For many people Yahoo’s shopping cart, called Yahoo Merchant Solutions, is where they start and they keep using it as they grow. Many top ecommerce merchants (really big names in the industry) use Yahoo’s solution. So this is a great place to start our reviews.
Let’s work through the criteria I listed and then I’ll give my overall recommendation. All ratings are on a 5 point scale (5 is best, 1 is worst).
Design = 3
Yahoo’s cart solution does have many templates to choose from and they can be customized. The real problem is that Yahoo uses a proprietary markup language called RTML. RTML is a programming language, which in theory, makes it very powerful. In reality, it’s a pain in the ass! Almost nobody knows RTML. So anyone who does charges a fortune. Minimum quotes I have received for a fairly basic Yahoo store template ran over $1,500.
Search Engine Optimization = 3
When it comes to SEO for a shopping cart system there are a few things that stand out. One of them is the ability to enter meta tags for individual items. This will allow those items to rank well in the search engines. Well Yahoo’s cart does not allow this functionality. You can hire an RTML programmer to add it, but it will cost you.
Yahoo stores also don’t come with many other standard SEO features, like sitemaps. In addition, the internal linking structure is a bit strange. If you do a complete redesign, changes to navigation and internal linking are recommended.
Catalog System = 3 (1 for drop shipping)
The catalog system is fairly straightforward. You can add, edit, and delete categories and products. It does provide the ability to upload from a spreadsheet or database.
The system includes inventory control - in terms of tracking inventory in stock and setting alerts for when levels become low.
Drop shippers beware - Yahoo stores does NOT support drop shipping. I had a sales person tell me point blank that it does. However, a quick call to technical support revealed that what they consider adequate drop shipping support does not jive with reality. Basically, their solution is that you receive the order e-mails and then forward them to the drop shipper.
In the real world, you usually do not want to do that. The drop shipper may require a purchase order in a specific format. Most require that you indicate billing terms. So, you would need to copy the order details and paste them into a new e-mail to the drop shipper. Too much work for me, especially since there are better solutions available.
Marketing = 4
Yahoo’s cart does have the normal range of upsell, cross sell, coupons, and gift certificates. But nothing special or particuarly interesting.
Shipping/Payments/Taxes = 4
Yahoo has partnered with Paymantech and PayPal as their primary merchant account/payment solutions providers. Both a credible companies. In theory, you should be able to use just about any reliable merchant account, but I have not tested this (and Yahoo does not list other merchant account solutions).
The Yahoo cart does support multiple shipping solutions (UPS, FedEx, and USPS). And can calculate shipping based on weight, price, location, etc. It can also determine the correct local sales tax to charge, if applicable.
Other = 5
Yahoo’s hosting platform seems rock solid. As I mentioned there are alot of big companies using this system, so you know it’s scalable and seems secure.
Technical support wait times were normal (a few minutes or longer during peek times). Technical support reps are hit or miss. Some obviously are just reading from the script, some actually know a bit about the system.
Price = 3
Yahoo is one of the least expensive solutions on the market - starting at $39.95 per month, plus 1.5% of all transactions, for their starter plan. However, the start plan is very limited. Almost any good online retailer will need at least the standard plan, which is $99.95 per month, plus 1% of all transactions. There is a professional plan, which runs $299.95 per month, plus a 0.75 transaction charge. All plans charge a $50 setup fee.
Overall Grade = C
The starter plan is tempting for a new user due to the low price point. However, it is severely crippled and only really useful for a very small store. The lack of good drop shipping features may even lower the overall grade to a D.
I’m not sure why some of the big retailers are still using this system. My best guess is that they started their stores years ago when ViaWeb (the company Yahoo purchased to create Yahoo Stores) was one of the very few cart solutions available. Over time they have invested in heavy customization and don’t want to change now.
My advice to you is, stay away from Yahoo Merchant Solutions. There are much better cart systems available and I will review many of them shortly.
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