Whether a merchant is setting up a new website or optimizing an older retail store choices must be made in eCommerce systems: box or scratch? The checkout and catalogue portion of any site are vital to the business. An eCommerce package can come out of the box ready to use or it can be completely customized to the needs of the store.

Open source solutions are available with many features and they can be attractive in that they are inexpensive. While budgets are important they are not the overriding consideration for most merchants because the checkout and catalogue are their income. An open source cart and catalogue can serve the business with a single product well, however it is less effective for the merchant with many products.

Repeat customers are just as vital to the online store as they are to the traditional brick and mortar store. Any shopping solution may well benefit from a voluntary email list integrated into the cart and this is a more advanced feature. A store with many products almost requires a more complex catalogue and shopping system.

Open source shopping solutions for the online merchant are available with many features. Open source eCommerce solutions though rarely do the job right though without at least a small amount of customization. The customizations required are usually more complex than changing colors or logos but also involve changing products and even integrating email lists and customer favorites.

When selecting the customized built from scratch option the merchant will require a developer that understands their needs. Communication with the developer is just as essential as their understanding of server protocols and scripting languages. Developers with a history of timely completion are necessary since a store with no cart or catalogue does little business online.

Not every store requires the most advanced checkout and catalogue solution available. However every retail situation online must have a secure means of accepting credit cards. The more customized the eCommerce solution is, the more likely the customer will find shopping convenient and pleasant.

Out of the box shopping carts and catalogues can be fast to integrate but they do tend to look generic and unappealing. An improperly set up cart can lose business for a store. Too complex a shopping cart and the customer may well choose to shop elsewhere, which means the choice of the system is vital to any store.

While web developers are constantly coming up with new and more flexible eCommerce systems, very few are suitable out of the box for every store. If the merchant possesses scripting and developer skills then a boxed solution could be viable. If the store catalogue is complex and the merchant wants to make the most of every sale, customized solutions are often best.

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