We continue our reviews of various cart providers with this review of the 3DCart Shopping cart system. 3DCart is another hosted software solution like Shopify and BigCommerce. What that means is for a low monthly fee you can set up and run your store. You don’t have to know anything about servers, HTML, CSS, SSL certificates or programming to get a site up and running. Like other carts, 3DCart is PCI Compliant and on Visa’s list of approved shopping cart vendors.
What I like about 3DCart
3DCart has several things that I like and would suggest in certain circumstances. Like the other carts I reviewed and use, 3DCart is mobile optimized. It will show a mobile friendly website when people come to your website from their smartphone. It also has a Facebook store included to allow you to sell from a Facebook Page tab. There is an integrated blog which is nice but of course it won’t be as powerful as WordPress, but is a great integrated way to do inbound marketing. It also has gift cards but there are a few things I really like that other carts don’t have, and where it might be useful for you.
Dropshipping with 3DCart
This cart has several features that work great for dropshipping websites. The cart allows you to set up multiple warehouses to ship from. This means if you have multiple vendors, you can set up the warehouse location and where it is coming from. In addition, you can automate the email that gets sent out to your vendor when someone orders. It also has an integrated affiliate program. I was not able to play with it but this can be a big money saver up front. It also allows for MAP pricing. If you have been to a website where it says, add to cart to see price, that is the sites way of getting around Minimum Advertised Prices of manufacturers. This cart allows that.
Recurring Orders in 3dCart
If you sell consumables and want to create recurring orders, 3DCart allows you to. They do this through a plugin that can be a bit expensive to use so you need to make sure you have the orders. It is a one time fee of $499 and $99 a month so it can be a bit steep. You also have to have a compatible Gateway so most likely Authorize.net.
Options in 3dCart
One thing I appreciate is 3DCart allows you to either add a particular option to a product, or you can create an option template. This is great for recurring product types but also allows you to add in additional options if they apply. For example, you can set up a template for black and white, but if you also have red, you can add it in as an option.
What I don’t like about 3DCart
The coupon system and discounts are not as sophisticated as BigCommerce. While they talk about being drag and drop, adding front page banners is no where as easy as BigCommerce. Product set up is not as clean as other carts. They finally integrate with MailChimp but not Constant Contact. The templates are also not as beautiful as BigCommerce or as Shopify. Finally, I have also heard some horror stories when it comes to customer service. It can take a bit for them to get back to you and I have also heard they can be a bit rude. I have not had that issue myself but for full disclosure.
Conclusion
If you are a dropshipper, this might be the cart for you. Besides allowing for multiple warehouses and automated emails, it also has an integrated affiliate program to drive customer traffic. While useful, it is not the right cart for everyone and it misses out on a few features the other carts have. Let me know your experience with 3DCart.
One thing you missed about options with 3DCart is it allows you, through the “Advanced” tab, to set up different SKUs that correspond to the options people select so that if the base product has an SKU of m751 and an option changes that SKU to m751-459g, the correct SKU will be on the order.
Thanks for pointing that out Scott. My review is super old and its on my list to redo. I think 3DCart is a great cart but not as easy as some of the other carts, especially from a design perspective.