How is OpenCart different from other shopping carts?

Being Open Source is a great start, as it reduces your ongoing maintenance costs, freeing up resources for promotion and other costs. In addition it frees you to choose the host you use to meet your budget, and doesn’t trap you if they fall short. With the support of a community of other users and developers you can flex to the needs of your business, and your audience with both free and paid modules.

Why Dropship with OpenCart?

DropShipping is about maximising the flexibility of your business to adapt to the customer’s wants and needs. As a free cart, with thousands of themes and plugins, plus multistore support, you can reach out to multiple audiences in multiple languages if need, and tailor your message, pricing and presentation.

In addition, with full control over the hosting and configuration of your store, as your business grows, there is nobody else to blame if the store can’t hold up, because it’s totally developed for the needs of you and your customers.

Pros and Cons of OpenCart DropShipping

OpenCart presents some significant advantages over many other website builders, including:

• A large number of integrations, themes, templates and tools available.
• Free, open source software – no ongoing licence fees
• Supports mobile devices (Responsive design) – Ensure the theme you choose does too
• Regular updates and security improvements, as well as advice and help from the community
• Supports digital sales
• Supports more than 20 payment methods and gateways ‘out of the box’, and more than 900 more via add-ons
• The initial setup is designed to be user friendly for first-timers
• PCI compliant
• Supports integration with multiple shipping providers (including Royal Mail, UPS and ParcelForce), and weight/size shipping calculations
• Recurring/subscription payment support included
• Coupons, special offers and discount support built in
• Reward points support built in

OpenCart isn’t always as straightforward as it appears, however, so you’ll need to be aware that:

• You might need development skills, or access to a developer to customise and maintain advanced features
• It isn’t a pre-made package, you’ll be required to arrange hosting, deployment and maintenance yourself – which can be complex
• You also need to source the domain name for your store
• Some advanced plug-ins and other modules can be expensive, so it may not scale to your needs at the top end. Ensure you budget for the full solution.