SamCart Review 2023: Features, Pros, Cons, Price, Alternatives, How To Use It?

By now, you’ve probably realized that eCommerce is the bright future of today’s economy. And you can’t run or start a prosperous eCommerce business without the proper tools, platforms, or software, for that matter.

Recently, there’s been hype about one such software, SamCart. Yes, you must’ve heard about it because we sure did. In a nutshell, SamCart is regarded as one of the best eCommerce platforms in today’s market. And, as such many entrepreneurs, professionals, and businesses have a sweet spot for it.

Therefore, we decided it’s time to do our research and give you guys a thorough SamCart review.

Read on as this SamCart review gives you a holistic understanding of what you can expect from this software.

SamCart Overview

What is SamCart?

SamCart is the innovative product of Brian Moran and Scott Moran. They created this famous shopping cart and checkout software for eCommerce businesses in 2014 with one purpose in mind: to allow new business owners to create high converting and good-looking funnels and checkout pages easily.

It offers its users an extensive list of features for all of their checkout and funnel needs. Be it upsells, one-page funnels, different payment models, coupons, or down sells. We could certainly say that SamCart deserves a spot among the best eCommerce platforms in the market.

Who Is It Best for?

Any business or person (consultants, coaches, authors, course creators, etc.) offering digital or physical products, services, memberships, or subscriptions can benefit from software like SamCart.

The marketing tools contained in the software are designed to help businesses achieve success while selling online. Consequently, the sole purpose of SamCart is to guide and assist your website’s visitors move from the internal part to the checkout pages.

How Big Is the Network?

How do you feel about a platform that supports more than 21.000 businesses, launched around 343.000 pages, and has successfully sold 9.7 million physical/ digital goods?

And don’t forget that SamCart is a partner with some of the greatest names in the industry, like Gravy Solutions, Arrow, Fiverr., and more. On the plus side, this platform has a vast network of valuable integrations.

The following are some of the extensive lists of SamCart integrations:

• WordPress
• Intercom
• Zapier
• PayPal and Stripe
• WishList
• Kajabi
• MailChimp, and lots more.

Who Can Use Their Services?

We’ve already said this is a convenient platform for any business or person who has to offer digital or physical goods. And the fact that it’s quick and easy to use makes it a brilliant option for entrepreneurs who’ve just entered the eCommerce landscape. It has one of the best sales funnel builders you’ll find in the market, and setting it up is a breeze, too.

The goods offered can range anywhere from online courses, memberships, various events, books, multiple online services of a different character, etc. Therefore, SamCart doesn’t impose any limit regarding the type of business that can get on board and make the most of their tools and services.

What are the Technical Specifications?

Here are some SamCart’s technical specifications:

• User-friendly platform
• Flexible payment model
• One-click upsells
• Bump offers
• Discounts control and granular coupons
• Brilliant support
• Reporting and analytics
• Extensive options for integrations

Is it Available Worldwide/ US-Based?

Despite the fact that SamCart is a US-based eCommerce platform, its services are available worldwide.

Highlights

Is It a Good Landing Page Builder?

It’s relatively great. Are there platforms that can do a better job at it? Most probably, there are. However, SamCart’s landing page builder option is worth giving it a try.

Any Testing Capabilities

SamCart offers A/B testing in its array of services. The A/B testing lets you put your upsells and checkout pages up on a test and see which ones perform accurately. You can look at it as an efficient way of finding out which feature is making you the most money.

Additionally, SamCart testing capabilities go as far as integrating a Test Mode option. With this option, you can pretty much put anything on a test before the final release.

For instance, you can test purchases, the checkout process, marketplace emails, upsell funnels, pages of products, etc.

