Best Shopping Cart Solutions Shortlist
Here’s the shortlist of the best tools that I’ll cover in this article.
If there’s one golden rule in ecommerce, it's this: You have to make it as easy as possible for your customers to give you money.
You want to help potential customers find your product, understand why they should buy it, and then create a smooth transition to the transaction. The best shopping cart solutions help you achieve this goal by streamlining the process of adding, updating, selling, and shipping inventory from your ecommerce website.
Today, there's a multitude of shopping cart solutions available, each with its own unique host of features and functions. In this article, I’ll be sharing the best of the bunch to help you choose the solution that’s right for your business.
What Are Shopping Cart Solutions?
Shopping cart solutions are cloud-based SaaS platforms that will help you set up your online store, market your products, and manage transactions on your behalf. They take the administrative work of ecommerce off your hands so that you can place your focus on the tasks that matter most.
Overviews Of The 10 Best Shopping Cart Solutions
Here’s a brief description of each shopping cart solution to showcase each tool’s best use case and some noteworthy features.
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Best shopping cart solution for small businesses
Ecwid is a shopping cart solution that offers a permanent free plan.
Why I picked Ecwid: For small businesses who want a simple online storefront to sell a small number of products, Ecwid offers a completely free plan. Bells and whistles like coupon codes, e-goods, advanced SEO, and live chat are offered via the next plan up, which is still very reasonably priced.
Ecwid connects with email marketing tools like Mailchimp, advertising tools on Google and Facebook, and external marketplaces like Etsy, Amazon, and eBay. The intuitive dashboard provides a simple interface through which you can keep an eye on sales and marketing straight from their mobile app.
Ecwid Standout Features and Integrations
Features include inventory management, payment gateway, email marketing, mobile app, design templates, shipping options, custom API, and security.
Integrations are extensive and include Printful, SUP Dropshipping, TaxJar, Intercom, and Pinterest. Many others are available by connecting a paid Zapier account.
Pros
- No setup or transaction fees
- Sell across a variety of mediums
- Free plan
Cons
- Mobile POS integration is for iOS only
Shopaccino
Best for all-in-one ecommerce integration
Shopaccino is a shopping cart solution that lets you manage your entire ecommerce business end-to-end.
Why I picked Shopaccino: Shopaccino is an integrated shopping cart solution with an all-in-one ecommerce platform. You can build your branded website, sync their native mobile app to your storefront, and sync your accounting and ERP using their APIs. Inventory and order management, product cataloging, and customer engagement can all be done from their single interface.
Shopaccino’s in-depth marketing features allow you to track campaign performance across email marketing, Google, Facebook, and other channels. They offer functions like Auto SMS and abandoned cart emails as well to enhance conversions. Loyalty and rewards points can be provided to customers to keep them coming back for more.
Shopaccino Standout Features and Integrations
Features include email marketing, open API, order management, abandoned cart emails, social media marketing, and a website builder.
Integrations are extensive and include payment gateways like Stripe, Google Pay, and Amazon Pay, shipping agencies like DHL, Blue Dart, and Dotzot, live chat tools like Zendesk Chat and Olark, and many more.
Pros
- Easy to pull reports
- Easy setup
- Excellent customer service
Cons
- No drag-and-drop design tools
PrestaShop
Best shopping cart solution for scalability
PrestaShop is an open-source shopping cart solution that is available in over 75 languages.
Why I picked PrestaShop: If you’ve got your sights set on global domination, PrestaShop has the tools to help you grow your sales territory across the globe. Available in over 75 languages, you can use a multi-language sheet to easily adapt your product descriptions to different markets. You can also set currencies and then automate the exchange rate movements.
PrestaShop’s email marketing functionality is used not only for promotions, but also to reach out to customers in cart abandonment scenarios. If a product is out of stock when a customer is searching, they can sign up to receive back-in-stock notifications. You can also customize your SEO and link social media accounts to begin selling on social platforms.
PrestaShop Standout Features and Integrations
Features include SEO optimization, cart abandonment recovery, email marketing, reporting and analytics, order management, tax compliance tools, and one-page checkout.
Integrations include HubSpot, QuickBooks, Salesforce, Zoho CRM, Xero, and many more. Additional integrations are also available by connecting a paid Zapier account.
Pros
- Many free plugins
- User-friendly interface
- Open source
Cons
- Lack of free design templates
OpenCart
Best shopping cart solution for open-source design modifications
OpenCart is an open source shopping cart solution with many free downloads and upgrades.
Why I picked OpenCart: OpenCart’s site builder is module-based, allowing users to expand store functionality. Their marketplace features over 13,000 themes and modules, including options for payment providers, shipping, social media, accounting, and reporting. If you need a highly customizable option for your online store, OpenCart can help you build to spec.
Unlimited categories and products can be categorized by custom filters, making it easy for your customers to find exactly what they’re looking for. OpenCart also comes with a built-in affiliate system that allows you to offer payment options and collaborate with affiliates.
OpenCart Standout Features and Integrations
Features include user management, multi-store support, open source, discounts and coupons, unlimited products, SEO optimization, and an extensions marketplace.
Integrations are available through the extensions marketplace and include WordPress, Mailchimp, Zoho, and Zendesk.
Pros
- Multiple payment gateways
- Easy to add modules
- Highly customizable
Cons
- No transparent pricing
Constant Contact
Best shopping cart solution for email marketing integration
Constant Contact is an email marketing platform with a website builder and online store functionality.
Why I picked Constant Contact: For businesses with an existing email marketing strategy, creating a storefront with Constant Contact allows you to work within a familiar platform while maximizing your current strengths. You can create custom emails with their drag-and-drop function and send customers straight from their inbox to your online store with just a few clicks.
Constant Contact provides professionally designed templates to help you customize your online store design. Lead-generation landing pages can help drive traffic to your products. Constant Contact manages the web hosting, and business owners will benefit from the added email marketing benefits for their ecommerce store.
Constant Contact Standout Features and Integrations
Features include email marketing, website builder, design templates, payment processor, and a user-friendly interface.
Integrations include Salesforce, Gmail, Outlook, Eventbrite, QuickBooks, Canva, Etsy, and Mindbody.
Pros
- Choice of email templates
- Send customers from email to online store
- Extensive email marketing capabilities
Cons
- Primarily an email marketing platform
ThriveCart
Best shopping cart solution for increasing conversion rates
ThriveCart is a shopping cart solution with revenue optimization features like high-converting cart pages, affiliate pages, and sales funnels.
Why I picked ThriveCart: ThriveCart’s drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to customize the checkout process and adds opportunities for cross-selling and upselling. Embeddable pop-up carts help to mitigate cart abandonment, and functions like bump offers, free trials, and one-click funnels have the potential to improve conversion rates and increase average order value.
ThriveCart has extensive analytics and reporting, allowing you to view data like live traffic and conversion rates, projected revenue forecasting, and average daily revenue. You can also provide customers with perks like free trials, subscriptions, and discount offers to incentivize both first-time and recurring purchases.
ThriveCart Standout Features and Integrations
Features include bump offers, 1-click-upsells, coupons, affiliate center, reporting and analytics, secure URLs, funnel stats, and subscription management.
Integrations include Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, ShipStation, Teachable, Slack, HubSpot, Mailchimp, ConvertKit, and ActiveCampaign. More integrations are also available by connecting a paid Zapier account.
Pros
- Built-in affiliate management
- User-friendly interface
- Extensive integrations
Cons
- Lifetime plan rather than monthly payment
ShopWired
Best shopping cart solution for customizing your online store design
Shopwired is a shopping cart solution that allows users to go beyond templates when designing their online store.
Why I picked ShopWired: ShopWired offers a variety of free design themes that can be easily customized to suit your brand. You can add images and change text while seeing the edits in real time using their live preview feature. And if you require further customization, their coding team can help you add functionality and adjust the layout and style to suit your taste.
