Tag Archives | Shopping Cart

New To Online Shopping Carts

By Randy Roedl on November 9, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, article directory, article plugin, article themes, Blog Business, Blog Platform, Blog Posting, blogging, Blogs, Conversion, Domains, Free Reports, Google Adsense, Membership sites, Mobil Blogging, New Blogging, SEO, Themes, Traffic, Web Design, Websites, widgets, wordpress, World Internet Summit, Wp Headers, Wp Themes, Youtube Video

New To Online Shopping Carts?

If you are unaware that shopping carts exist online than you will learn a lot from this article. Website owners who sell more than just a few items on their site will usually have a shopping cart so that customers will have a more pleasant and efficient shopping experience while on their Website. Unlike a physical shopping cart that is made of metal or plastic a online shopping cart is a piece of software, or a script, that allows customers to put items they wish to purchase into a virtual (online) shopping cart so that they can save them to purchase when they are done browsing.

An online shopping cart will usually allow the customer to have a running dollar total of the merchandise they have placed in the online cart. Sometimes the running total will even include the shipping fee.

If a customer frequents the same Website multiple times some shopping carts will save the shipping information so that the customer does not have to keep entering it each time they shop on the site.

Online shopping carts can even keep track of inventory levels that can save the customer a lot of frustration and time. Some shopping carts are even smart enough to make suggestions based on the customers past preferences while shopping on the site.

Online shopping carts can make your shopping experience faster, easier and hassle-free. Shopping carts have also been known to send out an email thanking the customer for shopping and confirm the order – can physical metal or plastic shopping carts do that?

Online shopping carts allow customers to add to the cart, delete items, change the quantity of items already in the cart, and also input the size or color of an item.

The online shopping cart can help the Website owner to appear more professional, and can help to create a secure and friendly atmosphere in which to shop. The shopping cart should match the theme of the Website and look like it is a part of the site and not a separate entity. Website owners should choose a shopping cart software that is easy for customers to navigate and have the features that are helpful for both the owner and the customers.

Shopping cart solutions for Website owners can be simple or complex depending on the number of items and the number of transactions that the Website usually handles each month. Shopping cart solutions can be free or they can be very expensive depending on the services provided and the number of features provided with the shopping cart. Some shopping carts are complete storefront solutions and others are basic shopping carts.

A Website that is offering goods or services that does not have a shopping cart may turn customers away if they are already used to the convenience of using online shopping carts.

10 Best WordPress Theme Editor Plugins

By Randy R on October 1, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

10 Best WordPress Theme Editor Plugins

WordPress does a very good job, especially for moderately-sized websites. This is because of the WordPress theme editor plugins, making it easy and simple to maintain a site and update its content. Here are the ten best WordPress theme editor plugins that you can use in your WordPress site.

1. Cforms II

This is the best in terms of configurability. It allows you to build literally anything in the site.

2. WP e-Commerce

This doesn’t have any competition. It provides an easy and simple to manage shopping cart and storefront as an integral part of the WordPress installation. It also includes the feature of selling digital downloads.

3. Search Everything

This is ideal for websites with static content since it allows users to search the entre site without relying on Google or leaving the site.

4. Google Sitemap Generator

The biggest benefit of using this is that it allows you to save from manual labor because the software already can locate your content. This editor plugin submits a complete index of your WordPress site to Yahoo, Google, Ask.com, and MSN Live every time the site is updated.

5. CKeditor

This is an open source WordPress text editor that brings the power of different desktop editors to the Web. It is compatible with different Internet browsers such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Netscape.

6. Event Calendar 3

This is one of the best and most integrated WordPress theme editor plugin. It provides you with an iCal feed aside from the standard RSS feed.

7. Page Links To

This is by far the simplest in the list since it allows you to create Web pages that link to another site. It is the easiest way to add different links to the main menu without the need for codes.

8. TinyMCE Advanced

This WordPress theme editor plugin allows you to easily add classes to tables, images, and block quotes.

9. XSPF Player

This allows you to play music on your WordPress site. This MP3 player allows you to manage cover art, playlists, and artist links.

10. pageMash

This theme editor plugin makes it very simple to put pages on the site in order without the need to edit every Web page individually.

If You Sell Products or Services Online You Need A Shopping Cart

By Randy Roedl on August 29, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, article directory, article plugin, article themes, Blog Business, Blog Platform, Blog Posting, blogging, Blogs, Conversion, Domains, Free Reports, Google Adsense, Membership sites, Mobil Blogging, New Blogging, SEO, Themes, Traffic, Web Design, Websites, widgets, wordpress, World Internet Summit, Wp Headers, Wp Themes, Youtube Video

If You Sell Products or Services Online You Need A Shopping Cart

The shopping cart is a vital part of any ecommerce site. A shopping cart allows your site visitors to browse your site, buy products or services and have a place to hold items while they continue to browse.

A shopping cart is a software application that gives your customer freedom to browse, to add or delete products from a virtual shopping cart and to see a running total of how much they have selected in dollar amount.

A shopping cart integrates with the rest of your site. A shopping cart may have links that allow the customer to search your site for specific items, see what is in their cart, even save their cart’s contents for later.

Shopping carts are designed in many programming languages. You can run a shopping cart on many different servers such as the Windows Web servers, Unix, and others. You can also place the shopping cart on your own web Server by transferring the files using any FTP program.

A shopping cart typically includes a database for storing information such as your product description; customer data, order information and can display this information for the customer on pages such as product detail page, checkout page, etc. Shopping carts also have an administration area where you can manage your store such as adding product, set up shipping and payment options, or process orders.

There are two parts or components to the shopping cart – the part that the customer sees, called the storefront and the administrative section where the owner manages the store. Features of a shopping cart will vary from one shopping cart company to another.

Basic features that most shopping carts should have are: A catalog of products, a search feature to locate items easily, a customer service area where customers can get help locating or buying products, special pages such as sales, featured products, a specific brands.

The administration section of the shopping cart is where the owner manages the store and should include general settings such as product, categories, currency, date format, language etc. and a module for creating and editing products, a place for managing product categories, and a section for managing options such as color or size. Another section that is important is the price setting and changing area. There also needs to be a module for managing orders such as those that need processing, those that are pending, and those that have shipped as well as a returns section.

Now that you know a little bit more about the shopping cart, you can understand just how important it is to have a shopping cart on your Website if you are selling products or services.

WordPress Tutorials

By Randy R on August 18, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

Wordpress Tutorials

In this article are WordPress tutorials used to troubleshoot a number of bugs and or problems one might encounter when using WordPress specifically when using the WordPress Shopping Cart plugin.

How do I install WordPress?

Well in order to install WordPress you have to have (FTP) File Transfer Protocol access along with a mysql database and php admin rights. Once you have this information you are ready to install WordPress, instructions on how to do so are found at: http://www.wordpress.org.

How do I install plugins?

Using FTP access a good way to get into your FTP account is to use a free software program called: http://www.smartftp.com once you are logged into your FTP account you would go to your public HTML folder (in most cases) then wp-content, then plugins. To get a bunch of good plugins go to: http://free-wordpress-plugins.blogspot.com, the WordPress Shopping Cart Plugin is included in the list. Then download the plugin to your computer, unzip the file if you need to then drag and drop the folder into the plugins folder within the FTP account. Then you activate the plugin by logging into your WordPress account and going to plugins and left click the plugin to activate it.

Why can’t I install images to my posts?

To solve this problem you will need to get into your FTP account then go to wp-content and create a folder called uploads once you have done that, that should solve the problem.

Why can’t I add product images?

To solve this problem you will need to get into your FTP account then go to wp-content, then plugins, then wp-shopping-cart, then using a program like Smart FTP mentioned above highlight all the content in this folder, then right-click and choose properties/CHMOD and change the permissions to 777 and that should fix the problem.

Why are my prices not sticking?

This is a simple fix, make sure you don’t add a $ symbol when putting a price if you do the will reset the price to $0 dollars.

When I try to add a product I get weird code saying that it cannot find some kind of table, what do I do?

The easiest solution to this problem is to uninstall the shopping cart plugin. Note remove the images folder from the shopping cart plugins so you don’t loose your product images, the content is stored in a database so you will not loose that if you uninstall the plugin. Then re-install the WordPress Shopping Cart plugins and replace the images folder information as well so you can maintain the product images, this should fix the problem.

I have re-installed the WordPress Shopping Cart plugin and now my products are missing?When you re-installed the shopping cart plugin the reference to the product categories have changed. To fix this within your WordPress account go to e-commerce, then shop options, and change the default category to an existing product category, then view your website. Get the website address for the products page and copy it. Then go back to shop options under e-commerce in WordPress and change the: “” The location of the product list”” to the website address make sure the other 3 fields follow the same pattern as well and that will fix the problem.

My products are missing from my website what do I do?Follow the instructions above and that should solve your problem.

I am trying to add affiliate code to my WordPress site using iframes and the code is not going in correctly, what do I do?

This is a solution if you are using http://www.bluehost.com as your web host, however most web host will have a similar layout as well.

This is how you would fix the problem, it is a work around but it is guaranteed to work.

1. First login to your bluehost account, then go phpMyAdmin under Databases.

2. Once here on the left hand side click on wp_posts

3. Then you want to click on the tab that says browse

4. Then click on the pencil icon for the page you want to edit

5. Then in the post_content area is where you would paste the Amazon affiliate code

The code from here will stay intact so you should have problems with it going through here.

This should fix a great number of the issue one might encounter when using WordPress and the WordPress Shopping Cart program. New WordPress Tutorials will be added as needed.

