The shopping cart is the virtual container on an e-commerce site that holds items selected by a customer for potential purchase. Key aspects of shopping carts:
- Items are added one by one as a customer browses and selects products on a merchant’s website.
- The cart displays a running total of the items, their prices, any promotions or discounts applied, tax details and overall cost.
- Customers can edit the quantities, remove items or save the cart and return later to complete checkout.
- At checkout, the customer provides contact, billing and payment details to place an order for the items in their cart.
- Advanced carts allow customers to create multiple carts for different purchases or share carts with other users.
- Merchants use cart data to gauge demand, analyze abandoned purchases and streamline the buying process.
A well-designed shopping cart improves the customer experience on e-commerce sites by conveniently holding items for purchase throughout the browsing and buying process.