I have a basic shopping cart on my www.rjhoney.com site. That was pretty simple because I only sell locally from it.
On my other site www.superiorbee.com I’d like to ‘go large’; shopping cart with shipping from anywhere in the USA like I purchase from on many other sites.
What is involved in adding that to the superiorbee site? Is this something to be hired out?
Have a look at https://cartloom.com
You can check out cart 2:
https://www.yuzoolthemes.com/store.html?store=%2Fitem%2Fcart
Or Ecwid:
Can give me a users perspective?
I’ve looked over the Cartloom site and watched the videos.
One, my skills are limited. Will I be able to do this? I’m not afraid to ‘mess around’ and figure things out.
Two, getting the shipping right. This is a make or break thing for me. Customers will either be scared away by shipping costs or I’ll make them too low and, well, I am in business to make money like you. But my product is a physical item.
Three, I don’t get the pricing. I am currently hosted on Godaddy. Do I have to move? How do I get all those things by using Cartloom? Is it a cloud-server type of service?
Four, what about taxes? I don’t see becoming the next Amazon, just a decent side business. In the ‘old days’ one only had to worry about taxes on items sold in your state. Things have changed.
Hi Jeff,
Matt from Ecwid here.
Did you try Ecwid? I decided to leave quick comments on your questions below, in case you’re considering Ecwid. Please feel free to ask for details.
One, my skills are limited. Will I be able to do this? I’m not afraid to ‘mess around’ and figure things out.
Ecwid is easy to set up and doesn’t require a developer or a designer, so you will be able to do that.
Two, getting the shipping right. This is a make or break thing for me. Customers will either be scared away by shipping costs or I’ll make them too low and, well, I am in business to make money like you. But my product is a physical item.
You can set up shipping rules that are based on customer location, order total, weight and number of items. This toolset should cover your needs. For example, you will be able to set up a free in-store pickup, a $3 local delivery, $5 in-state shipping, $7 out-of-state shipping and $10 international shipping, which will be automatically suggested at checkout based on customer location. Another option here is to enable automatic shipping rates (from USPS/FedEx/UPS or other carriers), in which case the shipping rate will be calculated automatically at checkout.
Three, I don’t get the pricing. I am currently hosted on Godaddy. Do I have to move? How do I get all those things by using Cartloom? Is it a cloud-server type of service?
Here is Ecwid pricing: Ecwid Pricing - Choose the right Ecwid plan for your business! . It doesn’t depend on hosting, you can use whatever hosting you like.
Four, what about taxes? I don’t see becoming the next Amazon, just a decent side business. In the ‘old days’ one only had to worry about taxes on items sold in your state. Things have changed.
Ecwid allows you to automate tax rates calculation in your store. So, you will get your customers charged proper amount of sales tax with each order. Two options:
Reporting of taxes is still on you, but there are tools/integrations available to automate this process as well (e.g. to auto-fill tax reports for each state).
Hello… I use Ultracart backend only (not their storefront). Ultracart allows you to define box sizes, use USPS flat rate boxes, etc. and It then will calculate shipping solutions and show estimates to customer. Customer can choose their carrier and shipping method. For US Post Office (USPS) If you set things up right, it can “smartly” choose whether to offer “standard” rate or “Flat” rate shipping. Of course, it can also do all other carriers and methods but I’m impressed by it’s ability to figure out whether to offer standard rate or flat rate for Priority Mail option.
Ultracart has a monthly charge and is not for those who sell only a few items per week. To use the backend only you simply setup your inventory on Ultracart and then you add BUY buttons to your RW site. There is so much to Ultracart (options and such) that it can be a bit daunting to realize all the options and setups. Documentation is a bit rough also…
Having said that… Since starting with Ultracart I’ve been impressed with Ecwid’s involvement here in the forums so please do check them out!
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