The way you design your shopping cart can greatly affect the number of sales you make via your e-commerce website.  Online shoppers do not like to be forced to register for a site right away, have 10 pages to go through to checkout, or feel pressured into buying.  They DO like to know what they are buying, from who, and that they are getting the best deal possible through a secure shopping cart.  You can help your customers with all of these things in the way you design your shopping cart.  Here are a few tips on shopping cart design:

• Clear Navigation – Use headlines, subheadings, and breadcrumb navigation so your shoppers can clearly see where they are and how deep into your website they have gone.
• Contact Info – Make contact information and telephone clearly visible on each page, customers want to know they can contact you if there is a problem.
• Site Search Function – Place a site search button in plain view so shoppers can query products at any time.
• Search by Category – If you have several categories this function this will help refine search.
• Search Specifics – Allow shoppers to search by shape, color, size etc…and allow them to clear the specifics at any time.
• Show Per Page – Allow your customers to view as many products as they wish by providing a “show per page” option on each page.
• Cross Sell – Show related products before the checkout process and after items have been added to the shopping cart.
• Headings and Descriptions – Use product pages to describe, and answer any questions your customers may have about, products.
• Cart Add Option – Allow your customers to add items to cart prior to making them register for an account.
• Easy Cart Access – Make cart easy to access and options to change or modify order simple.

These are just a few tips you may use to help your customers easily navigate your website, hopefully make them comfortable in purchasing from your site, and increase your online sales (instead of abandoned carts).

Here are a few shopping cart providers that we know are capable of helping you with these shopping cart design solutions and more.

Yahoo!

BigCommerce

Volusion

Return soon for more tips on shopping cart design!