Are you running an online business and struggling to make sales? One major cause of this problem could be the lack of a shopping cart system on your website. Without a shopping cart, customers cannot add products to their cart and make purchases on your site. However, adding a shopping cart system to your website may seem like a daunting task. But, with the help of the right software, you can quickly and easily install a shopping cart system in just a few minutes.

If you’re ready to revamp your website business and boost your sales, you’re in the right place! In this article, we’ll tell you how to install shopping cart software on your website easily and quickly.

Step 1: Choose Your Shopping Cart Software

Several shopping cart software options are available in the market. Among the popular ones are WooCommerce, Shopify, and Magento. These software options have different features and capabilities, and you’d need to choose one that aligns with your business needs. To select the right software, you need to consider factors like pricing, ease of use, scalability, and third-party integrations.

Step 2: Install the Software

Once you’ve chosen a shopping cart software, the next step is to install it on your website. Most of the shopping cart software options come with detailed installation guides to ensure you have a smooth and stress-free installation process. The guides are straightforward and easy to follow, so you won’t need to hire a professional to install the software for you.

Step 3: Customize Your Shopping Cart

After installing the shopping cart software, you can then customize it to fit your brand’s look and feel. You can choose from different themes and templates to design your shopping cart. Customizing your shopping cart will help you give your customers a seamless purchasing experience that would keep them coming back.

Step 4: Add Products to Your Shopping Cart

As soon as you’ve finished customizing your shopping cart, the next step is to add your products. This step involves uploading product images, descriptions, pricing, and other essential details. Make sure to provide accurate descriptions of the products and quality images to grab your customers’ attention and increase sales.

Step 5: Test Your Shopping Cart

Before you go live with your shopping cart, you need to test the system thoroughly. Ensure that your customers can easily navigate the shopping cart, add items, complete purchases, and receive confirmation emails. Testing your shopping cart will help you detect any issues and optimize the performance of the system.

In conclusion, adding a shopping cart system to your website can be a game-changer for your online business. By following the above steps, you can quickly and easily install a shopping cart system and make more sales. Remember that continuous optimization and improvement of your shopping cart system are essential to keeping your customers happy and increase repeat visits. So, what are you waiting for? Get started today and start seeing the results you desire!

If you are an aspiring entrepreneur looking to start an online business, the first thing that you need to do is to setup your online shop. Technically, that means you have to register a domain, sign up for a webhost and install shopping cart (or e-commerce) software on your server. If you are not technically inclined, fret not! We will show you how to install a shopping cart software in your website in just 5 minutes.

Preparation

Before we proceed with the actual installation, here are the stuff that you need to prepare beforehand:

  1. Register a domain name.

  2. Sign up for a webhost (I strongly recommend Hostgator. Make sure you use the coupon code MAKETECHEASIER to get the first month free).

  3. A FTP client (I recommend Filezilla since it worked on multiple platforms).

  4. Download a copy of the shopping cart software. I will use OpenCart for this tutorial since it is both lightweight and fast.

1. Configuring the database

  1. Once you have signed up for a webhost, login to the control panel (preferably cPanel).

  2. Scroll down until you see an icon labelled “MySQL Databases”. Click on it.

  3. Create a new database, if not already exists (Remember the database name. You are going to use it later).

  4. Create a new user, if not already exists. (Remember the user name and password. You are going to use it later).

  5. Add the newly created user to the newly created database. When prompted, select “All Privilege” for the user.

2. Uploading Opencart files to the server

  1. Using Filezilla, connect via FTP to your web server (the FTP detail should be given to you when you sign up for the webhost).

  2. Extract the OpenCart file and upload the content inside the “Upload” folder to the root of your server (it is usually the “public_html” folder). If you want to install the shopping cart on a sub-directory, say http://your-website.com/shopping-cart, create a folder call “shopping-cart” in your server’s root directory and upload the OpenCart files to this “shopping-cart” folder.

  3. Right click on the following files/folders and set the permission to 777

  • image/
  • image/cache/
  • image/data/
  • system/cache/
  • system/logs/
  • download/
  • config.php
  • admin/config.php

Installing OpenCart on your server

  1. Open your browser and go to http://your-domain-name.com. If you have uploaded the files to a sub-folder, then go to the URL http://your-domain-name.com/shopping-cart. You should see the following page.

  2. Click Continue to proceed with the installation. At Step 3, it will prompt you to enter your database credential. Enter the database and username detail that you have setup earlier. Also, enter a username and password for the administrator account for your shopping cart.

  3. At Step 4, you should see the Finished page. Congratulation, you have successfully installed a shopping cart software on your server.

  4. Lastly, delete the “Install” folder from the server and change the file permission of “config.php” and “admin/config.php” to 644.

Is there an easier method to install shopping cart software?

The answer is Yes. In Hostgator, you can access Fantastico and install the shopping cart software from there. The whole process should take less than a minute. One thing though, OpenCart is not currently supported in Fantastico.

Alternatively, you can sign up for Bluehost where there is a simple script that you can use to install OpenCart (or any other shopping cart software).

Damien Oh started writing tech articles since 2007 and has over 10 years of experience in the tech industry. He is proficient in Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and iOS, and worked as a part time WordPress Developer. He is currently the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Make Tech Easier.

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