https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Oe9_SV4jC4
SamCart is an online shopping cart software that was founded in 2013 by Scott and Brian Moran. It’s been around for a while, but lately, it seems to be everywhere.
It is being praised by many business owners, marketers, and entrepreneurs as the best shopping cart software on the market today.
But, does it really live up to the hype?
In this SamCart review, I am going to share my experience with this software: who it’s good for, it’s pros and cons, and whether or not it’s worth it for your business.
Is SamCart Worth it?
SamCart demo available. Click Here for a free demo
In my opinion, SamCart is absolutely worth the investment because compared to the majority of other shopping cart platforms, it offers tons of useful features and is optimized to help you increase conversions which ultimately boosts your bottom line.
As a marketer, you know the importance of testing your pages to optimize conversions, and SamCart has done all the work for you to make sure that you maximize the profit you make from each sale.
If you sell a $47 PDF and you use a standard checkout page, you might not be allowed to add an extra sale. You may be able sell another $60 product to your customers if you add an upsell (using SamCart).
What does mean for you?
This results in more revenue per sales and higher order sizes. In the end, more money in your pockets.
Sidenote – If you purchase SamCart I would be grateful if you click on this link to buy.
You can read the many testimonials and reviews from satisfied customers to see for yourself.
SamCart is Good for Who?
SamCart is perfect for anyone who sells stuff online. SamCart can be used to sell physical or digital products, such as books, courses, seminars, or events. You can even use it to sell services, such as consulting services on your website.
But, like all other shopping cart software, it’s specifically designed for a certain kind of user, which means that it won’t be ideal for everyone.
So, depending on whether you sell information products, software, memberships, or services, read on to discover the different features and functionality of SamCart so you can determine whether or not it’s the ideal shopping cart for you.
SamCart Pros & Cons
SamCart has its pros and cons, just like any other software. These are the pros and cons of SamCart. I’ve listed them below to help you understand what to expect from this shopping basket.
SamCart Pros
- User-Friendly PlatformSamCart allows you to sell physical and digital products online using a simple platform.
- Integrations The software can be integrated with many marketing tools and services via Zapier.
- Flexible Payment Models: SamCart also has flexible payment models, including payment plans, subscriptions, and trials.
- One-Click Upsells Supported: You can use one-click upsells and downsells to increase your revenue.
- Granular Coupons and Discounts Control: You have granular control over how you use coupons and discounts for your products.
- Affiliate Management: SamCart has an in-built affiliate marketing program management system that rivals other shopping carts. This will make it easy to manage your affiliate program.
- Great Support: SamCart has a vast knowledge base to help you with all types of issues. You can also get support through email, Facebook group, and live chat.
- Analytics and Reporting: The platform offers an impressive reporting dashboard that gives you useful insights from your data.
SamCart demo available. Click Here to get a FREE demo
SamCart Cons
- Not Great For Services:SamCart doesn’t work well for selling services. You can still make it work by being creative in the name of your offer.
- Lack of Design Options: Compared to other shopping cart software in the same price category, SamCart’s design and customization options for its checkout templates are limited.
- No Cryptocurrency Payments: When using SamCart, you need to find a different method for accepting cryptocurrency payments. Apple Pay is not available.
- Few Payment Integrations: Although SamCart has a ton of payment models, it actually integrates with very few payment processors, like PayPal and Stripe.
- High Price: SamCart does offer an impressive range of features, but the pricing is still a bit high for small business owners and individual marketers. This is particularly true when compared to platforms like ThriveCart that offer their services for a one-time payment.
Top SamCart Functionality
The one thing that might make you choose SamCart over other types of shopping cart software is its functionality. This is where its true strengths lie.
Below, we take a look at each of SamCart’s functions, so you can get a better idea of why SamCart is different from the rest, and how it can be of benefit to your business.
One-Click Upsells
This is what makes SamCart stand out from other platforms. The platform has one-click upsells that help you maximize your profits from each sale you make.
You’re wasting a lot of money if you don’t use upsells in your sales funnel. The world’s biggest retailer, Amazon, reports that SamCart makes upselling easy and seamless, and according to their website, once you set it up, it will increase your customer value by up to 68.1%.
