In an online store, shopping cart pages act as a gateway to a website's order form. Like their offline counterparts, online shopping carts allow customers collect and organize products they wish to buy.
Shopping cart pages must be generated dynamically for each order to reflect accurate quantity, pricing, sales tax and shipping for every order.
Shopping carts are typically available to business owners in two e-commerce formats:
- Licensed software -- In this instance, shopping cart software is downloaded and installed on a web server. This approach requires more setup time and more diligent maintenance than a hosted solution. However, licensed software typically provides a greater opportunity for customization.
- Hosted service -- Hosted cart solutions allow businesses to offer shopping carts without installing software on their own server. Instead, e-commerce is conducted offsite using a web-based infrastructure maintained by another company. Hosted carts generally require payment of a monthly or annual subscription fee. Some hosted services also charge a percentage of sales in addition to the monthly fee. This model typically offers turnkey templates that a business owner can customize.
Once a customer has filled his shopping cart, you are ready to accept payment, unless the customer abandons the shopping cart.