Many small and medium sized businesses have found that working through an Application Service Provider or ASP (hosted and managed shopping cart software), removes the hassles that are standard in managing an online store or shopping cart. Furthermore, it is now accepted that outsourcing this function will not only benefit a businesses bottom line, but also enables merchants to spend less time sorting out technology problems, leaving them more time to concentrate on the important matters of running and growing their business.

An ASP means all data and applications are hosted, controlled, upgraded constantly and maintained at a facility other than the customers site where data can be accessed securely via the internet. By outsourcing Small to Medium Enterprise's (SME's) e-commerce solution to an ASP, the need to own costly equipment is removed and reliability is increased by having access to 24/7 technical expertise. To the person sitting behind the computer, there is no obvious difference to what they would see on their screen

There are numerous advantages available for SMEs by outsourcing to an ASP: