How to promote a new ecommerce solution

[osicsophie]

Hey guys,
I'm a staff member in a software company and our company has just released a new shopping cart.
Now it is my job to promote this software,but I don't know exactly what I should do to encourage people to use a product with no market share or acknowledgement in the ecommerce world.
Our shopping cart software is available for free so there is no budget for any commercial promotion.

I'm here for your ideas.
Any effective way is valuable for me!!!!
Millions thanks!!!!!!

[Emilyecho]

Do SEO first. Let search engines bring traffic to your site first. SEO is the most important for a new site.

[osicsophie]

Do SEO first. Let search engines bring traffic to your site first. SEO is the most important for a new site.

I don't quite get it.
It's a product,not a website.It's a software and maybe SEO is not really helpful

[Tubby]

It is probably going to be a bit difficult to promote.
If you could post a list of problems associated with other shopping carts that your program solves, or some indication of what the new cart offers it might help us look at your promotion problems.

(1) Its free . . (good start)

[computergenius]

I don't quite get it.
It's a product,not a website.It's a software and maybe SEO is not really helpful

Surely the product is ON a website, to explain to clients what it is?

In which case SEO would surely be a good idea - to send clients to the website that sells the product.

[osicsophie]

It is probably going to be a bit difficult to promote.
If you could post a list of problems associated with other shopping carts that your program solves, or some indication of what the new cart offers it might help us look at your promotion problems.

(1) Its free . . (good start)

Thanks...
I'm now trying to list those features of our product but what I could find is that Corn-cart is nearly the same to osCommerce. It is more friendly to users and that's all. What advantage can I take to promote such kind of thing....uh

[Tubby]

An honest comparison with all the features of OzCommerce ? - sounds good. Maybe a direct comparison chart. .

More user friendly! - Excellent - I think you might need to point us to the features that are friendlier. (and us)

I expect people will buy a cart if it has the featured they are looking for. free installation was always one of my favourites . . . How do intend to create an income from this program?.

Have you done any enquiries into what shopping cart users want more than anything. . or what pisses them off about their current cart? - that would be useful information to have some insight into before you start any advertising campaign.

Will you be targeting existing cart users? new cart users? - We need to get precise with who our target is.

[osicsophie]

The shopping cart software is free for download and provide several default templates. We profit from the service we give for the users who want us to design new templates for their specific online shops, or to maintain the website for them.

As for enqueiries, I don't think it is easy to find these shopping cart users,except for those who are running online stores where they have left contact information. And the potential clients,I mean, those who have not chosen a particular type of shopping cart may be more likely to accept a new software.But it is hard to find out them,too.

Our target is the merchants who want to build their online stores to do ecommerce,no matter at present or in the near future.