choose.
This may seem minor to you – apparently it’s minor to 1ShoppingCart – but since it’s so easy to send out e-mail in both formats and let the client choose according to the preferences they have, then why not provide that simple option?
These are the kind of pitfalls you will run into with 1ShoppingCart, they can do something 90% of the way you would like it done.
This is why I refer to them as a jack-of-all trades and a master of none.
The real question is can you live with 90% or does it have to 100% or the way you envision?
The trade off to get 100% your way usually means a custom system probably built from scratch.
Of course as direct response business owners we want custom systems that provide all the bells and whistles we need for tracking and list management and that gets quite expensive. I have yet to see one for less than $8000 that has any reliable track records and is completely customizable.
For us, 90% has worked for many things and for the aspects where nothing less than 100% is acceptable we use services outside of 1ShoppingCart.
A good all-in-one solution for most business owners
that want to sell products online …
My final prognosis of 1ShoppingCart is that it is a great start for most business solutions.
If you are serious about applying the principles that Clayton, Troy, Daniel and Julie talk about each week, you need the infrastructure to track the results.
Unfortunately, there has to be some investment in this infrastructure, the good news is 1ShoppingCart is relatively cheap.
A quick word about all-in-one …
1ShoppingCart annoys me to no end in their claim to be an all-in-one solution.
They’re not an all-in-one solution because you’ll still need a website and payment gateway outside of 1ShoppingCart to make use of their site.
In all fairness to them, most people have a website and are looking to expand their basic site to include a shopping cart, but if you don’t have any web presence 1ShoppingCart can’t stand alone.
If you have no web presence, you will first need a website to house your 1ShoppingCart shopping cart.
To their credit however, you will not need to worry about buying a website with extra security features such as SSL licenses. Keeping up SSL licenses can get expensive and takes a bit of extra programming know-how, so this is a great feature if you don’t want to mess with extra code.
Of course this goads my multiple personality issues because …
On one hand, you don’t have to deal with secure pages on your existing website because 1ShoppingCart handles the entire checkout procedure.
All you need to be able to do is cut and paste the code they supply you into your existing web pages which is great for because it allows for maximum flexibility of your sales page.
On the other hand, by controlling the entire checkout form you are limited to the constraints that 1ShoppingCart imposes on you in terms of look and data collection.
For example, you have a limited amount of data that can be collected during your final checkout form such as, name, e-mail, address, phone, etc … If you want to collect additional data, you need to have the client fill out your form before they are sent to the final checkout form.
This can be a big problem because it is widely believed that for every time you ask a client to click on an additional link you loose half your audience.
That means if I have to have them fill out an additional form or click to an additional page before buying, in theory I will loose half the buyers.
Of course there are far too many factors to just say for every click you loose half but, even so if the possibility of loosing any clients exists then you might as well avoid the practice altogether when possible.
There really are a lot of fish in the sea
All that being said I have been happy with the overall performance 1ShoppingCart.
I guess it all boils down to the fact that you can go to the most expensive bells and whistle site out there and from time to time it will mess up.
We’ve all been there …
We go to bestbuy.com expecting the tech geniuses of a company that boasts of technological superiority but, low and behold some crazy technical glitch and I have to type in all my info again!
So I curse and “Say those guys must be idiots over there”, when the plain and simple reality is that technology, although great, breaks down fairly often on a very consistent basis.
As a former tech support dude, trust me when I tell you it really does work for most people, in most cases … and it’s not a conspiracy against you.
And as long as I’m on my soap box, trust me further when I confess that the lowly tech support person can not fix everything.
Most technology goes something like this:
- Smart person invents good technology.
- Not so smart person uses technology.
- Even less smart person attempts to help not so smart person work the new technology that neither of them can truly fix.
Whew … I digress …
So the moral of the story is this:
There are plenty of great solutions out there and 1ShoppingCart is just one that I have used. Some other all-in-one solutions that I have seen advertised our Paypal.com and Yahoo Business.
I’d love to hear what solutions you have found, so take a moment and drop me a quick comment.
Thanks and have a great weekend!
Editor, Working IT Out
THE TOTAL PACKAGE
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6 Comments »
Join the Discussion!
Let us know what you think. Or ask us anything. Or offer your own sage advice.
The only rule: RESPECT THIS HOUSE! Postings that contain abusive language and/or personal attacks will be cheerfully VAPORIZED. One cross word and – POOF! – your well-thought-out post will be gone in a puff of smoke.
– Clayton
Comment by Senen Pousa — August 11, 2007 @ 9:06 am
I\’m just about to set up my own shopping cart with 1shoppingcart.com and I\’m curious as to why you chose HTML vs text based email. I know when I receive your email none of the images appear which is the main reason for HTML email. Interested in your comments.
Senen
Comment by Richard — August 12, 2007 @ 1:32 am
ClickCartPro
http://www.kryptronic.com/
seems to be very close to 1shoppingcart, with a number of features that serve us better. For mail management MailLoop 7 is the greatest eMail management software. Both have the advantage or -buy and use- no monthly rental and during our set up phase we have gotten good support.
Hope to have everything up and running soon.
Thanks for the filling your articles with usable information - I sincerely appreciate it.
Richard
Comment by Bruce — August 12, 2007 @ 5:19 am
One feature I would won\’t from a shopping cart is the ability for it
to automatically swap a prospect to
a customer mailing list, once that prospect buys.
Comment by mark — August 12, 2007 @ 10:05 am
I recommend using http://www.Ecompal.com as they offer an all in one package for a super low price.
Try $17 a month for the basic package.
What I like most is that they offer Tracking & Taguchi Testing.
It\\\’s really easy to use… especially when compared to Googles Website Optimizer.
However, Ecompal is basically a one man support.
If your interested ecompal offers a 14 day free trial.
They also offer recurring billing, stamps.com shipping feature
Comment by David Dittman — August 13, 2007 @ 6:12 am
Thank you for all the feedback on the different shopping carts out there. I’m looking forward to taking some time exploring them.
Also, in regards to why I prefer html emails, I’m a believer that presentation can enhance copy. I know some people that will only read emails that catch their eye. Now, Senen makes a good point about images not showing up right away but I think most people are use to that and if you have a headline that stops them, they will click to show the images.
Senen, does make a great point though and it is something I’d love see some test results on. For us html emails work well.
Thanks for all your comments!
David Dittman
Comment by Debbie — July 24, 2008 @ 12:52 am
My comment may not mean much…almost a year after your original post…but 1SC DOES offer MIME–the option to send emails in both text and HTML. I’ve been customer for over a year and that’s nothing new. One downside is that they’re unable to track whether or not a text email has been opened. But you certainly have the option to send ANY broadcast message both ways.
My only concern with 1SC is that their Pro package is expensive! $99/month!!