1. Consider Your Business Needs
Before you decide on a shopping cart solution, it’s very important that the solution meets and suits your business needs. The fact that you’ve created an online store means that you want to make an extra buck at the end of the day. Your goals will, therefore, influence your decision. For the shopping cart to meet the demands of your online venture, there are two factors to consider, they include;- Your skill level
- The shopping cart features
2. Self-Hosted v/s Web-Based
Shopping cart solutions come into forms; software as a service (SaaS) solutions and self-hosted solutions. As pertaining to SaaS, you’ll find that they are easy to use because they’ll be managed and serviced by your vendor. This means that you may need to part with some fees. Whereas in a self-hosted solution, you’ll only need to download from the internet and use them. In addition to this, there is no need to sign any contract with any vendor meaning that they are free. Nevertheless, it may cost you when operating your website. When opting for the self-hosted solutions, you’ll need to factor in the need to purchase an SSL certificate which is on an annual basis and then finding your own hosting solution. Both solutions come with their sets of advantages and disadvantages. But as always, find a solution that best suits your business needs as well as improving user experience.3. Cost
Shopping carts, depending on the solution you choose, have their own price points. If we were to for instance consider web-hosted options, you'll find that the price may range from $10 to $250 on a monthly basis while on the hand, self-hosted options are absolutely free. However, a few factors may affect the cost of the shopping cart option, they’ll include;- Storage
- Bandwidth
- Features
- Themes
- Support
4. User Experience
This is a factor the will either improve your sales or ideally bring down your business. It’s very important that before deciding on a shopping cart solution, you factor in how it’s going to affect the user experience. It’s very important for the user to navigate easily through the store options. In addition to this, they shouldn’t have difficulties when it comes to modes of paying. All these are important elements to consider when deciding on a shopping cart solution. Online shopping platforms are not limited to time. You should invest in a shopping cart solution that runs on a 24/7 basis with the inclusion of live chat support. This way, no matter the time of day, your customers know that they’ll still find what they want from your online store.Related: How Product Labels and Packaging Design Can Be Your Best Digital Marketing Asset
2026 Update: What Has Changed About Choosing A Shopping Cart For Small Business
I wrote this post back in 2019 and, honestly, a fair bit has shifted since then. The shopping cart landscape looks quite different now, and if you are still making decisions based on 2019 thinking, you are likely leaving money on the table or paying for complexity you do not need. So let me give you a proper 2026 read on this before you scroll down to the original tips.
The biggest change I have seen working with small business owners over the past couple of years is that the line between a shopping cart and a full commerce platform has almost completely disappeared. Back in 2019 you could get away with a lightweight cart bolted onto a basic website. Today, your customers expect one-click checkout, saved payment details, buy-now-pay-later options, and a mobile experience that feels completely native. If your cart cannot handle all of that out of the box, you will feel it in your abandonment rates immediately. Tools like Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce have all pushed hard in this direction, and even the smaller players have had to follow.
AI is also now baked into most of the decent platforms, and this is worth paying attention to. We are talking about things like smart product recommendations at checkout, automated abandoned cart sequences that actually personalise the message based on what the customer was browsing, and inventory forecasting that used to cost serious enterprise money. If a platform you are considering in 2026 is not offering some form of AI-assisted selling, I would be asking serious questions about where they are headed.
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Fees have also become more complicated, not less. Payment processing costs, third-party app charges, and transaction fees on top of monthly subscriptions can quietly eat your margin. I always tell my clients now to sit down and model out the true monthly cost at their actual sales volume before committing to anything. Do not just look at the headline subscription price.
One more thing I want to flag that was not really a conversation in 2019: data ownership. With privacy regulations tightening across the UK and Europe, you need to know exactly where your customer data sits, who controls it, and what happens if you decide to move platforms. Some carts make migration straightforward; others make it genuinely painful. Ask that question upfront, before you sign anything. The original tips below are still a solid starting point, but read them through this 2026 lens.
