Deciding What You Need Your Shopping Cart to Do

Huh? You just want to sell products and collect money online? Isn't this much ado about nothing? I guarantee that after you read this section, you'll understand why decision-making and planning are critical to creating a successful shopping cart. Not only do your needs vary depending on what you're selling, but many other aspects of how the shopping cart behaves are crucial.

Most shopping carts, for instance, require services from and interaction with a few third-party resources. To calculate and charge for shipping, for example, your cart will need to interact with at least one shipping service's (UPS, FedEX, USPS) rate tables. If you want to charge credit cards in real time during a transaction, you'll need a credit card processor, such as PayPal or a merchant account with your bank. The e-commerce solution you choose will need to support these services — from the vendors you use for these services! If your client already does business with vendors for these services, your e-commerce solution should support her existing services. It's not always easy to talk a company into changing these mission-critical ven....