With the scaling back of in-person shopping, people are turning to shopping online now more than ever, especially with changes in remote work and approaches to health.
Not only are they convenient for everyone to use, but they are even a useful necessity when people are ill or unable to go to many places physically. In many ways, people’s lives would be much more difficult without eCommerce.
However, when it comes to shopping online, you’re not going to get far without some kind of online shopping cart service for making purchases. In this Thrivecart overview, we’ll introduce a cart option that you should look at.
After all, just because you are no longer in a brick-and-mortar store, doesn’t mean that selecting products is any easier, especially without the right guiding hand.
In this article, we will explain why they are so valuable, as well as show you everything there is to know about one of these online shopping carts, ThriveCart.
Table of Contents
The World Of Online Shopping Carts
Simply put, an online shopping cart allows a customer who is on the website of an online store to select products for purchase.
It is very much an online equivalent of going to an in-person store, putting the items from the shelves you want to purchase, then bringing them to the counter to buy.
In truth, an online shopping cart is as much a helpful tool for sellers who are trying to keep track of their old products.
As much as it is for the convenience of customers who want to transplant their experience in an actual store to the internet equivalent.
The fact that they can provide plenty of background information and shipping options for customers is also a big part of their appeal.
Whilst also contains all the information that a seller might need to send a shopping cart’s product to their customers.
What Is ThriveCart?
ThriveCart is in the same business and vein as other online shopping carts.
That it is designed to allow people to collect the items they want to purchase at a virtual checkout, as well as allow sellers to keep track of the products being sold.
However, the primary detail that separates ThriveCart from many competitors is that the software is hosted on an online server.
There is no need for an online store to install or personally manage the chopping cart service for them themselves.
No need to worry about bugs affecting your site 24/7, as the servers are managed at ThriveCart headquarters through the cloud.
It’s a novel solution to a problem that can otherwise frustrate new eCommerce start-ups.
As they otherwise try furiously to get their online baskets to work correctly, their customers cannot purchase their items.
Thrivecart was first set up in 2016 by Josh Bartlett and has since enjoyed plenty of success as part of the web design company Web Activ.
How Does ThriveCart Work?
How exactly does this service work compared to other online shopping carts?
ThriveCart is, for all intents and purposes, still very similar to a number of its major competitors, such as SamCart and Shopify.
However, where we can start to see some apparent differences between the two services are the extra features that come with ThriveCart.
Options For Payment And Coupons
This is probably one of the areas where ThriveCart is at its strongest, especially when compared to many of its competitors.
Many other online carts specialize in one or a few payment types on a given website, and that is it.
ThriveCart, meanwhile, has a vast number of different ways that payment can occur between a customer and a seller. These are just some of the following methods:
- Customers can make a single payment fee for a product they are selling or set up multiple payment plans, such as splitting a payment over a set schedule period.
- Customers can also pay for subscription services through ThriveCart.
- Sellers may also use a ThriveCart to implement a pay what you want or name your price system.
- Sellers can also offer free trial periods for subscription products through ThriveCart.
- Sellers can also apply limited product quantity to products for customers if they are in low supply.
- ThriveCart also has the option to include sales tax as part of its service automatically.
- ThriveCart also supports the use of up to 22 currencies.
As you can see, there is a variety of methods that ThriveCart can use when it comes to payments and money through this service.
Alongside the payment methods, there are also several coupon types that ThriveCart uses.
Both are to be displayed on an applied product, and also those that can be sent to customers through a specific URL.
These are the following services that they offer for coupon exchanges:
- Fixed coupons can be offered to customers, as well as percentage discounts on either specific or all products.
- Coupons can also be offered for free shipping on both specific products or all items in-store.
- These coupons can also contain a date range of when they are available for use, as well as how many times those coupons may be released. Ideal for limited offers!
- They can also set up specific triggers for when a coupon is activated, such as after clicking on a hyperlink from an email notification. This helps cut down on the amount of maintenance these systems require.