Bump Offers
SamCart also offers you cross-selling order bumps. This strategy, also known as “bundling” is where you bundle the main product or service with complementary products to increase the profits from each sale.
An example of this concept at work is when McDonald’s offers you fries and drinks with your burgers. Or, if you purchase sports equipment, you might also get an offer for half price gym membership or something like that.
So, for instance, if you sell laptops using SamCart shopping cart software, you might also offer bump offers of laptop bags, antivirus packages (Avast could really use this) , etc. as a way to increase your customer value.
SamCart makes it easy with just one click. All you have to do is set it up, and the platform will do the rest to get customers to make the purchase through its optimized checkout process.
You can check out these pages
At the time of this writing, the checkout platform of Samcart has 18 professionally designed shopping cart templates – all of which are proven to convert.
The pages are responsive to mobile devices and have a “sandbox” mode which allows you check everything before you go live. This is different from other shopping cart software, where you actually have to publish your page and then test it.
A lot of well-known marketers use SamCart which means that you will be able to avoid having to spend countless hours designing and testing checkout pages on your own. You can simply take the word of the experts that came before you and leverage their hard work to start seeing immediate results in your marketing and sales campaigns.
All the checkout page templates on SamCart also come with built-in testimonials, security reassurances, guarantees, and various other trust elements designed to boost conversion rates.
SamCart demo available. Click Here for a free demo
You simply need to choose a template and customize it to your brand’s style and colors.
One-Page Checkout
This unique feature allows you to add multiple payment options on one checkout page.
Here’s an example:
SamCart can be used to sell an online course at $447. On other shopping cart pages you may have to use separate checkout pages.
SamCart’s one-page checkout keeps visitors on the page as they decide on the best way to pay for your product.
You, as an online marketer, know how important it is to keep your visitors on your site. If they leave, you could lose them all together.
Affiliate Center
SamCart allows you to sell products online and recruit affiliates to promote your products and increase your revenues.
The platform’s affiliate management function is so powerful that you don’t even need to spend time promoting products or services.
Affiliates are a great way to promote your product or service without having to spend money on advertising or other marketing. You only pay them once you make a sale.
Subscriber Saver
If you sell subscription products online, this is one SamCart feature that you will find extremely appealing.
You know that not everyone pays their bills on time. Some missed payments might be due to credit cards that simply expired, or it might be unscrupulous people who decline charges or cancel their cards to avoid honoring their obligations.
Regardless of the reason why payments don’t go through, it’s bad news for the marketer because oftentimes you can’t get your money (barring taking legal action against the customer).
SamCart protects you from expired credit cards or declined payments. SamCart sends your customers an email whenever a payment is not received.
Customers will receive an email with a link to update their payment information. This saves you from having to waste valuable time chasing down customers who have failed to make their payments.
For those customers who fail to update their payment information after receiving several emails, SamCart automatically cancels their subscription and marks them as “delinquent” so you know exactly who they are and can choose to reach out to them if you want to.
Subscription Saver’s easy-to-read dunning report from SamCart allows you to keep track of what’s happening.
A/B Testing
All marketers have a good idea of how important it is to split test everything. Split testing is especially useful if your cart abandonment rate is high. Even a small improvement can result in a huge increase in your revenue.
This applies to your blog headlines, opt in pages, email subject lines and sales pages.
However, very few marketers bother to test their checkout pages. When you consider just how much money you stand to make by optimizing your pages, it makes no sense that someone would knowingly ignore such an important part of their sales funnel.
SamCart makes it easy. Live A/B testing is possible on your pages. This feature is quite unique in the world of shopping cart pages.
There are tons of different things you can test on SamCart, such as changing the template, trying out a different guarantee/testimonial, etc., removing fields (tests have shown that the fewer fields you have, the better), and much more.
SamCart demo available. Click Here to get a FREE demo
SamCart Integrations
SamCart has many integrations that allow you to connect your shopping cart with the rest of your marketing strategy.
Here are some of the main integrations on the platform:
Payment Providers: One of the first things you’re prompted to do once you log into SamCart is to set up your payment processor. SamCart has only two payment options, but they are constantly adding more integrations to the shopping platform. It’s also important to note that there are no cryptocurrency payments, such as bitcoin, or mobile payments, such as Apple Pay on the platform.
