Review: 1ShoppingCart

1ShoppingCart.com
http://www.wilsonweb.com/afd/1shoppingcart.htm

Shopping cart programs come in all flavors. Some are store building programs in which you can create your entire website, catalog and ordering system (such as ShopSite, Yahoo! Store, etc.). Others are just ordering systems that customers access from order buttons pasted into product webpages on your main website (such as Americart, PayPal, etc.). 1ShoppingCart is of the latter variety, but does much more than its competitors. It consists of a sophisticated ordering system closely integrated with a digital delivery process, affiliate program, and autoresponder. Let's examine some of its strengths -- and a few weaknesses. In this review I'll describe the features of the full-functioning Professional version of the product. The Starter and Basic versions lack some features.

Ordering System

1ShoppingCart provides a strong ordering system auxilliary to your existing website. It doesn't build catalog webpages or exist within your domain. Rather it is a hosted system that provides a great degree of flexibility in the ordering process. The primary links between your site and 1ShoppingCart are the order buttons which you place on the product webpages of your existing website. When a shopper clicks on the order button, he is taken to the 1ShoppingCart order system. From that point, 1ShoppingCart gives merchants substantial flexibility to shape the shopper's experience.

The HTML behind the order button includes just two elements: the merchant ID and the product number. Here's a sample link:

Unlike PayPal that crams all the information about a product into the order button URL, 1ShoppingCart product data is entered into a web interface or uploaded from a spreadsheet or database.

Products

Required product fields include: description, SKU, and price. Optional fields include shipping price (a per product handling fee that can be assessed in addition to shipping calculated by weight, number, or total price), whether a shipping calculation is necessary (Y/N), state tax and country tax computation (Y/N), and shipping weight. But 1ShoppingCart also includes fields I haven't seen in other carts. Some of these fields enable the merchant to use a single 1ShoppingCart account as the ordering system for a number of sites. Here are some of 1ShoppingCart's unique fields:

• Destination URL. Where the shopper is taken after placing a product in the cart and clicks on "continue shopping." This can be used for specific cross-sell or upsell pages -- socks to go along with a pair of shoes, a better item after selecting a lower quality version of the product.
• Autoresponder. Specific to the product. This could be used for training, or to remind the customer to reorder after a supply of vitamins nears depletion. It could be set up with a special offer for returning customers.
• Thank You URLs. Specific to the product. This, in combination with other features, allows you to use the same shopping cart with multiple websites, since after the sale the customer is returned to the website of your choice. If present, this URL supercedes the cart's standard Thank You URL.
• Top HTML. Allows you to insert product-specific code that shows in the header of the order form. If present, this header supercedes the cart's standard order form header. This way the order form can carry the look and feel of each of the several websites that feed into it.
• Calculate Commission (Yes/No). Enables you to exclude certain products from affiliate commissions.
• Commission Rate. Allows the merchant to set product-specific first and second tier affiliate commissions that supercede regular affiliate commissions for the shopping cart.

1ShoppingCart could be used for stores carrying 1000+ products, I suppose -- they advertise an unlimited product database. But without a catalog building feature that creates template-based webpages for the 1,000 products, few merchants would choose 1ShoppingCart for such an application. Rather, 1ShoppingCart seems designed with great flexibility for online businesses that carry a few products, perhaps from a variety of microsites feeding into a single ordering system.

Order Form Options

Each product provides the merchant with his choice of order buttons that trigger two different order forms. The first type takes the shopper to a shopping cart system that allows the customer to continue shopping for other products or check out immediately. The second type, designed for single-product applications, takes the shopper directly to a one-page order form (rather than a shopping cart page), minimizing the clicks required to complete the sale. This approach makes 1ShoppingCart extremely flexible for different types of products and stores.

Payment Gateways and Recurring Billing

In order to take advantage of real-time credit card authorization, you'll need a payment gateway -- a system of connecting your website to the credit card processor. 1ShoppingCart provides support for a wide variety of payment gateways -- 28 different systems -- which include: Authorize.net, BluePay, Cybercash, DPI Merchant Services, e-Commerce Exchange, Epoch, ePoint, eProcessing Network, GoRealTime / EPP, iBill, IONGate (Costco), Intellipay, iTransact, Linkpoint (Card Services International), Merchant Commerce and Payment Services (MCPS), NETbilling, PayCom, Paymentech Orbital, PayPal, PayReady, Planet Payment, PSiGate, RTWare, Skipjack, Verisign Pro, WorldPay, and ViaKLIX (Nova Systems).

