Founded in 2014 by Brian Moran and Scott Moran, SamCart is an e-commerce platform designed to help entrepreneurs sell digital products online. Based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the company was bootstrapped by the Moran brothers and has grown to over $100 million in revenue without any outside funding.
Brian Moran originally started with an educational baseball training site, where he pioneered the “one page funnel” strategy to boost conversions. He took these learnings and co-founded SamCart to help other entrepreneurs improve their checkout pages and maximize revenue from digital products.
SamCart aims to make it simple for anyone to create optimized checkout pages, upsells, order bumps, and full sales funnels. The platform includes templates, drag-and-drop page builders, subscription management tools, affiliate marketing capabilities, and analytics. This lets creators quickly set up conversion-optimized pages to sell online courses, memberships, software, ebooks, and more.
Over 250,000 businesses now use SamCart to power their checkout and maximize revenue. The company has expanded beyond checkout pages to become a full e-commerce platform. However, the core focus remains on helping digital entrepreneurs turn their expertise into successful online businesses.
Led by Brian Moran as CEO, SamCart has grown rapidly while staying true to its bootstrapped roots. The company exemplifies how e-commerce tools can empower individuals to monetize their skills and reach customers globally. With its specialized features aimed at digital products, SamCart helps unleash the potential of the fast-growing online creator economy.
Samcart Features
Drag and Drop Page Builder
One of SamCart’s most powerful features is its drag-and-drop page builder. It makes it easy for anyone to create customized, high-converting checkout pages and sales funnels without coding.
The page builder includes dozens of professionally designed templates for checkout pages, upsell flows, webinar registration, and more. Users can customize colors, fonts, images, and layouts to match their brand. Dynamic elements like text, buttons, and images can be dragged around to optimize page layouts.
Advanced users can edit HTML and CSS in the page builder for even deeper customization. But most users won’t need to touch code to create beautiful, effective checkout experiences.
1-Click Upsells
SamCart makes it simple to create 1-click upsells and order bumps that maximize average order value. For example, customers can be presented with a 1-click upsell offer on a related product or upgrade after purchasing a product.
Upsells can be chained together to guide customers through a full sales funnel. The platform includes advanced options like conditional logic, so upsells can be tailored for each customer based on their purchase history and behaviors.
Subscription Management
For businesses selling subscriptions, memberships, and recurring billing, SamCart handles the entire lifecycle. It can manage complex subscription schedules, trial periods, and dunning.
SamCart integrates with payment processors to handle recurring billing securely. It will automatically send out invoices and receipts to customers as their subscriptions renew.
The system can even automatically reattempt failed payments to reduce involuntary churn. Custom dunning workflows can be created based on the number of failed payments.
Affiliate Marketing
SamCart has built-in affiliate marketing capabilities to help businesses grow through partnerships. Affiliates can be provided with a customized affiliate portal and unique referral links.
Payouts and commissions are automatically calculated based on different business rules and conditions. Affiliate activity can be tracked end-to-end within SamCart’s interface.
Analytics and Reporting
Robust analytics help users track and optimize the performance of checkout pages and funnels. Key conversion metrics like add-to-cart rates, average order value, and sales by traffic source are provided.
A/B testing capabilities are included to experiment with variations of copy, design, pricing, and more. All data can be segmented by product, affiliate, and other attributes.
SamCart generates detailed reports on sales, affiliates, subscriptions, and more that can be exported or accessed via API. This is some basic, sample markdown.
SamCart Pricing Plans
SamCart offers four main pricing plans for different business needs and sizes. Each plan comes with its own set of features and capabilities.
Launch Plan
The Launch plan is designed for beginners and small businesses, starting at $79 per month or $59 per month if billed annually. This plan includes:
- Unlimited products and pages
- Access to all core features
- 1 admin user
- Standard integrations
- Standard email support
Grow Plan
The Grow plan is suitable for growing businesses and costs $159 per month or $119 per month if billed annually. It includes all the features of the Launch plan, plus:
- 3 admin users
- 0% extra transaction fees
- Custom checkout fields
- Removal of SamCart branding
- Post-purchase upsells
- Multiple payment options
- Order bump collections
- 1-day email support
- Additional CRM integrations
Scale Plan
The Scale plan is designed for larger businesses and costs $319 per month or $239 per month if billed annually. It includes all the features of the Grow plan, as well as:
- 10 admin users
- Cart abandonment functionality
- Affiliate management software
- Advanced A/B testing
VIP Plan
The VIP plan is tailored for large enterprises with high requirements. The pricing for this plan is not publicly disclosed, and you need to contact SamCart’s sales team for a custom quote.
The VIP plan includes all the features of the Scale plan, plus additional services like dedicated support and done-for-you services.SamCart does not charge any transaction fees on product sales, and all revenue comes from the subscription plans. Users can save up to 30% on the cost of SamCart by opting for annual billing.
Samcart Pros
Conversion Optimized Checkout Page Templates
SamCart offers a library of over 50 conversion-optimized checkout page templates that have been rigorously tested and proven to convert better than their competitors. These templates incorporate best practices like minimalist design, clear call-to-actions, trust symbols, and smart page layouts to guide visitors through the buying process. By using these templates, businesses can create high-converting checkout experiences without needing any coding or design skills.
