You spend a lot of money on developing a website and also know that you may have to invest much more to keep it running. You are aware that this is going to put a lot of pressure on your finances and would prefer to cut costs wherever possible. In this regard, you might also think about opting for an ecommerce shopping cart for which you need not pay anything as it would fit in with your idea of cutting costs. However, sourcing such a shopping cart is not a very easy task and you must consider certain issues that may crop up with a free shopping cart so that you are well aware of what you are about to get into.
a) Absence of customer service support
It is an accepted fact that anything offered free of cost will usually not have any customer service backing. The free shopping cart is no exception. As they do not have cash flow coming in, the folks behind such applications cannot afford a customer service team and your queries are not likely to be answered and resolved quickly. This could cost you dearly when you need quick help and can even impact your business, as a shopping cart application is one of the most important elements in the successful running of an ecommerce business.
b) Upgrades and update requests may not be entertained
You are aware that all software undergoes modifications and upgrades on a regular basis. That is because software is likely to develop bugs and they need to be tackled immediately with a resolution that will reflect in an upgraded or updated version of the same software. With free products, such upgrades may not happen as the necessary developers required to carry out such modifications cannot be afforded by the distributors of such free products. In fact, the problem can get aggravated if the software is running on a PHP script.
Moreover, your requests for any feature that you want to be added to your shopping cart may also meet with the same fate and there will be nobody to entertain your requests. You will find that the folks are just in no mood to accede to any of your requests having given you a free product in the first place.
c) Inaccurate and poor quality of coding
Though it is not frequent, the chances are that many of these free scripts are written pretty haphazardly and the coding may not always be of the highest quality. This would result in a slow loading period and the software may use up more resources than necessary. Bad coding can also negatively impact any chances of you updating your website on your own in future as it is only the experienced programmers who would know how to get around such glitches and make the necessary adjustments. As somebody relatively new to programming and the ecommerce business, it would be a tough task for you to overcome the problems associated with bad coding. In other words, customization to suit your needs may not be possible and you will have to rely on outside help to get this done.
The above are just some of the problems you could run into with a free shopping cart and you need to take an informed decision on how you want to approach this crucial element for your ecommerce website.