1ShoppingCart is just now rolling out the capability of doing recurring billing supported all their payment gateways. 

Digital Products Downloading and Licensing

1ShoppingCart can be used to deliver (and license) digital products, such as e-books, software, and computer games. The system allows you to customize the download page with your own look and feel, as well as the top and bottom text of the digital product license e-mail message. You can choose to disable the licensing feature, if you like, and just enable product downloads.

Shipping and Taxes

Merchants have great of flexibility with regards to shipping:

• Weight-based. For each type of shipping you can specify a base rate, a weight per pound, and a minimum shipping charge. No shipping zones are included, however.
• Flat Rate. A single price is charged for all sales.
• Real-time Shipping. Calculated for US Merchants only at present for UPS, FedEx, or USPS based on weight and the shipping address of the customer. It assumes a single location from which products are shipped.
• Order-Based. The shipping charge is calculated based on the amount of the order total.
• Quantity-Based. Shipping charges are based on the quantity of items ordered regardless of price or weight.
• Product-Specific Shipping and Handling. This can be set for particular products and can be combined with other shipping methods. As mentioned above, this amount is specified in the product database.
• Free Shipping for Large Orders. To give an incentive to order more, free shipping can be set at any level you like, such as orders greater than $100.

Tax computation, also, provides a number of options. You can set up sales tax rates for any state or province -- several states if you like -- which will be automatically assessed from shoppers in those states. You can also decide whether to calculate the tax before or after adding shipping charges.

Country-specific and other taxes can also be set, such as GST, VAT, or handling fees -- based on the country of the shopper. Each product is individually marked whether or not it is subject to tax.

Autoresponder

What sets 1ShoppingCart apart from any other ordering system I've seen is its tight integration with an autoresponder. The autoresponder can be used to send out programmed sequential messages or to manage and send out a regular e-mail newsletter.

Fields included are: name, company, e-mail, autoresponder(s) subscribed to, and client type. Additionally you can store information including: home phone, work phone, fax, address1, address 2, city, state, zip, and country. In addition, up to 10 custom fields can be included. They can be set to appear as required fields on the order form, the web sign-up form, or neither. When set as invisible, a custom field can be used for your private comments on a client.

When you get ready to send out a message, you can personalize the subject line and the message from fields included within the database. For example, <$firstname$> will extract the first name from the database "name" field and place it wherever you like. Messages may be sent out in either text or HTML format, but not as multi-part MIME. Unlike some recent listhandlers, subscribers have no way to select their desired format.

Merchants can designate their own name and e-mail address in the e-mail's "from" field, so the e-mail appears to come directly from you, and replies can be directed to whatever e-mail box you designate. Each e-mail that goes out automatically includes an unsubscribe link as well as a change-your-email-address link at the bottom of the message.

1ShoppingCart allows you to set up an unlimited number of autoresponders, each with an unlimited number of timed messages over as long as a two-year period. Each message can be programmed to be sent a specific number of days after the previous message in the series.

These autoresponders enable you to loop recipients to a new autoresponder series and automatically delete them from the previous one. For example, upon purchase of an item, a customer may receive three training messages, after which he is transferred to an upsell autoresponder series. One feature I haven't seen before allows you to send a subscriber's information to an entirely separate e-mail address than the subscriber's. For example, you might have a subscriber's name and phone number sent on Day 2 to the person who does phone calls on leads generated by your website.

Handling Client Lists

Clients are divided into three categories -- customers, prospects, and affiliates -- though I am sure these often overlap. Searches can include most fields including custom fields. You can create a narrow selection that might include information from several fields -- such as customers from a particular state. Wildcard searches can be made for partial fields. The result of the search yields a group of names from your list which can then be named as a particular standard search that can be employed for future mailings without re-entering the search parameters.

Lists can also be exported -- either a particular search group or the entire list. When an export is complete, an e-mail is sent with a URL where the list can be picked up. The export file can be saved in a number of formats -- CSV, tab-delimited, Excel spreadsheet, etc. This is the most flexible export system I've seen. It is so well done that it would be easy to maintain a customer list online and download a sort of the list for mail-merged postal mailings when needed.

