Welcome to my detailed SamCart review post for 2024.
SamCart is a popular cloud-based shopping cart software that allows us to sell our products, services, and online courses. It has a user-friendly, modern interface and lightning-fast checkout pages to provide buyers with a smooth buying experience.
You can use SamCart’s shopping cart solution without having any prior technical skills or coding knowledge, which I can totally verify.
I have used SamCart and have enough experience with its features and services.
I first learned about SamCart when I was looking for a platform to sell my eBooks. I used SamCart for a few days and was impressed by its offerings. I also tested SamCart when I was looking for a shopping cart solution for my online school, where I planned to sell PMP exam preparation courses.
All I can say is that I was impressed by its features, usefulness, and conversion-focused elements. SamCart is a robust platform for selling products online, and if you are looking for an eCommerce solution, this can be your best bet.
Who Am I?
I am Fahad Usmani. On this blog, I write project management articles and often publish product reviews that I believe can be useful for my audience. I publish the product reviews only after using them or using them for my online business. The reviews are honest, my own, and without any biases.
I have used SamCart, and I am writing this SamCart review post because this software is useful for my audience, who intend to sell products.
Let’s get started.
In-Depth SamCart Review
Let’s first know the SamCart.
What is SamCart, and What Does it Do?
SamCart is a cloud-based checkout platform that helps you sell products, services, and courses online. It provides a complete solution to build a high-converting checkout page, sell products, and collect payments. This platform was founded by Scott and Brian Moran in 2013.
After opening an account with SamCart, you can create your online store within minutes, start selling products, and receive money in your account—all with no prior experience or technical knowledge.
If you want to sell your eBook, offer consultancy services, or sell a course, you can create a one-page site, put your offering on it, and start receiving money. Buyers can pay you using a credit card, debit card, PayPal, ApplePay, GooglePay, etc.
SamCart makes it too easy for you to sell anything you want to sell with zero skills, coding knowledge, and experience.
It provides all the necessary features of a shopping cart solution, e.g.,:
- Checkout-page templates
- Conversion-focused elements
- Payment gateway
- Product delivery
- AB testing
- Affiliate program
- Analytics
Key SamCart Features
The following are the key features of SamCart:
Sales and Checkout Pages
SamCart offers full flexibility to customize checkout pages. It has the fastest checkout page and has helped 77,000 businesses sell 4.0 billion USD worth of products (as of May 2024).
SamCart became popular because of its highly converting checkout pages. It provides dozens of templates that you can use with little customization for your business. I have seen those templates, and most of them can be used with little modification.
These templates are designed by industry experts and top marketers, who have spent countless hours making them highly converting. All checkout templates have key elements (e.g., guarantee box, security seal, and testimonial), all of which provide visitors with the assurance that purchasing from you is safe and secure.
After selecting the checkout-page template, you can customize each element (e.g., background color, font type, style, header, footer, button, testimonial, count-down timer, etc.). You can remove unnecessary form fields and keep only the required ones. You don’t need the full address of the buyer who is purchasing your digital eBook. In this case, email is enough.
For my eBooks, buyers only have to enter their name, email, and payment details. I use only three fields: (1) name, (2) email, and (3) credit card details.
All templates are mobile responsive and look professional on every device. However, many checkout pages are not responsive, and I have to zoom in to fill in the details. This is not the case with SamCart checkout pages.
SamCart has a “sandbox” feature, in which you can test your page to see whether everything is working fine. You can make a test purchase and experience the buyer’s purchasing experience. Many shopping cart solutions do not provide this feature, as you have to make a real purchase to test their functionality.
Subscription Saver
This feature is useful if you sell services or have a subscription model that requires monthly recurring payments.
You might have noticed that if a customer’s card expires or there are payment issues, customers won’t notice and will not update their new card details with you, causing you to lose sales.
Fortunately, SamCart has a solution for you. SamCart can help you protect against expired credit cards and declined payments. Whenever these issues occur, SamCart will send your customers an email to rectify the issue and update their card details so they won’t lose service access and you won’t lose the customer.
Even after repeated reminders, if the customer fails to update the details, SamCart will deactivate the account and let you know. Now, you can contact the customer individually to re-subscribe to your services.
One-Click Upsells and Order Bumps
This is a vital checkout feature, and you will realize its benefit once you have a basic product and a high-end product. I realized its benefit when I published my second course, which was more advanced than the first course, so I enabled this feature. My sales increased by 30%. So, if you are not using this feature, then you are losing a lot of money!