ShopWired offers abandoned cart recovery, automatic sales tax calculations, and more than 60 payment gateway integrations. Customers can use the “buy now, pay later” option to split up payments. Their checkout process is completely customizable and has been optimized to enhance conversion rates.
ShopWired Standout Features and Integrations
Features include free SSL security, abandoned cart recovery, payment gateway integrations, user accounts, SEO, email marketing, and social media integrations.
Integrations are extensive and include Facebook, Instagram, Google Shopping, eBay, Etsy, Amazon, DropWired, Mailchimp, Printify, and QuickBooks.
Pros
- Highly customizable design
- Easy to use
- Extensive B2B features
Cons
- Product limits
GoDaddy Online Store
Best shopping cart solution for reaching new customers
GoDaddy is a shopping cart software with a flexible shop setup process and enhanced SEO and google functionality.
Why I picked GoDaddy: GoDaddy has a simple user interface that makes it easy to set up your shopping cart solution and start selling ASAP. You can add up to 5,000 products, and each product can feature up to 10 images. GoDaddy accepts all major credit cards, as well as Apple Pay and PayPal. It also allows you to offer customers flat rate or weight-based shipping, depending on what’s easiest for you.
GoDaddy’s Google My Business feature helps you set up your dedicated business listing on Google search and Google Maps. From there, you can start responding to customer questions and reviews. Additionally, their Website Builder helps you optimize for SEO by automatically reviewing your site and populating relevant phrases and keywords to improve your rankings and help new customers find you faster.
GoDaddy Standout Features and Integrations
Features include SEO optimization, advanced search, mobile-optimized checkout, video product demos, and abandoned cart recovery.
Integrations are not listed on the GoDaddy website.
Pros
- Add up to 5,000 products
- Marketing suite built-in
- Easy to set up your storefront
Cons
- Only one ecommerce plan tier
SamCart
Best shopping cart solution for upsells and add-ons
SamCart is a shopping cart software solution that offers a variety of revenue optimization tools.
Why I picked SamCart: In addition to the basic features like payment processing, abandoned cart, and customizable design, small businesses will love SamCart’s revenue optimization features. Their pre-purchase order bumps make it easy for customers to access add-ons, and at checkout their one-click upsells help you increase the volume in every online shopping cart. You can also accept donations with a pay-what-you-want feature.
SamCart makes it easy to create coupons for recurring or one-time sales. You can offer subscriptions, free trials, and payment plans to customize payment options. And their drag-and-drop builder means that you don’t need any knowledge of code in order to create a beautiful and engaging storefront.
SamCart Standout Features and Integrations
Features include custom domains, unlimited products, pre-designed templates, one-click upsells, CRM integration, and abandoned cart recovery.
Integrations include Stripe, PayPal, HubSpot, ConvertKit, Intercom, AWeber, Kajabi, InflusionSoft, Drip, Mailchimp, and many others. Connect your paid Zapier account to access more options.
SamCart Plans and Pricing
SamCart does not charge transaction fees. Their plans begin at $59/month, and a 7-day free trial is available.
Pros
- Unlimited products
- Extensive integrations
- No transaction fees
Cons
- Most suitable for selling physical products
Big Cartel
Best shopping cart solution for creators and artists
Big Cartel is a shopping cart solution that helps creators build unique online stores and sell their work.
Why I picked Big Cartel: Creative businesses have very specific needs that may not be met by traditional ecommerce platforms. Big Cartel gives you the option to create a custom storefront using their templated themes, or to dive into the open-source code and create something one-of-a-kind. Big Cartel understands the needs of artists and creators because that’s how they started. The company remains a small and tight-knit independent business.
Big Cartel does not charge listing fees, and they don’t take a cut of sales. Their website builder is best for small businesses since it’s more suitable for selling a few individual products rather than bulk uploads. If you’re a beginner, you’ll love Big Cartel’s supportive onboarding process and extensive support.
Big Cartel Standout Features and Integrations
Features include a mobile app, payment gateways, social media sales, design templates, and abandoned cart recovery.
Integrations are not listed on the Big Cartel website.
