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An abrupt stop in your online sales can be very alarming. Hopefully you haven’t experienced this scenario. But if you have, you know that feeling when your orders stops arriving in your inbox. What to do? Have a test with your website and see to it that you’ll run around through these areas that you need to check.

Check your site code. Even a small error in your coding could make your site useless. If your drop in order volume is your concern, run a test order on your site. Go through the entire checkout process, including entering valid credit card information, to be sure you haven’t missed an important detail. Test your site on a regular basis. Roll out site changes with care or utilize a test site for major changes to your site.

Check related services, it may have expired or changed. It is possible that you have failed to renew an integrated service that is part of your site and shoppers are unable to proceed with their purchases. Some of the leading culprits are your site security certificate, your credit card gateway, or perhaps a JavaScript-based service like a gift registry. If any of these services go down, your shopping system could fail along with them. Once you find the problem, immediately renew or reactivate the broken service.

Check for viruses. Often sites that have been compromised by the installation of malicious scripts have been reported. When Google detects a virus intrusion, it will post a message by your organic search listings, informing the world that the use of your site could harm a visitor’s computer. Sign up for a Google Webmaster Tools account and follow the suggestions that Google has provided for removing the infection and making your site secure. Once you have followed the corrective steps and notified Google, it will review your site and determine whether to place it back among the search-engine listings.

Check your website’s traffic, it may have dramatically slowed down. If nothing has changed with your on-site factors, you want to watch your search traffic closely. In order to function as an ecommerce business owner, you need to utilize a web analytics package such as Google Analytics. If you have a serious traffic dip, determine the leakage and work with the source to get your site back on track.

Have you redesign your site? It may have affected you site’s traffic and conversion. Your site’s design may look cool, sexy and awesome, but it can have negative effects on your site traffic. If you cannot immediately identify the issue with your new site design, enlist the help of an expert to assess it and offer suggestions. As with several of the other issues, Google Webmaster Tools is your friend. The diagnostic tools will tell you if you have blatant issues with your site and page structure, as Google sees it.

If find your ecommerce business in trouble, site testing and statistics review should give you the insights you need to rebuild sales.

Most merchants are always on the look for a new and worthy shopping cart software to meet their customers’ needs. OpenCart is getting more popular and has become the light at the end of the tunnel for most webpreneurs. However, we might ask what exactly is OpenCart and how will it help your online business?

OpenCart is an open source PHP-based online shopping cart system. This robust e-commerce solution makes it easy for webpreneurs to create their own online businesses and participate in e-commerce at a low cost. It is designed feature rich, easy to use, search engine friendly and with a visually appealing interface. Your website would work just like the ones that are created for big companies. With a completely interactive website of your own, you go head-to-head with the competition. OpenCart is feature rich and simple to use so you can get started right away for a minimal cost.

OpenCart comes with a vast set of features out of the box that are perfect for a small to medium sized business. These features include: , Unlimited Categories, Unlimited Products, Unlimited Manufacturers, Open Source, Documentation, Templatable, Multi-Language, Multi-Currency, Product Reviews, Product Ratings, Downloadable Products, Automatic Image Resizing, Multiple Tax Rates, Related Products, Unlimited Information Pages, Shipping Weight Calculation, Discount Coupon System, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Module System, Backup & Restore Tools, Printable Invoices, Sales Reports.

Opencarts accepts multiple payment gateways. It is easier for customers to pay and simpler for you to collect. These payment gateways includes: OpenCart accepts multiple payment gateways including 2Checkout, LiqPay, AsiaPay, Authorise Net, Moneybookers, Mal’s E-Commerce, CCAvenue, PayJunction, Cash On Delivery (COD), PSIGate, BluePay, NOCHEX, SagePay, HSBC WorldPay, CCNow, PayMate, ChronoPay Cheques, Money Order, PayPal, PayPoint, eWay, eGold, Verisign and LinkPoint.

You will have no problem in dealing International customers. OpenCart also supports an array of available languages. Languages supported by OpenCart include English (default), French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Hungarian, Indonesian, Farsi, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Turkish and Polish.

The cart is a lot easier to program with, and in effect will be easier to make changes to and provide extra functionality required by clients. Open Cart is perfect for small to medium sized online retailers like myself, it’s robust, flexible, well designed and best of all it’s free. Opencart is a very useful tool in your quest to make money online.