Upselling is a sales technique where you encourage a customer to buy a more expensive item, upgrade, or add on to generate more revenue. The aim is to increase customer buying value by offering a higher-end product or service than the one they are considering.
I was selling my PMP exam preparation course for 49.99 USD, and after a few months, I published an updated version. I have since added video sessions, and a course completion certification, and I have increased the price to 150 USD.
I enabled upsell and my sales went up.
SamCart makes one-click upsells super easy. The customer clicks one button, and the order is updated.
Cross-Selling
This is another essential checkout feature, and you will realize its benefit once you have more than one product to sell. I realized this benefit when I published my second eBook and enabled this feature. My sales have since increased by over 20%.
Cross-selling is a sales technique, in which you suggest a different product to the buyer to increase the sales value. The aim is to increase the total sales value by offering another product that can enhance the value of the item that the buyer is considering.
I was selling my eBook, PMP Question Bank. When I published another book, PMP Formula Guide, I enabled these features, so the buyer who was about to purchase PMP Question Bank could also purchase PMP Formula Guide.
This feature is also called bundling.
One-Page Checkout
I love this feature. It allows you to have a one-page checkout where the buyer can enter all their details and payment information on one page. This is smooth, easy, and faster and increases sales.
I use this feature for selling my eBooks and courses.
If you are selling any products, I highly recommend you use a page checkout template.
A/B Testing
This is the most important conversion booster feature that can skyrocket your sales. You can test the element for high conversions through AB testing. Sometimes, you might be amazed at the result.
On one of my pages, I was using a text link to sell some affiliate products. Later, I changed the link to a button, and my sales went down. When I changed the link back, my sales went to normal. You don’t know what will work well until you test, and AB testing lets you do that.
With SamCart, you can test all the elements of your checkout pages, form fields, guarantee box, seal, etc. SamCart automatically runs the test, and you can select the best options.
SamPay
SamPay is a native payment processor from SamCart. If you use SamPay to collect a payment, then you will not need third-party integration (e.g., Stripe).
Very few software platforms provide native payment processors, and SamCart is one of them. You don’t have to create an account with a third-party service (e.g., Stripe) to collect the payment. SamPay’s coverage is the same as Stripe’s. It also offers e-wallet payment options (e.g., GooglePay and ApplePay).
SamPay offers features like Buy Now, Pay Later, and 1-Click Checkout to ensure customers don’t find excuses not to buy from you.
SamCart also offers a pay-what-you-want payment option, which is useful for donation-based organizations. Here, the customer can decide how much they want to pay.
You can offer discounts, coupons, or freebies at checkout. You also don’t need to worry about taxation. With every sale, SamCart will automatically add the required tax amount to make you comply with tax rules and regulations.
Conversion Optimization
SamCart offers many conversion-boosting features to increase sales (e.g., cart abandonment, exit-intent pop-up, urgency timer, etc.).
You can send automated emails to customers who abandon their shopping cart, reminding them to complete their purchases. In addition, you can offer discounts or other incentives to encourage customers to complete their purchases.
Exit intent pop-ups can show customers a message or offer before they leave the website, which can encourage them to take another action.
Affiliate Management
You can recruit affiliates to help sell your products, services, or courses. You can track their performance and view their earnings from the affiliate dashboard. You can create custom affiliate links with unique tracking codes and set up different commission rates for affiliates or products.
You can pay your affiliates automatically through PayPal. In addition, SamCart’s Affiliate Management provides you with the tools and resources to maximize your affiliate marketing efforts.
Course Publishing
You can sell your online course, digital products, and services. I tried their course-management functionalities. I uploaded course content in different formats, created modules and lessons, and organized the course materials logically.
Setting up quizzes, tests, and assignments for the course was effortless. You can build courses from scratch or use the templates and edit them with the drag-and-drop course builder. SamCart has a partnership with Wistia to host your video content. You don’t have to upload courses on YouTube and embed them on SamCart.
You can see completed lessons, elapsed time, and grades. You can also track students’ progress; the grading system is derived from quizzes and assignments. You can also enable drip content, in which the learners gain course access for a predetermined duration or after achieving certain milestones (e.g., the next lesson will be available only after completing the current lesson).
Click here to try SamCart for free
You can create course bundles and sell multiple courses as a package.
SamCart lacks many advanced course-management features, (e.g., one-on-one coaching, advanced quizzes, Scorm support, built-in learner communication, communities, etc.). However, if your requirements are simple if you have an existing website, and if you want to sell some simple video or text-based courses, then you can use SamCart to do so.
However, for a dedicated online school, I would recommend that you look for a dedicated online course-management platform (e.g., LearnWorlds, Teachable, etc.).
