shopify vs samcart

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL7ggP2EsjY

SamCart is an online shopping cart software that was founded in 2013 by Scott and Brian Moran. Although it’s been around for some time, it has become more popular in recent years.

A lot of marketers, business owners, and entrepreneurs are touting it as the best shopping cart software available today.

But, does it really live up to the hype?

This SamCart review will share my experiences with the software, including who it’s best for, its pros and cons and whether it’s worth it to your business.

Table Of Contents

SamCart: Is it worth it?

Want to see a demo of SamCart in action? Click Here to get a FREE demo

SamCart I believe is a great investment. It offers tons of features, compared to other shopping cart platforms, and is optimized to increase conversions , which in turn will boost your bottom line.

 

Marketers know how important it is to test your pages in order to maximize conversions. SamCart has taken care of all the details so you can make the most of every 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 means more revenue per sale, as well as a higher average order size, which ultimately leads to more money in your pocket.

Sidenote – If you purchase SamCart I would be grateful if you click on this link to buy.

The countless reviews and testimonials from happy customers speak for themselves:

SamCart is Good for Who?

SamCart is ideal for anyone selling stuff online. SamCart can be used to sell physical or digital products, such as books, courses, seminars, or events. It can also be used to sell services such as consulting 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.

Depending on whether you are selling information products, software, or memberships, you will find out the various features and functionality of SamCart to help you decide if it is the right shopping cart for your needs.

SamCart Pros and 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

  1. User-Friendly PlatformSamCart allows you to sell physical and digital products online using a simple platform.
  2. Integrations The software can be integrated with many marketing tools and services via Zapier.
  3. Flexible Payment Models: SamCart also has flexible payment models, including payment plans, subscriptions, and trials.
  4. Supports One-Click Upsells: You can use one-click upsells, downsells, and even “bumps” to boost your revenue.
  5. Granular Coupons & Discounts Control: You have complete control over the way you use coupons or discounts on your products.
  6. Affiliate Management: SamCart has an in-built affiliate marketing program management system that rivals other shopping carts. This will help you manage your affiliate program quickly and easily.
  7. Excellent Support:SamCart is equipped with a wide range of knowledge to assist you with any type of issue. Support can be obtained via email, Facebook group and live chat.
  8. 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

  1. Not Great For Services:SamCart doesn’t work well for selling services. However, you can still do so by being creative with how you name your offer.
  2. 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.
  3. No Cryptocurrency Payments: When using SamCart, you need to find a different method for accepting cryptocurrency payments. Apple Pay is not available.
  4. Very Few Payment Integrations: Although SamCart offers a lot of payment options, it only integrates with a few payment processors like Stripe and PayPal.
  5. 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 especially true when compared with platforms such as ThriveCart which 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. You can maximize your profit from every sale with the platform’s one-click upsells

If you are not using upsells as part of your sales funnel, then you’re leaving a lot of money on the table. The world’s biggest retailer, Amazon, reports that over a third of its revenue comes from upselling efforts.

SamCart makes it easy to upsell. According to their website, it will increase customer value up to 68%.

Bump Offers

SamCart also offers you cross-selling order bumps. This strategy is also known as “bundling”, which involves combining the main product with other products in order to increase profits.

McDonald’s will offer fries and drinks along with your burgers to illustrate this concept. You might also be eligible for a half-off gym membership if you buy sports equipment.

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. It’s easy to set up and customers will make purchases through the 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.

All the pages are mobile responsive and they have a unique “sandbox” mode that allows you to check that everything is working perfectly before going live. This is different from other shopping cart software, where you actually have to publish your page and then test it.

SamCart is used by many well-known marketers. This means you won’t have to spend hours creating and testing checkout pages all 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.

Want to see a demo of SamCart in action? Click Here to get a FREE demo

You simply need to choose a template and customize it to your brand’s style and colors.

One-Page Checkout

This is a unique feature that offers you the ability to add multiple payment options to a single checkout page.

Here’s an example:

For instance, if you are selling an online course for $447, you can use SamCart to offer your customers a payment plan whereas, on other shopping cart pages, you might have to use separate checkout pages to achieve that.

SamCart’s one-page checkout keeps visitors on the page as they decide on the best way to pay for your product.

As an online marketer, I’m sure you know the importance of being able to keep your visitors on-page, otherwise, you risk losing them altogether if they leave for any reason.

Affiliate Center

SamCart makes it easy for you to not only sell your products online but also to enlist a whole army of affiliates who will promote your stuff and increase your revenue.

In fact, the platform’s affiliate management feature is so robust that you don’t even have to spend any time promoting your products or services.

There is no need to pay for ads or any other type of marketing because with affiliates spreading the word on your product or service, it’s an easy way to generate sales since you only have to pay affiliates once they produce a sale for you.

Subscriber Saver

This SamCart feature is very appealing if you are selling subscription products online.

