Why do all new solo-prenuers & entreprenuers think they need shopping cart?

Nearly every new client I take on, that hasnt already got a data collection company in place, immediatly uses shopping cart, or asks me should I use shopping cart?

Maybe its the amount of affiliate links about to it, but I wonder why so many use it.  Its very expensive, for the cart function and the mass emailing function, its about $60/70 per month.  Most solo and entreprenuers sell products or services to people that know them.  The likelyhood of anyone “browsing” your site and adding random things to thier cart is unlikely, and unless you use a merchant account you end up going via paypal anyway, so its not for the professional look.

If you really think that people will be adding to the basket nonchalantly, consider using e-junkie, another popular and easy to use cart.

So why not have a simple “buy now” paypal button and use something like Icontact or Aweber or Constant Contact for your mass mailings.

Most of these have a ton more features than the shopping cart anyway as there sole purpose is to mass email.  Also some of them, aweber, will allow you to set up a trickly little thing whereby someone pays with paypal, the email goes to aweber and it starts sending a series of auto-responders that you have previously set up.

Its not simple to set up, but one of my clients, Gina at VedaSun (she sells gorgeous anti-stress natural aromatherpy products by the by you could do worse than drop by) and I set something up like this at aweber for a teleseminar she was running and it was a great success, all with not a hint of the bloated $75 per month that is shopping cart.

If you are using it, think about why and if you could save a lot of money by swapping over.

Not sure?  email me your situation, Ill give you my 2sense/cents!

NB I am not affilated with any of the email marketing companies, if you follow a link, I get no recompense for it.   I will sing thier praises now, as I truly think they are good companies to work with,  if that changes tomorrow, my opinion will change with it.