Advanced Features to Maximize Revenue
SamCart includes advanced features like one-click upsells, order bumps, and sales funnels to help businesses maximize their revenue from each sale. These features allow users to create tailored offers and upsell flows that significantly increase average order value and conversion rates. SamCart also supports multiple pricing models, coupons, and discounts, giving businesses more flexibility in pricing strategies.
Subscription Management and Dunning
SamCart provides robust subscription management tools and dunning features for businesses selling subscriptions or recurring billing products. The platform can handle complex subscription schedules trial periods, and automatically reattempt failed payments to reduce involuntary churn. SamCart’s Subscription Saver feature works around the clock to protect recurring sales and recover revenue from customers with payment issues.
Good Analytics and Sales Tracking
SamCart offers comprehensive analytics and reporting tools that help businesses track their sales performance and optimize checkout experiences. Users can access real-time reporting, conversion tracking, and customer tracking, and integrate with third-party analytics tools like Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel. This enables businesses to make data-driven decisions and improve their sales strategies.
Excellent Customer Support
SamCart is known for providing exceptional customer support through live chat, email, and their knowledge base. The support team is knowledgeable, responsive, and dedicated to helping users get the most value out of the platform. This ensures businesses can resolve issues quickly and optimize their checkout experiences for maximum revenue.
Samcart Cons
Cost
Samcart can get expensive at higher tiers for small businesses. The pricing starts at $79/month for the Launch plan but goes up to $399/month for the Enterprise plan. The higher-tier plans may not be cost-effective for small businesses just starting.
Checkout Page Design
The checkout pages can feel generic due to the use of templates. While the templates are customizable, the number of templates is limited, so pages can look very similar across different businesses.
Integrations
Samcart requires third-party integrations for payments, email marketing, CRM, etc. It does not have native solutions for these. Relying on many third-party tools can make management more complex.
Physical/Shippable Products
Samcart has limited native support for physical/shippable products compared to digital products. The features cater more to info products, online courses, subscriptions, etc.
Other Limitations
- No inbound marketing features for lead generation
- Limited payment processor options – only Stripe and PayPal
- No support for crypto payments or Apple Pay
- Can’t handle large product catalogs well
The main limitations are high pricing at higher tiers, generic checkout page designs, lack of native integrations, and inadequate physical product support. Cheaper cart solutions may better serve smaller businesses with more customization.
Samcart Alternatives
When selling products and services online, having the right tools and platforms can make all the difference. SamCart is a popular choice for many businesses but is not the only option.
We will explore three SamCart alternatives: Kartra, ThriveCart, and Clickfunnels.
Each platform offers unique features and benefits, so it’s essential to understand what they bring to the table and how they compare to SamCart.
Kartra vs SamCart
Kartra is an all-in-one marketing platform that offers a wide range of tools for building sales funnels, hosting membership sites, email marketing, and e-commerce. Unlike SamCart, which focuses primarily on checkout pages and shopping cart functionality,
Kartra provides a more comprehensive solution for managing and growing an online business. While Kartra’s pricing starts at $99/month, it includes a more extensive feature set than SamCart, making it a better option for businesses looking for an all-in-one solution. However, if your primary focus is on optimizing checkout pages and you don’t need the additional marketing tools, SamCart may still be a better fit. You can read our Samcart vs Kartra comparison here.
Thrivecart vs Kartra
Thrivecart is a shopping cart platform designed to help businesses maximize conversion rates and order values. It offers many features like SamCart, such as checkout page optimization and sales funnel creation.
However, Thrivecart stands out with its one-time pricing of $690 for lifetime access, making it a more cost-effective option for businesses looking to minimize ongoing expenses. While Kartra offers a more comprehensive set of marketing tools, Thrivecart’s focus on checkout optimization and affordability makes it an attractive alternative for businesses primarily concerned with maximizing sales and revenue.
Clickfunnels vs SamCart
Clickfunnels is a popular sales funnel builder that also includes shopping cart capabilities. It excels at creating high-converting sales funnels and membership sites, offering more customization and integration options than SamCart.
However, Clickfunnels’ pricing starts at $97/month, making it a more expensive option for businesses on a tight budget. If you’re looking for a platform that focuses on advanced funnel building and conversion optimization, Clickfunnels may be a better choice than SamCart. However, if your primary concern is creating optimized checkout pages without the need for additional marketing tools, SamCart may still be the better fit.
Each SamCart alternative offers unique features and benefits catering to different business needs. Evaluating your specific requirements and budget before choosing the platform that best suits your online business is essential.
Is Samcart Worth It?
SamCart is an excellent platform for selling digital products like online courses, software, and other digital goods. It is best suited for info products, subscriptions, and membership sites. The platform offers conversion-optimized checkout page templates, advanced features to maximize revenue like upsells, subscription management and dunning to reduce churn, good analytics and sales performance tracking, and excellent customer support.
However, some limitations exist, such as the higher cost for advanced plans, generic checkout page designs due to templates, the need for third-party integrations for payments and email marketing, and limited native support for physical products.
In conclusion, SamCart is a powerful tool for businesses selling digital products and services. It provides comprehensive features to optimize the checkout experience and maximize revenue. However, it may not be the best fit for businesses selling physical products or those looking for a more customized design. To determine if SamCart is the right fit for your business, you should take advantage of their free trial and evaluate the platform based on your needs.