We researched the top eCommerce Shopping Cart solutions so you don't have to. Based on our research, we created a solution that is affordable, flexible and has no recurring costs. Your satisfaction is guaranteed — or you don't pay.

We put ourselves in your shoes to determine what is important to you as a business owner looking to add an ecommerce shopping cart solution to your web site or looking to setup a new ecommerce web site. The right solution should:

• Be easy to use so that your customers have an enjoyable shopping experience and you can maintain your product list easily
• Be affordable with a fair pricing structure
• Be very flexible and adapt to your needs as a business owner
• Give you the freedom to make key decisions about how it is configured and maintained
• Provide you total control over hosting and service options
  

We couldn't find a vendor that satisfies all those requirements so we decided to put together our own solution. In doing so, we found that there were 6 specific criteria that should be used to evaluate ecommerce shopping cart solutions. You should compare any solution you are considering against these criteria to determine whether it is the right solution for you.

1. Affordable, Fair Pricing
2. No Recurring Costs
3. Satisfaction Guaranteed or You Don't Pay
4. Turn-Key Solution - No Technical Knowledge Required
5. Flexible and Adaptable
6. Full Featured
   

We call our solution eStore Complete. It provides outstanding value in all 6 criteria - and it only costs $799 with no recurring costs. Read on to learn more about these 6 criteria and how our solution meets them all.

1. Affordable, Fair Pricing
We don't actually consider this the most important thing to evaluate about an ecommerce shopping cart solution. Any business owner will tell you that they want the best value for their money, not necessarily the cheapest solution. But we continue to be surprised by some of the unfair pricing practices of ecommerce shopping cart vendors so we had to mention this one first.

Most ecommerce shopping carts available require you to pay monthly fees. Sometimes the fees are as low as $29.95 per month, others are as high as $79.95 per month or more. Why should you have to pay a company every month for the ability to sell products over the Internet? We charge you one affordable fee of $799 to setup a complete ecommerce solution and you never need to pay us another penny.

2. No Recurring Costs
In addition to a setup fee, some ecommerce shopping cart solutions actually charge you monthly based on the number of products you offer. We even found one solution that charges based on your sales each month. This is just plain silly. You should not be penalized for having an extensive product line or for being very good at selling those products. With our solution, you can list as many products as you want in as many categories as you want and sell as many units as you can, without worrying about incurring any further fees with us.

Better yet, you can ask us to setup a complete demo that is just for you to use and is not available for anyone else to tinker with. There is no charge for this service and it will give you a chance to setup your own product categories, add products, purchase products, look at orders, etc. You can try out your demo site for 30 days and get a complete feel for what a shopping experience will be like for your customers. If you decide that you like the solution, we can either setup a fresh copy for you on your web site or copy over the demo you've been working with so that you don't need to re-enter all the products and categories again.

Creastar goes one step further than anyone else. After you purchase the solution and we set it up for you, you have two weeks to decide whether you want to keep it. For two weeks you can use the solution to actually transact real business. If during that time you change your mind and decide that you don't like the solution after all, we'll remove it from your site and refund your money — all of your money. It's that simple.

4. Turn-Key Solution — No Technical Knowledge Required
"Turn-Key" is simply an industry buzzword meaning that the solution we deliver to you is ready for use and there is nothing more you need to do to get it to work. By the time we hand over the solution to you, it has been integrated into your web site and it has been connected to a payment service (like a credit card processing company). All you need to do is enter your product information and start selling.

If you don't already have a web site in place, we'll take care of that too. We'll create some graphics to provide you with a unique look and feel and we'll setup an "About Us" page and a "Contact Us" form so that instead of just a shopping cart, you will have a complete web site. This is all included in the $799 price tag. Some vendors charge you from $350 to $1500 solely to create the additional graphics and web pages that make your site complete.

If you are interested in having more extensive graphics created for your eStore, we offer the eStore Complete Plus package for $1099. This eStore Complete Plus package has all the features of the eStore Complete package but with more extensive graphics. We have demos of both packages available for you to try out so that you can see the difference and decide which package is right for you.

With our solution, there's nothing technical that you need to do or that you need to know. You don't even need to already have a web site. We'll do it all for you - for $799.

5. Flexible and Adaptable
When you purchase a copy of MS Office, you can't call up Microsoft and ask them to add a new feature to Microsoft Word just because it is something your business could really use. They won't do it for you. Likewise, shopping cart vendors won't add customizations to their product that are just for you. Many of them can't. They use the same software for all of their customers. If they make a change for you, they make it for everyone and not everyone will want the change you need.