Pros
- Best for artists and creators
- Clean, minimal designs
- Set up and start selling for free
Cons
- Not suitable for bulk uploads
The 10 Best Shopping Cart Solutions Comparison Chart
Here is a convenient table where you can compare all the tools we just covered in the overviews.
| Tool | Free Option | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ecwid by Lightspeed Best shopping cart solution for small businesses | Free plan available | From $19/month | Visit Website |
| 2 | Shopaccino Best for all-in-one ecommerce integration | 14-day free trial | From $20 /month | Visit Website |
| 3 | PrestaShop Best shopping cart solution for scalability | Not available | Free to use | Visit Website |
| 4 | OpenCart Best shopping cart solution for open-source design modifications | Free demo | Pricing upon request | Visit Website |
| 5 | Constant Contact Best shopping cart solution for email marketing integration | 60-day free trial | From $9.99/month | Visit Website |
| 6 |  ThriveCart Best shopping cart solution for increasing conversion rates | Demo available upon request | $495 lifetime plan | Visit Website |
| 7 |  ShopWired Best shopping cart solution for customizing your online store design | 14-day free trial | From $29.95/month | Visit Website |
| 8 |  GoDaddy Online Store Best shopping cart solution for reaching new customers | Not available | Visit Website | |
| 9 |  SamCart Best shopping cart solution for upsells and add-ons | 7-day free trial | From $59/month | Visit Website |
| 10 |  Big Cartel Best shopping cart solution for creators and artists | Free version available | From $9.99/month | Visit Website |
Other Options
Here are a few more options that didn’t make the best shopping cart solutions list:
- Mailchimp Stores
Best for ease of setup and launch
- Square Online Store
Best for consistent in-store and online POS experience
- X-Cart
Best for custom bundle pricing plans
- BigCommerce
Best for omnichannel marketing
- 1ShoppingCart
Best for setup help and support
- Shopify
Best for inventory management
- Selldone
Best for no-code website building
- Adobe Commerce
Best for integrating with other Adobe tools
- Volusion
Best for in-house website building expertise
- Zen Cart
Best for integrating with third-party hosting
Other Ecommerce Payment Software
If you're looking for shopping cart solutions, you might be thinking about ecommerce payment software more generally, too. Here are some related software reviews you might be interested in.
- Ecommerce Accounting Software
- Buy-Now-Pay-Later Platforms
- Credit Card Processing
- Ecommerce Sales Tax Software
- Payment Processing Software
How I Selected the Best Shopping Cart Solutions
Curious about how I selected the best shopping cart software? I gathered the shopping cart solutions with the highest user reviews and satisfaction ratings. Then, using my experience in ecommerce, I discerned what key criteria were most important for setting up your online store and compared how each of them stacked up against the rest.
Selection Criteria
After careful consideration, I've determined that these are the most important criteria when selecting the best shopping cart solution. Here's a brief list outlining what I was looking for:
Core Functionality:
Each shopping cart solution will work a bit differently but they must cover the following in terms of basic functionality in order to be considered for this list:
- Ability for customers to select products to purchase and move them into a digital "cart" to buy all at once when they are ready
- Ability to accept payments, ideally in various popular forms (credit card, PayPal, Amazon Pay, BNPL)
- Ability to plug into your ecommerce store and work together with the inventory systems and selling systems you already use
Key Features:
Here are the key features I look for in any ecommerce shopping cart solution.
- Shopping cart functionality: Ddd products to their cart, view the contents, update quantities, and remove items as needed
- Payment integration: Integration with various payment gateways allows customers to make secure online payments (like credit/debit cards, PayPal, digital wallets)
- Order management: Allows businesses to manage and track customer orders (order processing, order status updates, invoicing, and shipping management)
- Inventory management: Capability to track product availability, stock levels, and manage backorders with real-time inventory updates
- Shipping and tax calculation: Provide accurate shipping costs based on the customer's location
- Customer accounts and profiles: Save customer preferences, view order history, track shipments, and facilitate easier future purchases
- Mobile responsiveness: Mobile-responsive and provide a seamless experience across different devices and screen sizes
- Customization and branding: Customize the appearance and branding of the cart to match their website or brand identity
- Analytics and reporting: Track sales, conversion rates, customer behavior, and other key metrics
Usability:
I chose shopping cart solutions that make it easy for your customers to find and choose your products and place orders with their payment method of choice. Customers need a straightforward method to access the product they want. A good cart funnel will make a significant difference in your conversions.
