Every business is different an every website is unique. In order to succeed in the hyper-competitive online environment, businesses must present their products according to their unique way of selling and unique characteristics. Unfortunately, most off the shelf Shopping Cart programs do not offer business owners the flexibility or the options to present their products effectively.

One of the best options for an online shopping cart are Open Source products. Open Source software is no longer just for geeks, with the backing of industry titans such as IBM. In addition, the collaborative development model, where the collective experience, wisdom and expertise of hundreds of programmers is pooled, produces very high quality products. Open Source software is commonly more secure, scalable and stable than commercial software.

The program code in Open Source software is written to high standards, which are essential in collaborative development. This makes it easy to customize because any programmer can look at the source code and make changes quickly and easily.

In addition, many Open Source Shopping Carts have hundreds of plug-in Modules available. These are extra features developed by professional programmers, that plug in to the basic cart engine.

Here are a few suggestions for customization that will increase conversion and sales:

1) Pictures. Businesses such as jewellery or antique stores for example may want to show more than one picture. Showing a side view and back view of each product gives browsers more information before they make a purchase.

2) Search Engine Friendly. Shopping carts, while essential to any business website, can be problematic for the search engines. Issues with search engines include, duplicate content, session IDs, and indexability. Making your Shopping Cart Search Engine friendly is one of the best investments you can make and may even repay your installation costs.

3) Abandoned Carts. Just any shoppers often add something to their shopping cart and then later take it out in real stores, shoppers online frequently select and item and then don't complete the sale. The total value of abandoned carts for any online store is substantial. Systems to handle abandoned carts, such as emailing are essential customizations that are well worth the extra.

4) Taxes. Many shopping carts are programmed in the United States and do not have functionality for tax regimes in other countries. For example, Canada has a two tier tax system with a Federal and a Provincial tax.

5) Shipping. Shipping options depend on the type of product and the type of customer. Do your customers want their purchase right away or are they willing to wait a few days? Is your product large and bulky or small and perishable? Offering options to your customers that match their requirement is essential to achieving and maintaining a high conversion rate.

One of the key considerations in choosing a shopping cart is the availability of these functions, or plug-in modules. Many of these customizations are available as plug-in modules, and if they are not, it is highly recommended that you hire a programmer to assist you adding these customizations.

About the Author

Shakir Husein is the CEO of Dynamic Intel Dynamic specializes in secured ecommerce solutions and content management systems. More articles on ecommerce and CMS can be accessed at Pacific Articles.