Shopping Cart

A shopping cart is a software used in eCommerce to assist visitors to make purchases online. Upon checkout, the software calculates the total of the order, including shipping and handling, taxes and other parameters the owner of the site has previously set. The shopping cart typically provides a means of collecting the shopper's payment information. Some shopping carts strictly allow for an item to be added to the basket to start a checkout process (such as the PayPal shopping cart), other shopping carts actually provides additional features that the merchant can fully manage the online store. A shopping cart is a piece of software that keeps the record of the items a buyer has ‘picked up’ from the online store. Acting as an online store’s catalog, the eCommerce shopping cart enables consumers to select products, review what they selected, make modifications or add extra items if needed, and purchase the products. A shopping cart is a piece of software that acts as an online store's catalog and ordering process. Typically, a shopping cart is the interface between a company's Web site and its deeper infrastructure, allowing consumers to select merchandise; review what they have selected; make necessary modifications or additions; and purchase the merchandise. Shopping carts can be sold as independent pieces of software so companies can integrate them into their own unique online solution, or they can be offered as a feature from a service that will create and host a company's e-commerce website.