Email Marketing Providers: For most marketers, email marketing is among the most important integrations to consider before choosing a shopping cart solution. The good news is, SamCart supports a lot of email marketing solutions, including iContact, HubSpot, Ontraport, Active Campaign, MailChimp, and Drip.
Membership platforms:SamCart supports many membership platforms including Thinkific and Post Affiliate Pro as well as WishList Member, Digital Access Pass and Optimize Member.
Webinar platforms: SamCart’s check-out software can be used to help you sell your products and services if you host webinars . Although there currently aren’t any native integrations for webinar platforms on SamCart, the software easily integrates with Zapier which allows you to connect to a wide range of webinar platforms, including GoToWebinar and WebinarJam.
Fulfillment Services: If you sell physical products using SamCart shopping cart software, you only have one option available to you for fulfillment: ShipStation. However, with Zapier, you can link out to a variety of other fulfillment systems to suit your business needs.
SamCart Alternatives
As previously mentioned, there are tons of shopping cart solutions available on the market today.
SamCart is only one platform, but it’s not the only one.
Listed below are four SamCart alternatives, and depending on the specific features you need for your business, these may prove to be a better (or worse) option. If you’re looking for more options, check out this post which has more alternatives.
SamCart vs. ThriveCart
Note: You can read my full SamCart vs ThriveCart Review here.
ThriveCart, an online shopping cart software for e-commerce websites, is available. It has many of the same features that SamCart has, including one-click upsells, affiliate management center, etc.
But, SamCart does have significantly more features than ThriveCart. The one place where ThriveCart outshines SamCart is on price.
SamCart can be purchased at a monthly cost, but you can also get ThriveCart by paying a $495 one-time fee.
This is one of the many reasons why a lot of digital marketers prefer this SamCart alternative over all the rest.
It is also worth mentioning that ThriveCart integrates seamlessly with all major payment processing platforms, while SamCart can only be integrated with Stripe and PayPal.
SamCart vs. PayKickStart
PayKickStart allows you to easily manage your online business with a flexible shopping cart.
The software has features such as a sales funnel page builder, a powerful page editor, and checkout form pop-ups, among others. You can integrate PayKickstart with Braintree, Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.net, and Easy Pay Direct.
This is the one main difference between PayKickStart and SamCart. Everything else is pretty much the same.
Both platforms are compatible with multiple currencies and languages. They offer deep actionable insights through a robust reporting dashboard, and both shopping cart solutions are easy to set up. Each comes with a smart dashboard and conversion tools.
When it comes to pricing, PayKickStart offers four different subscription plans: Basic $99/month, Growth $199/month, Scale $299/month, and a custom plan that will be tailored to suit your business.
SamCart’s monthly price is only $49/month. It’s easy to see why marketers prefer SamCart to PayKickStart.
SamCart vs. Shift4Shop (formerly 3D Cart)
Shift4Shop, a well-known e-commerce platform, was founded over 20 years ago. It has many features that allow you to easily create optimized checkout pages for better conversions.
This makes it a good alternative to SamCart, particularly for anyone who wants a wider variety of checkout page templates to choose from. Shift4Shop has over 50 free templates, each of which contains all the features and elements required to boost your conversions.
You will get more templates if you select a higher-level plan. The premium templates are mobile responsive, ensuring excellent viewing experiences for your mobile customers.
Shift4Shop also allows you to promote your products on social media, and all the plans come with $50 ad credits to get you started reaching a wider audience on different social media platforms.
Shift4Shop prices range from $19/month in “Startup” shops to $229/month in “Pro” shops.
SamCart vs. Clickfunnels
You can find my SamCart and Clickfunnels comparison here.
Clickfunnels is yet another great shopping cart software you can use to create attractive checkout pages.
It comes with support for a variety of payment processors, including PayPal and Stripe among many others. It also has support for many email marketing and marketing automation tools, including Infusionsoft, Ontraport, and NMI.
Compared to other shopping cart software, Clickfunnels is a more complete system as it allows you to build landing pages as well as shopping cart pages.
It’s more than a shopping cart. It is an A-Z sales funnel which eliminates the need to use a lot of marketing tools for people who want to sell products or services online.
I’ve also written this SamCart vs. Shopify Comparison.
