Shopping cart software provides a web-based process that allows consumers to easily purchase multiple goods and or services from a website business in a single transaction. Just like the real-world shopping cart you push around a store, selecting items and placing them in it, the website shopping cart allows a customer to move about your virtual store selecting items they wish to purchase and place them withing the electronic basket of their cart. At any time before checkout the shopper can review the items in their cart, adjusting quantities and/or removing an item they decide not to purchase.
The electronic shopping cart also allows the business owner to track customers and tie together all aspects of the e-commerce process into one manageable whole. There are many types of shopping cart software available ranging from out-of-the-box ready-to-use packages, to semi-customizable applications, to fully-customized turn-key solutions. Depending on your business size and needs one of these will prove to be a cost effective method to build, edit and maintain an online business.
A website, a shopping cart, and an online payment gateway, work in harmony allowing your customer to easily make purchases from your website. It is the vehicle that allows you to transact business and manage customer purchases online. That's what e-commerce is all about and the shopping cart is one of the best ways to make it happen.