Importing lists is relatively easy. 1ShoppingCart makes it clear that all lists must be permission-based and threatens a fine of $500 for a significant case of spamming. The program can import databases in two formats -- tab-delimited and CSV+Q (comma separated values, quote encapsulated). Instructions warn that importing records containing e-mail addresses found in existing records can cause duplicates.

This autoresponder isn't the most capable I've seen, though above average. However, its tight integration with the shopping cart makes it extremely useful for savvy marketers.

Affiliate Program

1ShoppingCart's Professional Level includes its own integrated two-tier affiliate program. Merchants can pay commissions on sales as well as on a per-click or per-lead basis. A minimum payout and monthly payment date can be set, so the program can easily calculate which affiliates are to be paid in a given month, and the amount due each. The affiliate program can be hooked to its own autoresponder series to inform new affiliates about your products and get them involved. The system allows room for up to 10 banners or graphics that affiliates can use.

Ad Tracking and Flexible Coupons

The program has a very useful ad tracking program that not only tracks click-throughs but also sales amount. It calculates various kinds of conversion rates, depending on your sales system. This system works much like affiliate management software. When the ad is clicked on, the customer's web browser goes first to a 1shoppingcart.com URL where it is counted and a cookie is put on the browser. Then the browser is redirected to a landing page on your site where you convince the shopper to make a purchase. The order buttons, of course, take the shopper back to the 1shoppingcart.com site for the order form. Here the order is recorded, the cookie is read, and that campaign is credited with the sale.

While the ad tracker is available at all levels, at the Professional level the ad tracker also can manage special offers and coupons sent to customers. It can set up coupons that include percentage or exact dollar discounts and require a minimum purchase to qualify. It can also extend the offer to the first 50 or 100 buyers!

Sales Reports and Order Tracking

1ShoppingCart has the capability of delivering a number of sales reports by date range, and grouped by clients, type of items sold, type and date, ad campaign, or by product sales by affiliates.

Once a customer places an order, a confirmation e-mail is sent to the customer, and e-mail notification can be sent to the merchant plus a third party fulfillment house, if you like. The merchant can view the entire order from the merchant interface and print out the order. Merchant options are: (1) view client details, (2) view other orders, (3) delete order, (4) mark order as a refund, or (5) update commission to affiliates.

There is no option to mark the order backordered, drop-shipped, filled, or shipped. Thus, for tangible products, the 1ShoppingCart system can't help the merchant track orders. This must be done outside of the system.

Sales data can be downloaded with a great degree of flexibility in how the fields should be displayed and which fields should be included. Data can be exported in CSV, tab-delimited text, or HTML table formats. The merchant decides the exact nature of the export by means of radio buttons in a table. Unfortunately, there is no way to save a particular download configuration so that it may be repeated quickly in the future. Nor is there any easy way to export data in a format which can be quickly imported into QuickBooks or another order management program. (I am told that the QuickBooks module is coming "real soon now.")

Help and Technical Support

While the merchant's interface look-and-feel lacks polish, it leads the merchant through a step-by-step set-up process, displaying steps completed in case the process is interrupted. I found explanations included in the web interface helpful. When I clicked on a "more info" button, it took me to appropriate sections of an extensive online User Manual.

When I called technical support, my call was quickly answered by a knowledgeable, friendly support person. The one-hour free phone support provided with the Starter and Basic packages should be adequate for all but rank computer novices. E-mail support is also available.

Optional Merchant Account and Payment Gateway Package

1ShoppingCart offers merchant account and payment gateway packages for most online businesses. Rates are reasonable, if not the lowest I've seen:

Pricing

1ShoppingCart is sold in three different varieties -- Starter, Basic, and Professional.

Paying the annual fees in advance saves you from 15% to 25%.

The Bottom Line

1ShoppingCart Professional version is an extremely flexible package that includes nearly all the sales tools a merchant needs to succeed online. It is particularly designed for selling a few products from one or a variety of websites using a single order system. It tightly integrates an autoresponder as a vital sales tool, and includes coupons, ad tracking, and several advanced features. The lack of order tracking and an easy way to pipe data into an accounting system make this system more difficult for merchants selling tangible products. Prices are modest, though not rock bottom.

Since it provides a strong arsenal of sales and follow-up tools, I think 1ShoppingCart makes good sense for many small merchants. I recommend it.