Inventory tracking software and your online import business
When you are importing products to sell locally, the lead times can be quite long. Make sure your inventory tracking software lets you adjust the lead times so you can be notified when stock is low and have enough time to order and receive delivery before running out. You should be able to run reports showing you long forecasts so you can plan appropriately. Many items only sell at certain times of the year so if you order the items too late because your inventory control software didn't alert you long enough in advance, you'll be stuck storing items until their season comes around again. Or you'll end up selling them at a loss just to get rid of them and make room for your new items.
CGI shopping cart software
There are several different scripting languages that can be used to build shopping carts, including cgi, asp, and perl. Different web servers support languages and you'll need to get a cgi shopping cart if your server supports cgi scripts. Your customer cannot tell if you are using a cig script shopping cart or something else. All they care about is whether it works efficiently and reliably. There are open source cig shopping carts that you can download and modify to suit your purposes if your technically inclined.
Inventory tracking to improve your customer service
Inventory tracking helps you keep your customers satisfied because you can offer up to date information while they're shopping online. If you need to backorder an item, you can show them how long you expect that to take. Inventory control software can notify customers when items are shipping. You can also send out emails to alert your customers about new items that arrived, giving them the first chance to buy new items. Inventory tracking can help you spot season trends and ensure that you don't run out of key items. When you run out of items, your inventory tracking can alert your online store so that you don't continue to offer items you don't have. You might tie this in with an alert system if customers want to be notified when you have the item in stock again.
No Such Thing as a Free Online Shopping Cart Program
Is there such a thing as a free, web-based online shopping cart program? Yes and no. All Internet shopping carts are web-based, whether they are hosted locally or remotely. And it's relatively easy to find free, open-source, software-based shopping carts for download. But if you're talking about a free, remotely hosted Internet shopping cart, there is no such thing. The business model for hosted services like a shopping cart involves charging the customer a monthly fee for access to a complete Internet shopping cart solution.
What to Pay for a Web-Based Solution
Ecommerce shopping cart providers like to make the entry cost low, so you can expect to purchase and set-up a web-based ecommerce plan, complete with electronic shopping cart, for as low as under $20 per month. Most ASP providers offer graduated ecommerce shopping cart plans, with expanded bandwidth offerings and toolsets for more money. High-end ecommerce shopping cart plans can go from $300 or so monthly up to thousands of dollars, depending on the plan. You should research many ecommerce providers to compare hosting plans and services before making a final decision.