There are hundreds of different shopping cart templates with numerous looks and purchase options.  Choosing the right shopping cart for your website may increase your sales and lower your costs.
Shopping carts are not one size fits all.  The template you choose will depend upon the platform used for your site, how much business you do, how complicated your purchases are, how tech savvy you are, and how much you want to spend to integrate the shopping cart into your site.  Don’t forget to consider the aesthetic appeal of the template you choose.  High quality shopping cart graphics enhance the professional look of your site and may contribute to increased sales. 

Most websites offer PayPal as a payment option; some even use it exclusively.  Working through the PayPal interface, users can set up five different payment buttons directly on their ecommerce sites.  Putting these buttons on your website takes very little technical skill
(https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?&cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/howto_overview), and there are no additional PayPal charges for placing them on your store.  PayPal can also be integrated into your site via a number of shopping cart templates. 

Instinct Entertainment created its e-Commerce plug-in
(http://www.instinct.co.nz/) specifically for WordPress blogs.  E-commerce is easy to install and simple to use, but still offers a variety of options.  This template’s shopping cart graphics are surprisingly good for a quickly installed, free service.  Websites can adapt to higher traffic volumes by downloading Instinct’s Gold Cart Shop add-on for $40.00.  In addition, Instinct offers a variety of inexpensive shopping cart upgrades including an MP3 Audio Player for websites selling music and a Members Only Module for password protected sites. 

Open Source (os) refers to software with code that is open to a variety of designers:  thus, thousands of templates are available, and most of them are easily adapted to individual websites by even novice users.  Creative Reaction Web (CRE) (http://www.chainreactionweb.com/oscommerce_templates/index.html) is one of the leaders in os templates.  It has recently partnered with TemplateMonster.com
(http://www.templatemonster.com/creloaded-templates.php) to provide site owners with a wide variety of easily accessed templates.  CRE and osCommerce templates offer easy installation, upgraded shopping cart graphics, and numerous tools for template customization.  New templates are added to their inventory several times a week.  Ecommerce site owners looking for moderately priced templates that are easy to use will be pleased with the choices available at TemplateMonster.

Multiple set-up options make Zen Cart (http://www.zen-cart.com/) one of the most popular and fully functional OS shopping cart templates.  Users can customize their templates for a variety of shipping and payment options.  Products can be displayed in numerous ways and in several categories including featured items.  Zen Cart also offers the ability to rotate banners.  Users can also offer their customers discount coupons, gift certificates, and discounts for multiple purchases.  The multi-faceted template helps sellers keep their customers informed with its newsletter capability.  Zen Cart can be just the ticket for ecommerce sites ready to move up to the next level of customer service.

Basic Magneto shopping carts (http://www.ddi-templates.com/magneto.shtml) like other open source templates are free or low cost; however, they also require a little more technical fluency and come with little or no support.  Still, these templates provide an abundance of pleasing functions, and their fully featured shopping cart graphics make for a professional aesthetic.  Users will need to download Magneto software, run Adobe Photoshop CS+, and Adobe Dreamweaver or a similar php editor.  Supported templates are available for a reasonable cost beginning at around $150.  Still, Magneto is not for the absolute beginner or for users looking for a quick fix for their shopping cart needs.

Theme Based Shopping Cart Templates

Online stores with specific product themes may want to consider a template based around a certain type of product.  Numerous shopping carts are now available for a variety of retail environments.  Sites selling clothes and lingerie might want to look at Designer Clothes (http://www.magesupport.com/magento-themes/designer-clothes-magento-theme.html), a Magneto based theme capable of displaying three categories.  Cool Fashion (http://www.customweb2.com/magento-themes/cw2-histyle.html) is another Magneto fashion themed shopping cart template with a hip look and a sliding product display.  Business to business ecommerce sites looking for a fast solution to their shopping cart needs might visit b2bParadise (http://www.b2bparadise.com/templates.jsp) for all-in-one answers to their needs for a professional, no frills shopping cart. 

High traffic sites with big dollar sales may want to invest in a custom shopping cart template.  Big-ticket items deserve that extra special touch that personally crafted shopping cart graphics provide.  In addition, custom designs allow for any type of purchase option or customer service a site might need.  The cost of a semi-custom or totally custom built shopping cart may seem steep; simple designs generally start around $500 and can cost significantly more.  Still, for those sites that turn over thousands of dollars annually, a custom shopping cart template might be considered a necessity.  ClientReady (http://www.clientready.com/) offers its customers an extensive library of ecommerce website solutions.  They can build a site from the ground up or fine tune an existing site.  Designs by Linda (http://www.designbylinda.com/shoppingcart.htm) also offers both turnkey ecommerce websites and specific answers to shopping cart needs. 

Choosing the correct shopping cart template can greatly enhance the look, and perhaps, the sales of your ecommerce site.  Carefully analyze your needs before even beginning your hunt for a template to suit your needs.  New web entrepreneurs may want to start out with a free shopping cart while assessing their potential sales.  Established sites and sites “on the grow” will probably opt for templates that have a wide choice of product display and customer service alternatives.  Templates with high quality shopping cart graphics and an array of payment options will cost from three to four figures; however, these initial costs may easily be recouped with increased traffic and sales.