Need a powerful eCommerce platform? Want a fancy and user-friendly solution? Don’t have enough time and money to handle open source shopping cart? Then this review is for you. In only 5 minutes you will get all the necessary information to choose one of the best hosted solutions – 3DCart, Volusion or BigCommerce.
First of all, you have to understand why these carts are the best options. There are three main reasons:
Reasonable pricing system and no additional fee for transactions. You will get different payment plans that will suit all types of companies. You will just pay a monthly payment that will cover all hosting, support and security issues.
Incredible design facilities. Each platform will offer you a number of free templates that you will be able to customize on your own. You can also create unique storefront look via HTML and CSS. However, if you do not have developer experience you can manage your site design with straightforward interface or drag and drop tool.
High usability. To handle your Internet store with each of these platforms you won’t need any programming expertise. You will be able to start an e-shop in one day since learning curve is very low.
However, each platform has its own peculiarities that you should consider while selecting a shopping cart for your business.
Probably the best 3DCart features that everybody likes are Social Media Marketing tools. You will be able to add a blog, integrate your store with Facebook and Twitter, add YouTube videos, etc. Moreover, you can not just sell via Facebook but also set up an affiliate program to make your clients sell your products. Other great features include responsive 3DCart support, search engine friendly URLs, integration with QuickBooks, mobile commerce facilities and a wide range of business reports, etc.
Issue to consider: if you are located outside the North America it will be rather complicated to run a business due to the lack of payment and shipping gateways.
Considering 3DCart vs BigCommerce SEO features should be mentioned. Except all the standard features that you expect from a shopping cart like meta descriptions and search engines friendly URLs you also get a set of advanced functions. For instance, CSS and Javascript files hosted on fast CDNs, XML sitemap that auto-feeds to Google, 301 redirects and URL rewrites, auto generated site map, microdata and reviews, etc. Additionally you will get Facebook integration, coupons and discounts system, single-page checkout and great templating system.
Issue to consider: BigCommerce is a new platform from Interspire developers and it doesn’t have enough modules and extensions developed yet. From year to year this problem is getting less relevant since more and more addons are being developed by BigCommerce and 3rd party companies. Nevertheless, at the moment you’d better think twice which features you may need and if they are available at the moment.
While considering BigCommerce and 3DCart vs Volusion it’s important to understand that Volusion is the most experienced platform in the industry. It has a solid reputation and more than 40 000 of clients while BigCommerce and 3DCart both don’t reach that number. So, all the main features like marketing, SEO, content management, payment and shipment gateways, support and security, etc. are already on board.
Issue to consider: Volusion used to offer Social Media options only for the most expensive pricing plan. Now this feature is available with less expensive pricing plans. However, the tendency remains the same. For example, beneficial function of integration with eBay is now offered only for high priced plans.
All three carts are great solutions and may boost your shop sales. To make your final decision you can try the trial versions. 3DCart as well as Bigcommerce store can be run for 15 days. Volusion store can be managed up to 14 days for free. Choose one that you like more and go for it.
