There are a number of articles on my site where I discuss Shopping Carts and Affiliate Programs for small business however, I am often asked for recommendations.
In this article, I provide my recommendations for Shopping Carts and Affiliate Programs for online businesses, based on the businesses model.
These recommendations are made based on my own experiences, and will be subject to change as the offerings available evolve – so check back often.
Requirements
It’s always helpful to know what you want your Shopping Cart and Affiliate Program to do.
The two BIG questions that need to be asked are:
Shopping Cart
1. Do you want the shopping cart to operate across several websites / web presences, or do you want to send all your purchasers to one website to buy?
This is a major decision. If you operate different brands, sending purchasers to one one website / shopping cart may be detrimental to your business, as purchasers could get confused and fail to complete the purchase (as they feel they are being ‘scammed’).
2. If you want your shopping cart to be used across multiple sites, do you want the receipts to show the different brands?
3. Do you want to do recurring payments, or payment plans?
4. What Payment Processor do you want to use?
Do you wish to use Paypal, take Credit Cards directly on the site, accept Direct Bank Transfer / Cheques etc?
If you wish to take Credit Cards, consideration should be given to how these will be processed – will you use a service like Authorize.net (US only) or EWay (Australian based) to connect to the bank? The Shopping Cart you choose will have to support the processor you choose (or the processor will decide the shopping cart you choose).
Affiliate Program
1. Do you want your affiliate program to support multiple sites?
Do you want your affiliates to be able to promote some, or all, of your businesses brands – or do you only want affiliates to promote a specific brand and have to apply to the others?
2. Do you want to be able to offer different commission for different products, rather than a fixed rate for every sale?
3. Do you want to have different affiliate groups – like VIPs or JV Partners – that you don’t want ‘just anyone’ to join that part of the program?
4. How do you want to deliver your Affiliate Support material, like emails; banners; tweets; ads etc?
General Information:
1. What other systems will you want to integration with the Shopping Cart and Affiliate program?
Do you have a membership site that will need to be integrated into the purchase process (like Wishlist Member)?
What about your Autoresponder program, what are you using and how do you want it to integrate with your ?
Even if you don’t have all the answers to the questions above, try to get a picture in your mind of where you see your business in the next 3, 6 and 12 months to ensure that you are investing time, effort and money accordingly.
Options
For Small Business, I recommend the following Shopping Carts:
Premium Web Cart:
A hosted shopping cart that provides Shopping Cart and Affiliate services. The two things that Premium Web Cart offers that I really like are the ability to do Recurring Paypal transactions and Multi Domain branding.
View more about Premium Web Cart
WP E Commerce:
Only if you are running a WordPress Website, and only have one site. WP E Commerce is a great plugin with heaps of functionality, but it only works on the site it is installed on.
View more about WP E Commerce
1 Shopping Cart:
This shopping cart has been around for a while and we know it works. The functionality is good, although Premium Web Cart has extra functionality that most small businesses would appreciate.
View more about 1 Shopping Cart (Auto Web Business)
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For Small Business, I recommend the following Affiliate Programs:
iDevAffiliate:
A great all round solution that supports multiple websites and provides excellent affiliate support. A little complex to manage at first (it has lots of features).
iDevAffiliate can be used in conjunction with many shopping carts, including Premium Web Cart and 1 Shopping Cart (with a little configuration).
View more about iDevAffiliate
Premium Web Cart:
If your business decides to use Premium Web Cart for a Shopping Cart, then the built in affiliate program should be used as well.
1 Shopping Cart:
If your business decides to use 1 Shopping for a Shopping Cart, then the built in affiliate program should be used as well, due to the simplicity of setting it up.
Clickbank:
If you have one product and want to get your affiliate program up and running quickly, then Clickbank should be considered.
View more about ClickBank
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Your requirements, level of technical knowledge and budget will determine which Shopping Cart and Affiliate Program you will use.
Whatever you decide, make sure you choose a system that will allow your business to grow easily in the future.
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