PinnacleCart eCommerce Review
Pinnacle Cart is an eCommerce software company with a huge global user base, and was created by entrepreneurs with more than 20 years of combined experience in the industry. The company’s platform is easy to use and also gets top marks for store management solutions. We were also pleased on the whole with the other aspects of Pinnacle Cart’s service and feel they are well worth a look if you’re setting up an online store.
PinnacleCart Pros
Pinnacle Cart is one of few that do not limit you based on products but rather, disk space. Their store management facility is one of the best we’ve seen.PinnacleCart Cons
Does not offer easy access to your files via FTP on the cheaper plans. Their pricing is a bit more expensive than the competition.eCommerce Features
Ease of use is one of our favorite features of Pinnacle Cart; the 8-Step QuickStart Guide makes it simple to unlock the potential of the software and get your store up and running quickly. There is also free domain transfer assistance if you are relocating your store. Single and batch uploading make it simple to stock your store up quickly, and there are plenty of design features including drag-and-drop layout design and CSS and HMTL editing with your browser. Numerous buttons, headers, and other styles are available. A backorder system and inventory management are both included in Pinnacle Cart, and you may sell physical or downloadable goods. Analytic reports help you to analyze your design and make modifications to sell more successfully. Pinnacle Cart is integrated with Intuit QuickBooks to help you with accounting tasks. Being as accounting is one of the most time consuming and confusing tasks associated with running a business, this is a great feature for saving time and money.
You can upload unlimited product photos to show off different perspectives and display video of your items to entice customers. Wish lists, one page checkout, and showcase zooming are available. We didn’t find support for multiple languages, however, nor did we find product comparisons. There is a feature that recommends products based off of what other customers purchased, though. There is no delivery network and no uptime policy for cart security and no fraud prevention either, though SSL security, PCI certification and staff access controls are all included.
Marketing Features
Marketing features include product coupons, search engine optimization, customer reviews, a newsletter system, social networking tools, direct social offers, free live chat, retention tools (email), up-selling options, and gift cards. Gift wrapping and an affiliate system are optional with more expensive platforms, but there is no loyalty program for rewarding customers with points for spending. The “Customers who bought product X also bought product Y” is a powerful marketing tool which not every eCommerce platform offers. This is definitely a great inclusion in the Pinnacle Cart package. Also included in the Pinnacle Cart package is a free Facebook and mobile store, which allows you to reach customers on the go or on their favorite social network.
Pricing
Four plans are available for Pinnacle Cart. The least expensive option is $30, and includes 100 MB of disk space and the capability of selling unlimited products. This is pretty unique since most shopping cart software packages are priced according to limits on the number of products you can sell. The next step up is $60 a month and gives you 400 MB of disk space. For $95 a month you get 1.2 GB of space, and for $150 you get 2.5 GB. Your traffic allowance is also increased with each tier, and you receive more email accounts with the more expensive packages. Included in all four packages are daily backups, email and phone support, and secure checkout. The top two packages include FTP and source code.
If you aren’t sure whether Pinnacle Cart is the right solution for you, there is a 14-day free trial you can use to check out the features and make your decision. If you have a much larger company and you requires a lot more space, be sure to look into the Enterprise Level Solutions, which are packages geared toward much bigger businesses.
Customer Support
Customer support is available via phone, email or live chat, though we are not sure the support is in-house or not. There is a user manual, FAQ, and knowledge base if you want to look for answers to your questions on your own, or you may turn to video tutorials for demonstrations of features or the discussion forum to confer with other users. Updates on Pinnacle Cart are provided through the company’s blog. Customer support is not available 24/7.
Conclusion
Pinnacle Cart is a good option if you want to be able to sell unlimited products, though keep in mind that you’ll still be limited by your disk space and traffic allowance. So in terms of pricing, Pinnacle Cart looks less expensive than it is, which did reduce our score a little bit. We were very satisfied with the other features however, especially marketing features for up-selling. TopFiveAdvisor gives Pinnacle Cart a 9/10 for ease of installation and use and a plethora of advanced features.