There are some simple questions about which clarity is a must before starting an online shopping cart store. Avoiding these questions at the onset can be a costly mistake. The 10 slides here are to help a beginner start to think on correct lines.

1. How to Plan for a Shopping
Cart to Sell Tangible Goods
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Drop us a line to discuss - enquiry@tropicalcluster.com

2. 11 things to think...
1. Do you have a list of products & their categories that you plan
to sell on your site?

3. 2. Are you aware of:
- Inventory management
- Tax Issues
- Shipping Issues
Gather the details
11 things to think...

4. 3. Return Policy
Return policy is a must to mention on your shopping cart site for
gaining trust of your customers. Mentioning return policy means
customers are assured of having a chance to change or return a
product, for a genuine reason.
11 things to think...

5. 4. Creating a list of features you would like to have to manage
your shopping cart website
• No of individual products on site, Stock keeping unit
(SKU) in industrial terms.
• Bulk uploading of products
• Discounting & Gift cards
• Bundled discounts
• Single product variations
• Inventory management
• Multiple Shipping options within country & foreign
lands
• Email notification & invoices
• Order / customer tracking
11 things to think...

6. 5. Payment Gateway
There are many payment gateways available that allow credit / debit card
processing. You may be more comfortable with some whose office is located
& easily accessible in the country of your business. They may have different
transaction features.
a. Paypal
b. authorize.net
c. securepay
d. checkout.com
e. paysimple
& many more....
11 things to think...

7. 6. Secure Payment Gateway
11 things to think...
When selecting the payment gateway
you need to make sure that all payment
procedures is secure via HTTPS
protocol. This ensures that all the
information is encrypted during
communication with remote servers and
hackers will not have access to private
banking information of customers.
Security option is taken into
consideration when making purchase
decision by client.

8. 7. Do you like any website you have seen on the web that
closely fits your needs, look & feel?
11 things to think...

9. 8. How soon do you want to get started?
• ASAP (As soon as possible)
• In two weeks
• In one month
• In two months
• More than two months
11 things to think...

10. 9. What is the total budget of your shopping cart site
USD 500 - 1499
USD 1500 - 2499
USD 2500 - 3000
USD 3000 - 3500
USD 3500 - 4000
11 things to think...

11. 10. Have you checked availability of suitable domain name and
have arranged for hosting services for your shopping cart?
11 things to think...

12. 11. Shopping Site Development
• There are sites such as SHOPIFY.COM that have many
features built in their template and you could quickly get
started. But there is a catch....MONTHLY FEES & FEATURES
BASED ON MONTHLY FEES. You could start on your own, but
to customize features, you may require to hire a programmer.
• There are open source shopping carts, such as http://
www.zen-cart.com/ or https://www.cubecart.com/ which do
not have any monthly fees, but if you want to extend features
you may need to buy plugins (one time fee) & may have to pay small
amount for technical support. You will also need
a programmer to customize the website as per your requirements.
11 things to think...

13. We Can Help Develop Shopping Cart WebSite
If you are a beginner, with limited funding it may be better to get
started with open source shopping cart that you do not have to
pay monthly. We can help you set it up for a fee.
You can grow from a limited range to many product & varieties as
you understand the complexity in each segment of managing the
online shopping cart web site business.
Having a helping hand for day to day management of orders &
reliable long term tie up with our team will help you smoothen the
journey.
http://www.tropicalcluster.com
Drop us a line to discuss - enquiry@tropicalcluster.com