The Indispensable Shopping Cart

By Randy Roedl on June 6, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, article directory, article plugin, article themes, Blog Business, Blog Platform, Blog Posting, blogging, Blogs, Conversion, Domains, Free Reports, Google Adsense, Membership sites, Mobil Blogging, New Blogging, SEO, Themes, Traffic, Web Design, Websites, widgets, wordpress, World Internet Summit, Wp Headers, Wp Themes, Youtube Video

The Indispensable Shopping Cart

Shopping carts are a necessity for those Website owners who wish to sell physical or digital goods and also those who sell services. Customers have come to expect that a serious ecommerce site will have a shopping cart and will exit a site it if doesn’t. A shopping cart has become an indispensable part of doing business online.

A customer can place items into a virtual shopping cart and continue browsing the site to locate other items of interest. The customer can usually look at the top of the screen and see a running total of how many items they have placed in the cart and can usually also tell a running total of dollars spent so far. While navigating the online shopping cart a customer is able to add to the cart, delete items from the cart, change quantities of the items that are in the cart and make option choices such as color and size from the cart. Shopping carts will even do the math for the customer regarding totaling the retail amount of the order, adding any necessary tax and also adding the shipping fee to the order. Most shopping carts will even email the customer after they have made a purchase and thank them for shopping at the particular Website and will confirm the order that they just placed. The fact that a shopping carts software can be programmed to do this means that the customer will feel secure in the purchase.

Because most ecommerce sites have shopping carts, if your site lacks one you will look unprofessional to a customer visiting your site. The last thing you want to do is drive away potential customers because you did not think to provide a shopping cart.

A shopping cart can provide many benefits to the online store owner including providing data collection and market research based on customer usage, such as how many carts have been abandoned before the purchase was completed, and how much traffic went through the shopping cart. A secure, easy to use shopping cart can even foster repeat business when customers enjoy their shopping cart experience.

The benefits of a secure and multiple featured shopping cart can give your customers a shopping experience that will put them at ease dealing with you. When a customer feels comfortable dealing with you they will purchase more items, and also come back to purchase again from you. They will also spread the word about the good shopping experience they encountered with you and you will pick up more customers by word-of-mouth advertising.

A shopping cart is an indispensable tool to the Website owner who sells goods or services because of the professional look of the site, the shopping experience a customer will enjoy using the shopping cart and because of the invaluable data a shopping cart can provide the Website owner about the shopping habits of the customers who visit the site.

Improve Your Shopping Cart

By Randy Roedl on March 14, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, article directory, article plugin, article themes, Blog Business, Blog Platform, Blog Posting, blogging, Blogs, Conversion, Domains, Free Reports, Google Adsense, Membership sites, Mobil Blogging, New Blogging, SEO, Themes, Traffic, Web Design, Websites, widgets, wordpress, World Internet Summit, Wp Headers, Wp Themes, Youtube Video

Improve Your Shopping Cart

If you want visitors to your site to use your shopping cart you need to make improvements to the usability of the cart and to make the purchase process as simple and short as possible.

Did you know that the checkout process is where more sales are lost than any other time during the buying process? Check your analytics and see if you have a large number of individuals leaving your site before finishing the checkout process, if this is happening than you know that you definitely need to make improvements. In order to determine where you need to make shopping cart improvements you can ask someone who is not familiar with your website to go through the process and check out the usability of your shopping cart. Ask them to specifically comment on how accessible the shopping cart is, if it is easy to use, if they ran into problems were they able to find instructions on how to use the cart, and did they find the shipping and payments methods that they prefer to use?

Investigate how easy it is to navigate around finding products. Do you have a search feature and does it give accurate results?

If you belong to any business forums ask members to rate your site and their shopping experience.

Ask yourself how organized your site is, how secure do people feel making purchases and how user friendly is the shopping experience on your site?

Your shopping cart is one of the most important parts of your Website. Periodically evaluating the shopping cart from a user’s point of view can improve not only your shopping cart but improve your sales as well.

Look at your shopping cart objectively does it meet all of your needs as the administrator? Can you manage all of the product fulfillment, payment and shipping needs in a timely manner without mistakes? Evaluate the hosting, customer service and technical support of the company who’s shopping cart you are using. How happy are you with the features? When upgrades are available is there an additional fee or are upgrades free to existing customers?

Does your shopping cart blend in well with your Website? Do you receive the information you need about your customers and their sales? Does your shopping cart have the capability to have an affiliate program, produce a newsletter or evaluate the shopping experience of your customers?

Does your shopping cart grow with your business or have you outgrown the shopping cart?

What do reviewers say about the shopping cart you are using? Can you find customer reviews of the shopping cart and if so, are they favorable?

After evaluating your shopping cart is customer service responsive to your need to make improvements? Do they give you suggestions or upgrades?

Seeing how important your shopping cart is to the success of your online business spending time evaluating how well your present shopping cart is performing and finding out what your customers think about your shopping cart is important and should be done on a regular basis.

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Tag Archives | Shopping Cart