Truth be told, Samcart has a lot of competitors because many systems add checkout functionality. Systems like Aweber, Convertkit, Kajabi, and more. These platforms are great for their intended purpose but not as focused as Samcart.
Pricing
SamCart has four different plans:
- Launch: $49.
- Grow $99/month
- Scale – $199/month
- Enterprise: 399/month
The pricing structure is simple, and the features available in each plan build on the ones from the previous plan.
For instance, when you get the Grow plan, you get all the features of the Launch, plus a few advanced features, such as customer management, subscription charge reminders, advanced subscription cancellations, and so on.
You get the same if you choose to go with the Scale plan. You get all the features available in the Grow plan, as well as additional features like the dunning tool, affiliate center, CRM integrations, and A/B testing.
Every plan includes a 14-day trial and a 30-day guarantee. If you pay yearly, you get additional discounts on the fees outlined above.
Support for Product
SamCart provides support via email, chat and Facebook groups. They also have detailed documentation on the site, as well as an intuitive, user-friendly interface that is designed to remove potential roadblocks and help beginners navigate the platform easily.
Want to see a demo of SamCart in action? Click Here for a free demo
Here is a more detailed look at the support offered by SamCart.
Intuitive Interface From the moment you log in to the platform, you’ll be guided through the steps necessary to get you set up as quickly and easily as possible.
Help Centre: SamCart offers a comprehensive knowledge base, including written posts and videos to assist you in solving any potential problems you may face.
Live Chat: If you have a pressing problem, SamCart offers support via live chat. SamCart support is responsive to all requests, despite the fact that the response time may vary.
Facebook Group:SamCart boasts a large Facebook community with over 24,000 members. It also has a support team who will gladly answer any questions you may have on Facebook.
Email Support: Although SamCart doesn’t offer direct contact to the support team, they do offer email support during business hours (that is, 9 AM to 5 PM ET weekdays).
FAQ
What’s Samcart?
Samcart allows you to sell digital products and online services. It can also be used to sell physical items. It allows you to create sales pages, marketing funnels, run an affiliate program, ecommerce, and more. Samcart is the most popular online shopping cart due to its excellent marketing and wide adoption by business owners all over the world.
What does Samcart do?
Samcart can be used in a number of different ways across a number of different industries. If an individual is trying to sell a product or service online, Samcart can help. They have solutions for course creators, authors, coaches/consultants, agencies, side hustlers, amazon and Etsy sellers, Physical product sellers, entrepreneurs, and even non-profits.
How do you integrate SamCart with Zapier
Zapier allows you to integrate SamCart. This will allow you to instantly connect to over 3,000 marketing automation apps and tools to automate your work, increase productivity, and improve your bottom line.
Can SamCart Handle VAT?
SamCart helps keep your online tax simple. SamCart automatically calculates the correct tax rates for your customers and charges sales tax accordingly.
SamCart allows coupon codes
SamCart allows you to use coupons. It also offers one of the most precise control features (compared with other shopping cart software) over how coupons are used for products and services.
For instance, instead of having any one coupon applied automatically to all your products, you have the option of applying one coupon to specific products, and a different coupon to other products in the same sales funnel.
SamCart:
SamCart offers a powerful A/B testing tool that will help you increase your conversions. To find the best version for your customers, you can test all aspects of your checkout page. You can also find detailed tutorials and a step by step process for split testing on the platform.
Does SamCart have a Money Back Guarantee?
SamCart provides a 30-day money back guarantee if the software is not right for you. Just make sure you cancel your subscription a few days before the payment is due to go off in order to avoid having to needlessly pay for an additional month. You can also try the platform for free for 14 days before you decide to purchase any premium plans.
What does SamCart pay you?
With regards to affiliate commissions, SamCart doesn’t pay you. Instead, the vendor or your platform manager will pay you. Payments will be made using any of the supported payment methods, such as PayPal, and Stripe.
Is SamCart Legit?
SamCart is a great tool for digital marketers looking to sell products or services online.
It’s an affordable shopping cart software that makes it easy to optimize each of your sales through the use of various payment models, discounts, coupons, and bump offers so you can increase your revenue.
SamCart is a valuable tool that is easy to set up and makes a great addition to any online business.
I would be very grateful if you decide to use SamCart.