With so many shopping cart software programs, both free and commercial, it can be difficult to tell a good one from a bad one. And most importantly, to select which one would serve you better.

If you are in this situation, here are some tips on how to choose a good shopping cart software.

1. Your Programming Skills. Everybody wants a free, flexible shopping cart program that can be customized to the needs of the business. However, tuning and adjusting a shopping cart requires some programming skills. If you have them, fine, but if you don’t, you’re better off getting a commercial shopping cart program that is easy to install and is user friendly.

2. Security. Payments are a delicate thing. A shopping cart that’s not secure can make you lose your money, or worse, your customers’ money. You should read reviews from several sources about the shopping cart programs that you are considering in order to see how they have been performing.

3. Cost. Open source shopping carts are free, but that doesn’t mean they are the necessarily the best or worse, so you shouldn’t assume anything about their quality because they’re free. If you are inclining for commercial shopping carts, then you should consider two things. Upfront costs, and usage costs. At first, a percentage fee makes more sense over a flat rate, but as you expand and increase your online sales volume, you may end up paying more than what you would have payed with a fixed rate.

4. Compatibility. The shopping cart is an important part of your website, but it’s not the only one. Is the shopping cart that you’re planning to get compatible with the rest of the elements of your website? You want to find out before you install it or else you might be in for a nasty surprise.

5. Customer Support. Keeping your transactions going on is very important. You want a shopping cart that has customer support available at any time, or at least in your working hours to get you back on track in case of any problem.

6. Features. It’s not about what shopping cart has more features. It’s about what shopping cart has the features that you want. When seeing the list of features of a shopping cart offers you, ask yourself “am I really going to use all of them?” It’s better to get a simpler solution than a complex one, since you don’t want to pay for features you are not going to use and you don’t want to bother with another option in the setting when you install it.

7. User-friendliness. How user friendly it is to YOUR CUSTOMERS, not to you (although that doesn’t hurt). The easier and smoother the process is, the better your chances to get clients.

With this tips, you will be in a better position to select a shopping cart software that’s good for you.

Shopping cart software is one of the most important parts of your website, and thus, selecting one is not an unimportant decision.

The first thing that you have to decide is whether you go for open source software or a closed source one. Open source software is free and anyone can use it. Closed source one costs money and is protected by copyright so you can’t use it unless you pay. There are some advantages to both, otherwise everybody would get the free one.

If you are not sure which one to get, here are some factors that you should take into consideration.

• Is Your Business New or Are You Already Established? Opening a new business is a lot of work and there are many details to establish. In this case, it’s better to get open source software, since it’s easier to install and to use and you want to make your life easier. On the other hand, if you have an established business and you aren’t as pressed, you can get free open source and take the time to learn it.

• Your Computer Skills. Open source is free, but it requires some knowledge and skills in programming in order to install it and adjust it. If you aren’t very good with programming and you don’t have anyone in your team that is, then you’re better off getting easier-to-use closed source software. If you have some skill and are willing to spend the time in forums reading and learning, then open source is better for you.

• Your budget. If you are very tight in money, then you should definitely go for open source software. If you have some budget, then you can consider closed software shopping carts. A middle point solution is to get open software and then hire someone to install it or teach you how to use it.

• Security. This is also linked to your programming skills. Open source can be very safe, even more so than closed source, if you take the time to keep updated on all the security patches that are issued every one and then. You also have to install them yourself. If you don’t have the time and skills, closed source shopping cart offer reasonable protection and the patches will be sent and installed by the programmer.

These guidelines will give you a better idea on what you should get depending on your needs.