Any Integrations

There are plenty of SamCart integrations. For example, you can easily integrate the platform with several email clients and CRM tools. Some of them are:

• Active Campaign
• ConstantContact
• ConvertKit
• Digital Access
• GetResponse
• HubSpot
• InfusionSoft
• MailChimp
• Member Mouse
• OntraPort
• OptimizePress
• PayPal
• Stripe
• WordPress
• Kajabi
• Authorize.Net
• Zapier
  

Ease of Use

SamCart is pretty easy to use. There are several features that SamCart’s flawless and rapid setup prevails. For example, the visual editor makes creating a shopping cart the most ordinary task. And, of course, the fact that SamCart can be used by people with no coding skills at all is a big plus.

These are just some of the characteristics that make this software indispensable in selling services and products. And, since using it is that easy, you can spend more time selling and promoting instead of struggling with its tools and features.

How Secure is it?

SamCart has SSL encryption, which is the gold standard for online security. Additionally, like their users, you enjoy specific protection that abides by state laws.

For instance, California residents have the freedom to ask SamCart for a complete list of all third-party associates (if any) at least once a year.

Does It Have a Mobile App?

Unfortunately, this shopping cart service doesn’t have a mobile application yet. However, you’d be relieved to hear that all their pages are mobile-optimized and highly responsive on any type of mobile device.

Customer Support

SamCart offers support to its customers in several ways. You can contact them via live chat, email, and also through a Facebook group.

Their website also has detailed documentation and a user-friendly interface designed to remove roadblocks and help entrepreneurs sell quickly. 

Here’s a more detailed look at the customer support they offer:

• Live Chat: If you’re up against an issue that requires assistance, you can get instant support from the live chat option feature that’ll greet you on SamCart’s front page.
• Intuitive Interface: From the time you log in to the platform, you’re going to be guided throughout the steps you need to follow to get your checkout page ready as soon as possible.
• Help Center: They’ve also built an extensive knowledge base that has

• video tutorials,
• written posts,
• and FAQs that can help solve any confusion you may have.

Key Features

What Features Does SamCart Offer?

Now it’s time we focus on the essential features this valuable eCommerce software has to offer. Let’s have a look at them!

One-Click Upsells

This is one feature that makes SamCart stand out from all the other options in the market. One-click upsells allow you to maximize the profit from every sale you make, and we’re talking about twice or three times more significant profit.

That’s probably one of the best parts about SamCart – it makes upselling seamless and easy + you can customize it to your particular preferences. As per their statement on the website, once you’ve set up SamCart, you will see an increase in sales of more or less by seventy percent.

Pay What You Want (PWYW)

Letting your customers choose how and what they pay is never a bad idea; It’s an excellent method to capture customers’ attention towards your business. You could say that this feature gives your customer quite the shopping freedom by letting them put a price on your product.

Therefore, if you want to

• accept donations,
• sell creative work,
• or want to receive whatever your customers think your product is worth, you can select SamCart’s Pay What You Want feature.

As said, this gives your customers control over what they can pay for your products, which also helps you build trust with your target audience and keep them coming back.

Subscription Saver

SamCart goes as far as protecting its customers from declined payments or expired credit cards.

How is that manageable? This is quickly done by SamCart providing a link in an email to update the payment details straight from your inbox. In other words, this is good news for you as a marketer because it will save you time in the long run, and you’ll avoid taking legal actions against a particular non-paying client.

However, if a customer doesn’t update their payment details even after receiving the email, SamCart automatically terminates their subscription and puts them on the “delinquent” list.

Cart Abandonment

This feature is an opportunity for you to save some lost sales and get back on track. Furthermore, you’re also going to get the details about the people who have left their online shopping cart midway.

With this info in hand, you can reach out to these customers via various means of contact (email, chat, text message, voicemail, etc.) and follow up about their potential purchases, + offer them a second offer that they’d miss out on if they decide to pass this one by.

Advanced Subscriptions

The Growth, Scale, or Enterprise Plan, can get you everything the Launch plan has to offer, plus a few additional features (advanced subscription cancellations, charge reminders, customer management, dollar trials, and so on).

Coupons and Discounts

Coupons and discounts are one way of paving the path to getting a loyal customer. With SamCart, you can offer your visitors/ buyers irresistible discounts, alongside coupons that you can use just once or recurring ones. For example, we are sure that your SamCart courses will be more appealing when you put a nice discount on them.

Premade Templates

Their template library has several different templates that have been tested and designed for their large customer base.

What do these pre-made templates contain? SamCart’s pre-made templates come in full width, the Blueprint template is an exception to this, and they have entirely generated content—one that includes various texts, pictures, etc.

Though this may sound like all their pre-made templates are very similar, that isn’t the case. Because all their templates are very original and eye-catching, we suggest you take a long stroll around them before choosing one.

Reporting

SamCart is designed in a way that allows the user to sell from the get-go. It has page themes that can be customized and a detailed reporting and analytics interface. For instance, getting subscriptions, charges, or traffic reports won’t be a problem with SamCart’s reporting feature.

• The Subscription Report can provide you with a pretty good overview of all your current subscriptions, payment plans, and overall performance.
• The Charges Report, as the name suggests, it’s your best bet on finding out exactly what’s happening with your most recent transactions in the Marketplace (orders that went through, charges that didn’t, upcoming payments, etc.).
• The Traffic Report serves you as your main tracking source of where exactly you are getting/ making profits (sites, blogs, ads, media posts, and more).

Triggers

With help from the integration engine, you can create customized rules to automate every step the customer takes in your online store.

These are rules based on the trigger events that happen while a customer is using SamCart.

Some of them are:

• • Product Purchased (refers to purchasing the main product, order bump, or an upsell.).
  • Product Refunded (refers to every refund that happens within SamCart.).
  • Product Partially Refunded (it’s only triggered when a partial refund takes place.).
  • Prospect Created, or, Cart Abandonment (this can only happen two hours following the creation of a prospect.).
  • Subscription Canceled (it starts activating as soon as a subscription status goes to being ‘canceled’ or ‘delinquent’).
  • Subscription Delinquent (it can only happen after four non-passing payments one after another).
  • Subscription Recovered (this one happens for customers inside the Dunning Cycle; the ones making a successful charge).

• Subscription Started

• • Subscription Restarted (it refers to a subscription that’s been restarted)
  • Subscription Charged (this is for a recurring charge that goes through).
  • Subscription Charge Failed (this trigger happens when a customer is faced with a first-time failure of a recurring charge).

• Order Completed

• Upsell Purchased
  

A/B Split Testing

A/B split testing itself is vital, and you can use it to change your cart abandonment rate for the better.

You can split test pretty much everything, from SamCart landing pages, headlines, email marketing lines, checkout pages, sales pages, etc. You can run several different tests because of this feature, such as trying out another testimonial, guarantee, or template. Whatsmore, with SamCart, you can also run live split testing – this fact itself is pretty incredible.

Marketing Analytics

SamCart’s extensive marketing analytics provide you with a useful insight that can help you focus on the right objectives.

Affiliate System

SamCart has an affiliate marketing program that can rival other shopping cart builders. That said, the platform lets you create your promo partners, i.e., affiliates that can offer/ sell your goods. This is an immensely profitable strategy that can sky-rocket your business’s sales funnel overnight.

Custom Domains

SamCart allows users to connect to a custom domain and eliminate the “.samcart.com” suffix. Additionally, you can use your custom domain for all your pages or just for a single page. On the plus side, you can also design various customized domains within the marketplace and use the same for different checkout pages.

How to Use SamCart?

How Does SamCart Work?

It’s high time to see how this beneficial eCommerce platform works and how you can start benefiting from it.

Create an Account

To create an account with SamCart, you need to visit their official site and go to the ‘Login’ button. Clicking on it will take you to a new window, and assuming that you’re new to the site, you need to click on ‘Sign positively reflect on your bank account to create a SamCart account.

To sign up for an account you need first to choose one of the plans they offer. As soon as you decide which one suits you best, it’ll take you to another window to fill out some personal info (email address, password, name/ last name).

Edit Settings

One of the greatest things about this platform is that you can customize it to fit your preferences. Therefore, you can customize all of your marketplace settings straight from the ‘General Marketplace Settings’ on your dashboard.

Keep in mind that once you reach out and do this, the settings will change your marketplace completely; Be it your products, reports, online shopping cart, SamCart courses, or emails.

Connect with Payment Processor

You can connect the market with your PayPal or Stripe by following the steps written below:

• Click the settings icon in the top-right corner of your dashboard.
• Next, click on ‘Processors’ on the left sidebar. Now, you can add a new button.
• The popup window lets you select the payment processor you want to integrate with. In our opinion, you should integrate Stripe first. Once your Stripe integration is done, you can continue and add PayPal too.

Creating A Product Page

You can create a product page by clicking on ‘+New Product’ in the upper-right-hand corner. The ‘New Product’ popup lets you choose from the following:

• Product name: The name of your product that your customers will see. This will appear on the Order Summary page, the Product Page, and your Marketplace emails.
• Product description: A description of what you’re selling. The description should be that one of a Tweet length.
• Pricing type: Decide how your customers will pay for your product (PWYW, limited subscription, one-time payment, or a recurring subscription).
• Product price: The price you’re going to charge for your product.

When finished, click on ‘Create Product.’

What are the Benefits of SamCart?

Revenue Optimization

SamCart comes equipped with some pretty incredible and advanced shopping features that you can use in your best interest.

For instance, to increase and optimize your revenue, you can offer order bumps or upsell offers + go all out and create a good checkout page that fits your business just perfectly.

For example, you’re selling a product on your website with a standard checkout form, but you may not be able to get an upsell. Now imagine that you’re using SamCart, and this time that same product has an upsell; now, you can charge at least 30 percent extra.

Meaning, you will be getting more money from every sale. Furthermore, this will lead to an increase in order size, and ultimately it will reflect on your bank account in a positive manner.

Multiple Payments

Why are multiple payments valuable to your eCommerce site? In a nutshell, your customer feels appreciated with the broader choice of payments, and you have the opportunity to bump up your conversion rates.

Following SamCart’s data archives, with just the addition of one more payment method to your site, your conversion can jump up about 18%. And if that’s not enough, further data analysis has proven that multiple payment methods can bring you nearly 22% more customers on average.

Core Commerce

Several entrepreneurs worldwide have benefited from the SamCart landing pages and SamCart courses. These features help you increase the sales from the traffic you’re already getting on your page. You can look upon SamCart’s core commerce features as an excellent way to broaden your customer base.

These are some of the essential features that can help you manage the entire product data:

• Advanced Subscriptions (monthly, weekly subscriptions, trials, payment plans, etc.).
• Automate Your Marketing Tools
• Compliance with Tax and Vat
• Offer Partial Refunds (this is super efficient in keeping your customers)
• Connect Payment Processors (the latest processors on the market)
• Connect With Major CRM Platforms
• Create Custom Fields (ask for extra info about your customer’s buying preferences, like shirt size, etc.).
• Offer Payment Options (multiple payment options work best)

How Much Does Samcart Cost?

What are the Plans Available?

There are four SamCart pricing plans. Each of them offers more than the other, and yes, they come with different pricing tags. Let’s see which features they offer and at what price.

The Launch Plan

SamCart’s entry plan costs no more than $49 a month.

These are some of the features you can get in this plan:

• The complete array of core features
• One Admin User
• 0 percent processing fee
• Integration Engine
• The Complete Template Library
• Unlimited products/ pages/ memberships/ courses

The Grow Plan

SamCart’s Grow plan costs $99 a month, or users can get it for $948 a year (with a twenty percent discount). As expected, this plan has all the features the Launch plan does, plus a few more. Some of those are the following:

• Three Admin Users
• One on One launch support with a SamCart expert (only available if you opt to pay for a yearly subscription)
• Built-In SEO Engine
• Customized Checkout Fields
• White-label branded
• Priority Email Support

The Scale Plan

The Scale plan costs $199 a month. However, if you pay for a whole year, you can use the 20% discount and enroll in it for $1.908.

This plan contains all the features of the Launch + Growth plan, plus a few more:

• Ten Admin Users
• Customizable API and CRM integrations
• A dedicated SamCart expert
• Built-In A/B Testing
• Executive insight reports (automated and scheduled)
• A SamCart Affiliate Program (be able to hire affiliates and pay them to refer people to their store)

The Enterprise Plan

This particular plan doesn’t have a price that you can find out upfront, But you can contact SamCart’s sales department and learn more on the subject.

The Enterprise plan offers everything mentioned above and a couple of other features that none of the different plans can get you.

Those are the following:

• multiple sub-accounts
• custom reporting and exports
• a full-time account manager
• tech setup support
• subscription migration support
• a product roadmap prioritization

Therefore, these specific features are only available with this plan.

Any Free Trial/Free Version?

Yes, try SamCart free of charge for 14-days.

Is there Any Transaction Fee?

No transaction fees whatsoever.

Are There Any Coupons/Deals Available?

Various sites offer plenty of Sam coupons, deals, and different discounts.

Make sure to check out the following sites and get the advantage of some super sweet SamCart promo deals:

• Bloggersideas
• Knoji
• CouponBirds
• CouponsPlusDeals
• Dealspotr.com

Does SamCart Provide any Affiliate Programs?

Yes, SamCart has a fantastic affiliate program. That said, SamCart’s Scale and Enterprise plan subscribers are granted access to the Affiliate Center. This kind of opportunity lets them hire different affiliates; furthermore, the same affiliates can refer other people to the store that hired them.

Nevertheless, SamCart’s conditions of becoming their affiliate are pretty straightforward. Therefore, if you love what SamCart offers and have a broader audience that you want to present with some valuable products, we suggest you apply to become SamCart’s affiliate.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• One-click upsell
• Extensive integrations
• A flexible payment model
• Chance to introduce multiple payment methods
• Easy to Use
• It offers an in-built affiliate marketing program
• Excellent analytics and reporting tools
• User-friendly platform

Cons

• A limited number of payment integrations
• It lacks design options
• The Affiliate Center is only available with the highest-paid plans
• It’s a bit pricey when compared with some of their competitors
• It doesn’t support cryptocurrency payments

Customer Reviews and Ratings

No review is complete unless there is the opinion of the people who matter the most, i.e., the users themselves. Though, at the end of it, you must remember that the experiences you’ll read are unique and individual. Meaning they don’t necessarily need to be yours as well.

With this in mind, let’s jump straight to positive and negative reviews by verified SamCart users.

SamCart Customer Reviews

Positive Reviews

The reviews are taken from verified SamCart users left on G2 and Capterra.

Negative Reviews

One would think that such an incredible eCommerce platform won’t have any negativities. I guess we were wrong.

Curious to find out which ones those would be? Let’s go through some SamCart complaints, and understand how justified or unjustified they might be.

The reviews are taken from verified SamCart users left on SiteJabber and Capterra.

SamCart Ratings

The info below is based on different rating and review websites; based solely on the customer’s personal experiences.

SamCart Alternatives

Don’t be surprised. Every platform has its alternatives, i.e., competitors, and SamCart isn’t an exception. Therefore, we chose four robust eCommerce platforms (ThriveCart, Kajabi, Teachable, and ClickFunnels) to compare them against SamCart’s services, prices, etc.

SamCart vs. ThriveCart

ThriveCart is a shopping cart software designed for all kinds of eCommerce websites. It offers many of the features that SamCart offers, such as an affiliate center, drag and drops page builder, and one-click upsells.

But if you’re considering SamCart alternatives, ThriveCart isn’t the one where your search must end. This is simply because SamCart offers a more decadent array of features and options, and takes the hassle out of processes. This is because many of the features it provides are automated and customizable to fit any online business you might be running.

The only way ThriveCart does outshine SamCart is regarding the pricing. You can obtain lifetime access to ThriveCart for a one-time price of $495. At the same time, only SamCart’s entry plan will cost you $468 a year, which points out quite the gap in pricing between these two brands.

SamCart vs. Kajabi

Kajabi is undoubtedly business-centered and, as such, has more tools to offer. Additionally, it provides improved analytics, also Wistia’s excellent video features, which are included in their pricing plans, and on top of all, it also has a customizable Blueprints course.

However, this may not be the most groundbreaking, since you can always enhance SamCart’s usability with third-party add-ons and integrations. But, the pricing of these platforms is a different story. SamCart’s lowest-paid plan is $49 per month, while Kajabi’s cheapest pricing plan is $149 per month. $100 is not a sum to be underestimated; remember that Kajabi has everything under a single roof, which eventually will save you more than just a hundred dollars.

SamCart vs. Teachable

While SamCart can win in this faceoff, Teachable can help increase the customer’s lifetime value more effectively. There’s also extensive coaching, and it is an excellent platform for beginners.

Teachable is a platform that specializes in creating outstanding online selling courses. And same as SamCart, it offers a complete setup; hence, it’s pretty alright if you’ve never coded or used a similar platform before.

Interestingly enough, you can make these two work together, i.e., you can integrate SamCart with Teachable and make use of the best out of the two platforms. We’ve stumbled upon reviews where users agree that they make a perfect blend.

Additionally, Teachable offers quite the features’ program, as an extensive list of integrations that you can use, an easy-going page editor, spin-up support (Olark, Intercom, and more). Also, they offer a lot of unlimited options (video bandwidth, coaching, students, etc.). On the other hand, SamCart also provides robust and rich features that take away the guessing out of the workflow.

Since they come in very strong with valuable features that can make selling online courses a breeze, let’s compare their pricing.

Both platforms have four distinctive plans to offer. One of the significant differences is that SamCart doesn’t have a plan that you can enroll for free, while Teachable does. However, their entry plans take off with a somewhat modest price of $39 a month.

Too bad we don’t have any info on SamCart’s Enterprise plan (you’ll have to reach out to their team and find out); But, the Teachable high-end paid plan goes for no more than $299 a month.

SamCart vs. ClickFunnels

Compared to SamCart, ClickFunnels is a more holistic solution. It has an improved landing page builder, and it also has more features in its cart builder. This makes it a lot more than just a shopping cart. It is a sales funnel that can set you free of the necessity for other marketing tools.

Anyway, let us quickly go through some differences between these two. ClickFunnels is, from the bottom to the top, a complete sales funnel; Whereas SamCart is more of a checkout page/ landing page builder. Plus, SamCart offers a more improved cart abandonment feature, alongside more advanced management.

And, this might come as a surprise, but we compared plenty of users’ reviews and drew the conclusion that ClickFunnels is easier to use and learn through for someone who’s just diving into this business market. Not to mention that the all-in-one option makes things a lot easier for anyone.

Comparing their pricing tiers, it’s easy to see who’s more budget-friendly of the two. SamCart has this price battle in the pocket, as being the more affordable eCommerce platform. An entry plan of just $39 is unbeatable when compared to ClickFunnel’s $97 a month.

Conclusion

To conclude on all of the above said, if you have something to sell, be it a product, membership, digital download, eBook, or service, you’re going to appreciate the ease a shopping cart builder can bring you. SamCart does precisely that.

Be it an upsell or a landing page, SamCart is a holistic solution to all of your eCommerce-related problems. It comes at a very reasonable price and a free two weeks trial; So, go ahead and build your SamCart course and see whether it’s worth becoming their full-time subscriber.

We hope this SamCart review simplifies your decision-making process, don’t waste a day more, and start making profits with its valuable tools and features.