Data Analytics
SamCart provides useful data to track sales.
The reporting is in real-time. You can track sales data, including revenue, orders, and customer information. You can also track conversion rates for each product and see its performance. You will have all customer information, including purchase history and contact information.
You can create custom dashboards that display the data you want to see and export it in various formats, including CSV, Excel, and Google Sheets, for data analysis.
SamCart offers a Smart Pixel Tracking which tells you whether your customers come from Facebook, Google, or any other online space. This data helps you devise your marketing strategy accordingly.
My Rating: 4.5
My Experience with SamCart
My experience with SamCart was positive, and I like the following features a lot:
- Checkout-Page Customization: The checkout page is the most important part of the selling process. SamCart specializes in providing optimized, convertible checkout pages. You can customize every element of the checkout page, create variations of your checkout pages, conduct AB testing, and use the highest-performing page.
- SamPay: SamPay is a native payment processor from SamCart. With SamPay, you do not need to use third-party payment processors (e.g., Stripe). Your SamCart account is enough; you can use it with one click. Since SamPay is based on Stripe, its coverage is the same as Stripe’s. I like this feature a lot, and very few other platforms offer this feature.
- Subscription Saver: I like this feature. Subscription Saver can help you recover your subscription sales. This small feature notifies your customer when their payment method does not work. Most users don’t check to see whether their subscription is renewed once their auto-subscription is on. It is also helpful for them to receive an email prompt when their payment method does not work.
There are also a few things that I did not like about the SamCart.
You can create a well-designed landing page, course page, and checkout page but SamCart does not allow you to build a complete website. This is a big disappointment. I hope SamCart will soon allow the creation of a complete website using their drag-and-drop builder.
Although you can publish a simple online course with SamCart, it does not have many advanced features (e.g., one-on-one coaching, advanced quizzes, comments systems, messaging mechanisms, communities, etc.). I hope SamCart will add these features to their platform soon.
SamCart does not provide native email marketing, but you can connect with third-party email services (e.g., MailChimp, ConvertKit, MailerLite, etc.) to send marketing emails to your audience and customers. This is another missing element from SamCart.
Who Should and Shouldn’t Use SamCart?
I would say that SamCart is the best choice for bloggers, marketers, solopreneurs, and small to medium businesses with a small team to manage their business.
I recommend SamCart for:
- Bloggers
- Marketers
- Trainers
- Educators
- Small-to-midsized businesses
- Niche product sellers
- Online stores
- Consultants
However, if you are a large business or have a large, established store, I would not recommend using SamCart. In this case, I recommend that you go for a complete sales funnel platform (e.g., Kartra) or an enterprise-level shopping cart solution (e.g., Shopify).
SamCart is not an all-in-one solution (e.g., Kartra). It is a shopping cart solution, and it is the best in its field.
SamCart is useful in the following cases:
- If you want a highly convertible, customizable, and easy checkout software
- If you have an existing website and want to sell products or services
- If you want to sell online courses on your website and provide access to a membership area
SamCart Pros & Cons
Pros
- Beginner Friendly: SamCart has no learning curve. You can start using it immediately after opening an account. You don’t require any experience or technical skills to run and manage it. This will also be obvious once you sign up for this platform.
- Simple Templates: I like their checkout templates; they are simple and easy, and you can use them with little modifications or brand alignment. You will find many high-quality, professionally built templates to design your conversion checkout pages, which will definitely increase your sales.
- Better Conversion: SamCart provides many conversion-focused elements (e.g., buy-now-pay-later, pay-as-you-want, cross-sell, one-click upsells, and order bumps) that increase sales. In this way, SamCart can help you increase your conversion and sales.
- Other Features: SamCart is the best shopping cart platform because it provides features that cannot be found on other platforms in a similar price range (e.g., native payment, cart abandonment, subscription saver, etc.). These features will take your business to the next level!
- No Transaction Fees: SamCart does not charge a transaction fee for your sales; you receive 100% of your sales.
Cons
- Expensive: SamCart is a little expensive, and some key features (e.g., AB testing, one-click upsells, cart abandonment, and subscription saver) are not available with lower plans. To take full advantage of the platform, you must subscribe to the highest-paid plan.
- Lack of Email Marketing: This is a big disadvantage of SamCart. You will need to use third-party email marketing software, which will cost a lot and require integration.
- No Website-builder: SamCart does not provide a complete sales funnel; you cannot even build a website with it. Other platforms allow you to build a complete website in a similar price range.
SamCart Reviews on Review Rating Sites
Let us see SamCart review ratings on various review rating sites:
Capterra
On Capterra, it has 4.5 ratings out of 5.0 from 44 users. It is impressive ratings.
GetApp
On GetApp, it has 4.4 ratings out of 5 from 44 users again. This shows that users like this platform.
SamCart Pricing
SamCart is a little expensive, and you will need to pay more to use all the platform’s features.
SamCart offers three pricing plans: Launch is the basic plan, and Scale is the highest-paid plan.
I am shocked to see that affiliate management, a key feature for marketers, is available only in the scale plan, and A/B testing is also available only in the Scale plan.
The Launch plan is missing many key features (e.g., affiliate center, A/B Testing, one-click upsells, order bumps, subscription management, cart abandonment, and subscription saver).
These features are required to take your business to the next level, so be ready to pay more to use all of SamCart’s features.
The SamCart pricing details are as follows:
- Launch: This plan is the most basic. It costs 79 USD on a monthly plan and 59 USD per month on an annual plan.
- Grow: This plan costs 159 USD on a monthly plan and 119 USD per month on an annual plan.
- Scale: This plan has all the features you need to grow your business (e.g., affiliate management, A/B testing, subscription savers, etc.). It costs 319 USD per month, and with an annual plan, you pay 239 USD per month.
Click here to visit the SamCart Pricing Page
My Rating: 4.0
Support
SamCart offers customer support through email, live chat, and a knowledge base. It also provides phone support, but only for users on higher-priced plans. Though I did not interact with their support team, I saw on several forums that their review is responsive and helpful, with most users reporting positive experiences when reaching out for assistance.
SamCart also provides extensive documentation and resources, including a detailed knowledge base and video tutorials, to help users get the most out of the platform.
Click here to open a free trial account with SamCart
My Rating: 4.0
SamCart Alternatives
For any reason, if you do not want to use SamCart, you can consider the following SamCart alternatives:
1. Systeme.io
Systeme.io is the best SamCart alternative that provides many more features than SamCart and is available at a cheaper rate.
It also offers a free plan to create a fully functional website.
You can create a complete website, sell products, services, courses, email marketing, etc.
Click here to visit Systeme.io
2. Simvoly
Simvoly is another affordable alternative to SamCart. It also provides many more features than SamCart, and prices are reasonable.
The basic plan starts at 18 USD on a monthly plan and 12 USD on an annual plan.
Although Simvoly does not offer a free plan, its paid plans are affordable and allow a free trial with no credit card requirements.
3. Teachable
If you intend to use SamCart to sell your online course, Teachable can be your best bet.
Teachable is the most popular course creation and selling platform. You can sell your course on this platform and collect the fee without hassle.
It also manages your tax compliance with the EU.
It offers a free plan, and its paid plans are affordable.
4. LearnWorlds
LearnWorlds is also a learning management system like Teachable. You can use it if you intend to launch your school or want to sell online courses.
It offers unique features that are not available on other platforms (e.g., native SCORM support, advanced quizzes and exams, and 2Checkout support).
Though it does not offer a free plan, you can try it for free.
Click here to visit the LearnWorlds
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: What is SamCart, and How Does it Work?
SamCart is a cloud-based solution that provides checkout solutions and allows you to sell products, services, and courses.
Q2: Is SamCart the Same as Shopify?
Both platforms provide similar services. However, Shopify is more useful for large corporations and organizations that focus on physical inventories. So, if you have a small online store that sells digital products and courses, SamCart is a better option.
Q3: Is SamCart Secure?
Yes, SamCart is secure. Its checkout process has built-in security and PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance. It also provides an SSL certificate for your website. With an SSL sign, customers will feel safe with you.
Q4: Is SamCart a Website-Builder?
No, SamCart is not a website-builder. Although it allows you to create landing, course, and checkout pages and host them on SamCart servers, you cannot build a complete website on SamCart.
Overall Rating: 4.0
Conclusion
SamCart is a powerful shopping cart solution with features for selling products, services, and courses. Its modern, user-friendly interface has no learning curve.
If you are looking for a solution to sell products, services, courses, or subscription sites, SamCart is your best bet.
I hope this SamCart review was useful to you.
Some links in this post are affiliate links, and I will earn a commission if you purchase after clicking. Please understand that I recommend these resources because they are useful, not just because of my commissions. Please do not purchase unless you need the materials to achieve your goals. Read the disclaimer.
I am Mohammad Fahad Usmani, B.E. PMP, PMI-RMP. I have been blogging on project management topics since 2011. To date, thousands of professionals have passed the PMP exam using my resources.