Any good shopping cart solution will allow you to customize it in obvious ways, such as colors, fonts and even layout. But what if there is a particular feature you need to have that is critical for your business? Maybe there's a particular way you calculate shipping costs or perhaps you want to categorize your customers in various ways and offer different pricing based on the customer type. Most shopping carts will not give you this level of customization.

Because we use an open source solution, it is relatively easy for us to make the changes you require. There is a large community of developers that create new optional features for the package we use and make those additions freely available. For instance, the following additions are currently available and can be integrated into your web site, some at no additional cost:

• Support for other languages, currently over 25 languages available
  
• "Minimum price to order" feature that requires an order to reach a minimum price before it can be processed
  
• Customer poll box that allows you to ask a question of the day and poll your customers for their responses
  
• Separate pricing structure per customer
  
• UPS tracking support
  
• Sales and statistics reports
  
• Various shipping methods
  
• Various payment methods
  

The list goes on. There are currently over 450 contributed additions and features available for making the eStore Complete package exactly what you need it to be. And if the right combination isn't already available for your specific needs, it can always be written for you at a very reasonable cost.

6. Full Featured
You certainly want an ecommerce shopping cart to have enough features that you can conduct effective business over the web. We haven't put this criterion last because it is least important. Instead, it is last because most shopping carts you can purchase do provide quite a number of useful features. Checking the feature list of a shopping cart is really just a sanity test to make sure the shopping cart isn't missing some obvious, important feature.

The shopping cart that we use includes the following features:

• Individual customer accounts
• Customer address books (other shipping destinations)
• Order history
• Temporary (not logged on) and permanent (logged on) shopping carts
• Search catalog for products or manufacturers
• Product reviews by customers
• E-mail notifications
• Shopping cart contents is always visible
• Secure transactions with SSL
• Number of products in each category is shown
• Bestseller lists
• Display what other customers have purchased (relating to the current product displayed)
• Tracking numbers that allow a customer to track an order in transit

• Add/Edit/Remove categories, products, manufacturers, customers, and reviews
• Support for multiple levels of subcategories
• Statistics for products and customers
• Dynamic product attributes
• Various payment and shipping modules
• Decide what to display (and the order) in the product listings
• Backup tool
• Banner management
• Newsletter management
• Discount coupons you can define per product
• Gift certificates you can define that can be applied to an order total

Our eStore Complete is simply the best value available today. It provides the most flexibility for you as your business grows and gives you all the control you need to decide how to conduct business on the web. So where do you go from here? There are three different ways you may want to proceed:

1. Try our free public demo.
   We have set up a few fictitious stores that you can try out to see what the shopping experience would be like for your customers. You can register as a customer with any of our demo stores, shop around and make a purchase. Use the COD (Cash on Delivery) payment method so that you don't have to type in a credit card number. Exploring one of our public demos will give you a really good feel for how you customers will interact with your own store.
   Click here to access the demo stores we created.
2. Request a private demo at no cost.
   As we mentioned above, there are public demos available to anyone who inquires and wants to see the software in action. If you would prefer to have a private demo version setup, we will do that for you free of charge. This will be a demo that only you can get to so that you can setup your products without worrying about someone else changing what you've done. You can then use the system as if you are one of your own customers ordering your products. If you decide to purchase the eStore Complete package that we offer, we will preserve all the product information that you entered into your private demo so that you don't have to enter it again. We will also send you a guided tour document that will lead you step-by-step through adding products to the store, making a purchase as a customer and viewing the order and customer information in the administrative side of the store as the store owner. Just fill out the form below and we'll setup a private demo for you and show you how to access it.
3. Request a competitive comparison.
   If you think that you've found an ecommerce shopping cart solution that is better than our eStore Complete package, then we have failed to communicate to you the exceptional value that we provide. We honestly don't think there is a better value out there. But if you think you have found a better value, then all we ask is the chance to show you otherwise. Fill out the form below and include the web address of the shopping cart solution that you found that appears to provide a better value. We will prepare an analysis between what we offer and what they offer so that you can decide for yourself which is the better choice. If the other option is genuinely a better option for your particular needs, we'll tell you — honestly.
   

If you want to explore the public demos on your own, click here to see the customer side where your customers would shop. For access to the administrative side, please contact us using the form below and we will provide you with access.

To take advantage of any of the offers on this page, fill out the form below: