| Open source software has taken the marketplace by | | | | 9. Provides timely bug fixes and safe upgrade path |
| storm. Small business owners and multinational | | | | 10. Installs in a dedicated and shared hosting |
| companies alike are using open source software to | | | | environment |
| run their daily business operations. Today, open source | | | | Now that we have our minimum requirements list we |
| software can meet the needs of various industries | | | | can begin to look at the top free shopping cart |
| and market segments including those requiring an | | | | programs. In my opinion, the top free shopping carts |
| application server, web server, productivity suite, CRM | | | | for the small business market are:o Magento |
| tool, project management, integrated development | | | | Commerceo VirtueMarto osCommerceo ZenCarto |
| environment (IDE), point-of-sale software, enterprise | | | | CubeCarto UberCarto AbleCommerce |
| resource planning (ERP) software and ecommerce | | | | All of the free shopping carts listed above can be |
| shopping cart software just to name a few. | | | | downloaded, installed and configured at no cost to the |
| Community developed software provides a low cost | | | | merchant. However, since most community based |
| alternative to traditional proprietary software. | | | | product installations come with a standard (non |
| Merchants have the ability to customize community | | | | commercial quality) user interface most merchants will |
| based products to meet their specific business | | | | want to upgrade the GUI (graphical user interface). In |
| requirement. When trying to select a shopping cart | | | | order to upgrade the GUI and improve the end user |
| system, to run your online store, business owners must | | | | experience merchants can choose to hire a web |
| evaluate and assign value to the technical and | | | | developer or simply purchase a custom template from |
| operational specifications before deploying to | | | | sites like templatemonster. Template Monster (and |
| production. Since one size does not fit all; merchants | | | | others) provides thousands of affordable custom |
| must choose the best product based on their unique | | | | templates so merchants can easily deploy great |
| requirements. | | | | looking online stores. |
| So how do you choose the best open source | | | | In order to ensure you're selecting the best shopping |
| shopping cart software? First we'll start by listing the | | | | cart for your business merchants should consider the |
| major players in the small business market. In order to | | | | following: |
| make my list the open source shopping cart must | | | | Capacity - The merchant must know and understand |
| meet the 10 minimum requirements listed below. | | | | the product capacity limitation. For example, if you |
| Required Features: | | | | have a product catalog of 1000 products but the |
| 1. Centrally controlled source code | | | | shopping cart has a 900 product limitation then that |
| 2. An active developer community | | | | solution is not for you. Note: All of the open source |
| 3. Mature third party extensions (including PCI | | | | products listed above have an unlimited product |
| Compliant payment gateway extensions) | | | | catalog. |
| 4. Support Linux and Microsoft Windows hosting | | | | Performance - If your ecommerce web store is slow |
| environments | | | | customers will simply shop someplace else. Therefore, |
| 5. Software download must include all features listed | | | | you must check performance with high user loads and |
| on website (e.g. not crippleware or demoware) | | | | with increased data loads. Both scenarios can bring a |
| 6. Well written installation guide and user guide. | | | | web store to its knees. |
| Documentation may be available as a PDF document | | | | Community Support - Verify a strong development |
| or as an HTML file. | | | | community exist. Review the online forums to see if |
| 7. Installs on a standard SSL certificate | | | | the product has an active community of developers. |
| 8. Provides a custom notification email to the merchant | | | | Look for online questions then see how long it took for |
| and customer | | | | the user to get a response. |