Imagine you've designed the ideal brick-and-mortar store experience—the staff is dedicated, the products are top-quality, and the back-room inventory is well-stocked. All the customers are happy! So, what could go wrong? Well, the shopping cart has a broken wheel, the price tags are either nonexistent or inaccurate, any relevant deals are a complete unknown, the store is a disorganized mess, and if the customers manage to scrape the cart along to arrive at the front of the store, they're met with a clunky self-checkout machine that doesn't offer to answer any questions or make any recommendations, running an outdated point-of-sale system that's constantly shorting out. Yikes! Now, despite selling top-of-the-line goods and having the best team, your store's reputation is in the tank.

Now, let's try to repair this nightmare. The store layout is clean and logical. Clearly visible signage informs customers about current discounts. Courteous staff members are always available to direct customers, answer questions, and recommend products. The registers run a class-A point-of-sale system. And yes, the shopping carts roll smoothly down the aisles.

These same principles apply when setting up an online store, and using the right eCommerce platform can make or break a business.

Fortunately for online merchants, there is a wide range of all-in-one solutions to help with inventory management, credit card processing, conversion rates for foreign currencies, shipping cost calculations, shipping options, and more to provide the ideal customer experience. Here, we'll look at some of the best online shopping cart software options.

Online Shopping Cart Breakdown

Below are some of our top picks for shopping cart solutions, including key details to help you make a well-informed choice.

1. Shopify

Shopify is a robust eCommerce platform tailored for online merchants of all sizes, offering an impressive suite of capabilities designed to streamline and enhance the selling experience.

Shopify Pros:

• Support for over 100 payment gateways, including high-risk gateways like Zen Payments
• Easy-to-navigate shopping cart builder
• High conversion rates
• Abandoned cart recovery tools
• 24/7 customer support
• 14-day free trial

Shopify Cons:

• Higher transaction fees than some competitors
• Limited customization features, especially for lower-tier plans
• Learning curve for advanced features
• No built-in email hosting
• Limited insight reports, which can hamper larger companies' research into customer spending habits

2. WooCommerce

Loved by WordPress users, WooCommerce is another popular online shopping cart option you could consider, and by the numbers, is the leading software of choice.

WooCommerce Pros:

• Free to use (note that owning a domain is not free, and in fact, could be rather costly)
• Easy integration into WordPress websites
• Abundant documentation is available to help users navigate the platform
• Order management tools
• Abundance of free and inexpensive themes to choose from
• App integrations, such as ShipStation, which assists with handling product shipping logistics and reduce costs
• Cart recovery tools

WooCommerce Cons:

• Not as smooth to navigate as other options
• Additional capabilities may need to be built from scratch or purchased from other vendors
• Merchants must be WordPress users
• Not very scalable—WooCommerce may be better suited to small- or medium-sized businesses

3. Magento/Adobe Commerce

Magento, acquired by software giant Adobe in 2018, is another free, open-source shopping cart platform known for its advanced customization features. And while Magento remains free, Adobe has released their own paid version called Adobe Commerce, which includes advanced features and support.

Adobe Commerce (Magento) Pros:

• Easily tailor the flow of your store with unique customization tools
• Advanced meta SEO tools without generating strange product URLs
• Mobile-friendly
• An enormous community of over 300,000 developers answering questions and developing additional features

Adobe Commerce (Magento) Cons:

• Very high operating costs for enterprise users, starting at $22,000/year
• Technical expertise needed to get the store up and running
• Data encryption and PCI compliance are only available in the paid Adobe version
• No native point-of-sale (POS) system

4. BigCommerce

Since 1998, BigCommerce has been providing eCommerce software to companies big and small.

BigCommerce Pros:

• 14-day free trial and multiple plans available, starting at an affordable $24.95/month
• Fully hosted on BigCommerce servers
• Abandoned cart recovery tools
• Scalable for business growth
• No additional transaction fees
• All plans allow unlimited staff accounts

BigCommerce cons:

• Difficult customization features
• No native point-of-sale (POS) system
• Minimal template library
• Plans have annual revenue limits

5. Square Online

If you've used a credit card to purchase anything from a small business in the past few years, you've likely swiped or inserted your card into a Square reader. Especially popular for in-person shopping, but with a fully-fledged eCommerce service as well, Square has become nearly ubiquitous among up-and-coming entrepreneurs.

Square Online Pros:

• Multiple payment options
• One point-of-sale system and hardware for both in-person and online transactions, seamlessly connecting both
• Free limited-feature version available (with transaction fees going to Square when you begin making sales)
• The checkout process automatically calculates taxes and displays real-time shipping rates
• Many payment methods are accepted, such as Square, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Afterpay, etc.

Square Online Cons:

• Some features, such as abandoned cart emails and gift receipts, are only available on the paid version, which starts at $29/month
• No built-in email marketing tools, which is vital for the success of many businesses
• Difficulty integrating other third-party apps and solutions

6. Wix eCommerce

Did you know that the website builder Wix also has an eCommerce tool? If you already have a Wix website, this may be the right solution for you.

Wix eCommerce Pros:

• Easy drag-and-drop interface, which is accessible for beginners
• Amazing mobile-optimized template library, giving your online shop a fresh look, which is also customizable
• Lower barrier to entry than some other paid online shopping carts, with plans starting at $17/month
• Social media integration for a wider variety of marketing options
• Abandoned cart recovery tools
• Subscription billing for recurring products and services, which eases up the purchasing process for both customers and merchants

Wix eCommerce Cons:

• Difficult customer support access
• A dependency on the Wix platform, so it may not be the most ideal option for those with an already existing website not on the platform
• Limited scalability, which can hamper growth

7. Ecwid:

Ecwid, by software company Lightspeed, is a free online shopping cart tool that has been a main player in the eCommerce world for 15 years.

Ecwid Pros:

• Free to use, with additional features available at price points between $19 to $99/month
• Merchants can create a quick one-page store while they work on more pages and features in the meantime
• The storefront can be multilingual, appealing to a broader customer base
• Order and shipping management features
• Easy integration with other existing online shopping carts

Ecwid Cons:

• Non-U.S. users are subject to more expensive plan options
• Features are fairly limited for the free plan

A Few Notes on Transaction Fees

Remember that all online shopping cart tools charge transaction fees, even the free eCommerce platforms. Generally, these fees range between 2% and 5%, plus $0.30 for the purchased item or service.

Some Questions to Consider

With such a wide variety of online shopping carts to choose from, it's crucial to ask yourself a few key questions about your online business:

• How big is your business? Is it small and niche, or is it an enterprise-level marketplace?
• What platform are you using to host your website (Squarespace, WordPress, Wix, etc.)?
• Are the products or services you offer on a recurrent subscription basis or one-time purchases?

Zen Payments Can Help

Our payment processing services integrate seamlessly with Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and more. Get started today.