As you well know, not everyone pays on time, every time. You might miss payments because your credit card expired or you might have unscrupulous individuals who cancel or decline to pay their bills to avoid paying their obligations.

It doesn’t matter what the reason is, it’s bad for the marketer. Often times you won’t be able to get your money, unless you take legal action against the customer.

SamCart helps to guard you against expired credit cards and declined payments by sending your customers an email on your behalf whenever a payment fails.

Customers will receive an email with a link to update their payment information. This will save you time and prevent you from spending valuable time trying to find customers who have not paid their bills.

SamCart will automatically cancel a customer’s subscription if they fail to update their payment information. After receiving multiple emails, SamCart marks them as “delinquent”. This allows you to identify the person and contact them if necessary.

You can keep tabs on what’s going on in Subscription Saver via SamCart’s simple and effective dunning report.

A/B Testing

All marketers have a good idea of how important it is to split test everything. Split testing can be especially helpful if you have a high cart abandonment rate. Even a small improvement can result in a huge increase in your revenue.

This goes for your blog post headlines, opt-in pages, email subject lines, sales pages, and pretty much anything else you can think of.

But, few marketers ever really bother testing their checkout pages. It is absurd that anyone would ignore this important aspect of their sales funnel when they consider how much you can make.

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.

Want to see a demo of SamCart in action? Click Here for 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. You should also note that the platform does not accept cryptocurrency payments such as bitcoin or mobile payments such as Apple Pay.

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 a wide range of membership platforms, including Thinkific, Post Affiliate Pro, WishList Member, Digital Access Pass, Optimize Member, and Membermouse.

Webinar Platforms: If you host webinars as part of your marketing strategy, you can use SamCart’s checking-out software to sell your products and services. 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 are selling physical products with SamCart shopping cart software you only have one option for fulfillment: ShipStation. Zapier allows you to link to many other fulfillment systems, which can be tailored to your business’s needs.

SamCart Alternatives

As previously mentioned, there are tons of shopping cart solutions available on the market today.

SamCart is just one of many, and although it has amazing features and functionality, there are a few others that can give this platform a run for its money.

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. SamCart’s only advantage over ThriveCart is in price.

While SamCart is offered at a monthly price, you can get ThriveCart for a one-time fee of $495.

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 main difference between SamCart and PayKickStart. All other aspects are 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.

PayKickStart offers four subscription plans when it comes to pricing: Basic $99/month; Growth $199/month; Scale $299/month and a custom plan which will be customized to 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 is a renowned e-commerce platform that was established over two decades 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 offers over 50 templates free of charge, which include all the elements and features you need to increase your conversions.

When you choose a higher-level plan, you will have access to even more templates. Premium templates are responsive to mobile devices, which will ensure excellent viewing experience for your customers on mobile.

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.

Prices for Shift4Shop range from $19/month for “Startup” stores to $229/month for “Pro” stores.

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 supports a wide range of payment processors including Stripe and PayPal. It supports many email marketing and automation tools such as Ontraport, Infusionsoft, 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. As good as these platforms can be for their intending purpose, they aren’t nearly as focused as Samcart is.

Pricing

SamCart has four different plans:

  • Launch: $49/month
  • 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.

You get the Launch plan and the Grow plan.

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. Additional discounts are available if you pay annually.

Product Support

SamCart offers support in a variety of ways, including email, live chat, and a Facebook group. 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.

SamCart demo available. Click Here to get 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 Center: SamCart has a thorough knowledge base with written posts and video tutorials to help you solve any type of potential issues you might come up against.

Live Chat: If you have a pressing problem, SamCart offers support via live chat. Although the reply time can vary, for the most part, SamCart support is very responsive to requests for help.

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 is Samcart?

Samcart is an online shopping cart that allows you to sell both digital products, online services, and can even be used to sell physical products. You can create sales pages, marketing channels, run an affiliate programme, and much more with Samcart. Samcart is the most popular online shopping cart due to its excellent marketing and wide adoption by business owners all over the world.

What is Samcart used for?

Samcart can be used across many 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.

Can 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. All you have to do is add your marketplace address and VAT ID wherever applicable, and SamCart will automatically find the right tax rates for each of your customers, and then charge them sales tax accordingly.

Does SamCart Allow 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.

Can You A/B Test Checkout Pages in SamCart?

SamCart has a robust A/B testing feature designed to help you boost your conversions. You can test every aspect of your checkout page to find out which versions work best with your audience. The platform also has in-depth tutorials for those who are new to split testing and provides a step-by-step process to help you hit the ground testing.

Does SamCart offer a money back guarantee?

SamCart offers a 30-day money-back guarantee if you decide that the software is not 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.

How Does SamCart Pay You?

SamCart does not pay affiliate commissions. 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 is an affordable shopping cart software which allows you to optimize your sales by using various payment models, discounts and coupons.

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.