Built-In Affiliate Program
When getting new people to look at a business, it is hard to dispute the effectiveness of a good affiliate marketing program or strategy.
Fortunately, this is also something that ThriveCart does very well, making it an ideal tool for all online merchants.
With ThriveCart, you only pay an affiliate once a new customer they sent to you has signed up or made a purchase, meaning there is little to no money lost for you as a seller.
Because there is an affiliate program system built into ThriveCart, this saves you money by not having to look for other third-party affiliate programs, thanks to the integrated system that this online shopping cart service comes with as standard.
Not only that, but the system also allows you exclusive bonuses you can offer your converted customers.
Considering that surprisingly few of ThriveCart’s competitors use this strategy to get and find new customers, this is an immediate bonus that sets this service apart and above any other online shopping carts.
This includes different tiers of payouts for your affiliates who bring new customers in and can be set to different levels depending on how many new customers they send.
The system is set up with the mutual approval of your other affiliates, meaning that this is a strategy that everyone understands and benefits from, not just yourself.
Learning And Training Courses
Interestingly enough, ThriveCart also comes with course learning and training, something that has only just been added to the packages that ThriveCart is sold with.
Whereas before, the learning and training courses were a factor that competitors like SamCart had over ThriveCart, ThriveCart has finally caught up to them in this regard too!
This extra service, Learn And Learn +, means you will not need to purchase extra materials or plugins to create a separate site or location on your website for holding and selling courses.
They can all be hosted through ThriveCart Learn And Learn+.
With ThriveCart Learn, you will be able to organize your offerings for several different courses.
You can also regulate how many courses content you can release to your customers.
For example, you can have your customers pay for their course or purses in one single payment and release the course to them, or you can instead have the content released on a schedule, such as at a specific time or day during the week.
If you spend a little extra on this feature and purchase the ThriveCart + bundle, you also gain access to several options for your online store.
Including selling bundles of courses to students in a single purchase and setting and including extra staff and assistants for classes and courses.
You won’t even have to worry about logging all of your students’ login details and other data on a third-party site, as ThriveCart Learn also hosts all membership details as part of their deal.
Which leaves you more time to focus on the training and courses that you can offer for your potential students.
And, of course, because these course options are offered as standard by ThriveCart, the purchases for courses are just as seamless as they would be buying from a normal online store.
Pricing Of ThriveCart
With all these amazing features, plus the many more not yet covered, the pricing is probably cost prohibitive, right?
Sort of. Maybe for a beginner, but not for the business owner.
Most online shopping cart services, as with many subscription services, are offered on a monthly or annual basis, meaning that you will pay for the services for a month or a year before you need to renew the service again and pay the correct amount.
With ThriveCart, this isn’t the case. Instead of making a single payment once a year for a service, ThriveCart instead offers a single purchase scheme, where you pay an upfront amount of money.
And you have access to the services for the rest of the product’s lifetime. One payment, and it is yours to use however you want!
This sets it apart from its competitors, as the single payment is more initial and upfront and will be of great value once you have used the service for a while.
The payment tiers are:
- The Standard package comes with the course package at around $500.
- The Pro version, which comes with the affiliate system we have already mentioned, as well as a custom domain and dunning, comes to around $700.
Pros Of ThriveCart
The number of purchasing systems and currencies that can work with ThriveCart make running a storefront easy, meaning that the potential marketplace you create can be international.
Also, the fact that you can set up education courses through this service only adds to the versatility!
And again, we also can’t overstate just how much of a difference a single upfront payment for this service makes for its long-term value.
While the upfront cost is quite steep, you’ll be surprised how much money you save in the long run!
Cons Of ThriveCart
The sizeable upfront cost can be a barrier to those bootstrapped creators. Even if you can easily cover this cost, it brings up concern as to how frequently ThriveCart is capable of being updated.
The course organization is excellent, however, how it handles physical products is a little lackluster. This service might be best for purely informational or membership purchases.
ThriveCart Overview – Final Thoughts
While the cost is pretty steep, we would recommend you consider this service as one of your top 3 cart solutions.