When it comes to choosing a system that's right for you, you have many options - not all of them equal. On one hand you can obtain of the hundreds of shopping cart software available online - at prices ranging from the thousands to the absolutely free. On the other hand you can develop your own customized system from scratch.

Going with a pre-packaged e-commerce solution gives many benefits, depending on the type of software you purchase. They usually incorporate some way of managing your inventory, adjust prices, display product images and have some means of interfacing with the various online merchant gateways. The better ones usually have other functionality such as product variation management, specials and discounts and price differentiation.

Most small and medium sized businesses usually go with packaged e-commerce shopping carts, with various customizations to tailor the cart for their respective firms.

Larger firms, more often than not, have more exacting requirements such as
Integration with ERP systems
Advanced CRM needs
Online/offline synchronization of inventory, and much more.

Such needs usually require the more expensive e-commerce options - which are usually not billed as "shopping carts", but as fully fledged online business solutions. While these are certainly viable options, the level of customization required in certain cases for certain companies may determine that a fully customized system be developed from the ground-up.

In either case, when choosing your system, Oxidev recommends the consideration of the following components
Database
Hosting Platform and Web Server Capability
Shopping Cart Features
Merchant Gateway Integration
Branding and Marketing Considerations
Customer Education and Customer Support