Software Integrations:
Some shopping cart solutions come packaged in with ecommerce platforms and inventory management tools. However, others need to connect to additional solutions in order to cover those functions. I selected shopping cart solutions that integrate with a variety of other tools—natively or through Zapier, API access, etc.—including email marketing tools, accounting software, website builders, and shipping solutions to help you carry out all your needs from one central location.
Value for Price:
Shopping cart solutions may charge a monthly or yearly subscription fee as well as per-transaction fees. I've looked for shopping cart solutions that offer a fair price for their feature selection and tried to outline all the particularities in each pricing schema. I've also highlighted free trials or freemium solutions where possible, as this can make testing the software firsthand much easier.
People Also Ask
Here are a few questions I've heard before and want to address here.
What are the benefits of shopping cart solutions?
Using an ecommerce shopping cart solution offers several benefits for online businesses. Here are some of the key advantages:
- Increased sales and revenue: A well-designed shopping cart solution can enhance the customer shopping experience, leading to higher conversion rates and increased sales. Features such as smooth checkout processes, secure payment options, and personalized recommendations can help reduce cart abandonment and encourage customers to complete their purchases.
- Improved customer experience: Shopping cart solutions provide features that enhance the overall customer experience. These include easy navigation, search functionality, product filtering, customer reviews, and personalized recommendations. By offering a user-friendly and seamless shopping experience, businesses can build customer loyalty and increase customer satisfaction.
- Streamlined order management: Shopping cart solutions simplify the process of managing customer orders. They provide centralized systems to track and process orders, manage inventory, generate invoices, and handle shipping and fulfillment. This streamlines the order fulfillment process, reduces manual effort, and improves operational efficiency.
- Marketing and promotional opportunities: Many shopping cart solutions offer built-in marketing features or integrations with marketing tools. These include discount code management, upselling and cross-selling capabilities, email marketing integration, and integration with social media platforms. These marketing functionalities help businesses promote their products, engage customers, and drive repeat purchases.
A shopping cart solution is part of the last part of the conversion funnel, where customers are ready to buy and have chosen your store to meet their needs. That's why it's important not to fumble this step.
Who uses shopping cart solutions?
Shopping cart solutions are used by a wide range of businesses and individuals who operate online stores or sell products and services on the internet. This includes small and medium-sized businesses, ecommerce startups, established retailers, entrepreneurs, freelancers, and even non-profit organizations. Essentially, anyone looking to create an online store and facilitate the process of managing and processing customer orders can benefit from using shopping cart solutions.
What shopping cart solution is easiest to learn?
Determining the easiest shopping cart solution to learn depends on individual preferences and familiarity with technology. However, some popular shopping cart platforms known for their user-friendly interfaces and ease of use include ThriveCart, WooCommerce (WordPress plugin), and Shift4Shop. These solutions offer intuitive dashboards, drag-and-drop functionalities, and comprehensive documentation or customer support, making them accessible to users with varying levels of technical expertise. Ultimately, it is recommended to explore and compare different options to find the one that aligns best with specific needs and preferences.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you’re brand new to ecommerce, you may need a little more information before signing up with a shopping cart solution and launching your online store. Let’s take a look at some common questions:
What is a Shopping Cart in Ecommerce?
What to Look for in an Ecommerce Shopping Cart?
Why is it Important to Choose the Right Shopping Cart for Ecommerce?
Shopping Cart Options for Every Online Store's Needs
Whatever you’re selling, you want to make it a success. That’s why it’s so important to remain informed about the latest trends and insights in the ecommerce space. And to stay up-to-date on all our content here, don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter. You’ll be sent new articles and podcast episodes straight to your inbox, as soon as they’re released.