Shopping Cart 101! What is an Online Shopping Cart?

Learn about what a shopping cart is and what it can do for you

If you are novice to selling products and services online (i.e on the internet) we have compiled a small tutorial of how easy it is for anyone to become familiar with getting setup with an ecommerce solution.

At the base of any ecommerce Website is a shopping cart that allows people to search as well as buy products and/or services. The following tutorial will explain what exactly a shopping cart is, how it works, and even how you can add it to an existing Website as well as create a new one.

What is a shopping cart?
How does a shopping cart work?
Storefront vs. Administration
Licensed vs. Hosted options

What is a shopping cart?

A shopping cart is a software application that typically runs on the computer where your Website is hosted and allows your customers to do things such as searching for a product in your store catalog, adding a selected product to a basket, and finally checkout the product, i.e purchasing it. A shopping cart is generally integrated within your Website, which include links which which allow customers to perform browse and purchase products.

Shopping carts and ecommerce solutions are written in a variety of different programming languages. Some of them are open source; providing full access to the "source code", and as such allowing experienced developers to make customizations to the Website. Some shopping carts run on Windows Web servers, some on Unix, and some even on both. Generally it does not matter what type of Web server you are using as long as your language requirements are met.

For example, our shopping cart software - called AiCart - is a collection of PHP and HTML files that you place on a Web server, where PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor used to stands for Personal Home Page, a popular programming language developed by Rasmus Lerdorf.

What makes a shopping cart tick? How does it work?

All shopping carts share the following structure and normally include:

a database that stores information such as product details, customer data, order information, etc. (In AiCarts case MySQL)
a storefront that displays the information stored in the databse to store visitors (example: product information and detail, product pricing, search results, checkout, etc.)
an administration area that allows the owner of the Website to manage your store as well as the Website. For example, AiCart allows you to add products, set up shipping & payment options, process orders, check order and client information, and even manage the Website with a intuitive content management system, etc.

Since data is stored in a database, the shopping cart type Website creates pages and populates the information in "real time" (accesses the information on demand); for example when a customer visits the ecommerce store (Website) and clicks on a specific product page, the information is accessed directly from the database and loaded into the page. Unlike the HTML pages which are generally static the shopping cart page is dynamically created by the retrieving data from the database. So a online store or catalogue which houses thousanda of products, does not actually have thousands of product pages on the server. These pages are created on the fly (on demand) when a user visits the specific page.

Storefront vs. Administration

Almost all online shopping carts include two main components: the storefront, which is the area of the Web store that is accessed by visitors to the online shop. Category, product, and other pages (e.g. search, best sellers, etc.) are dynamically generated by the software based on the information saved in the store database, and the administration area, which is the area of the Web store that is accessed by the merchant to manage the online shop. The amount of store management features changes depending on the sophistication of the shopping cart software, but in general a store manager is able to add and edit products, categories, discounts, shipping and payment settings, etc. Order management features are also included in many shopping cart programs.

A good storefront should include at least the following features:

A store catalog that is quick and easy to browse as well as displays information in a way that is simple but well placed.
A search feature that allows customers to quickly search through the site to find specific information or products. Some search features also include search filters (e.g. price, part number, description, brands, etc.)
A customer area where existing customers can view/change their account information, password, view previously placed orders as well as be able to retrieve a lost password.
Specialty pages which show products on sale, featured products, best selling products, etc.
Sorting feature to allow customers to easily view similar products by say a specific brand, category, price, etc.

A good administration area should include at least the following features:

A way to easily set general store settings.
A module to create and manage product categories, and order the way in which they are displayed on the storefront. Easily adding and/or modifying product images.
A module to create and manage product brands, so as to sort products in multiple ways as well as easily allow customers to find the desired products.
A module to create and manage products, and assign them to categories. To improve productivity, there should be tools that allow you to change settings across multiple products at once (e.g. change the price for all products in a certain category).
Intuitive way to set payment options (credit card processing, payal, etc.) as well as various shipping options (e.g. Free shipping for order over $100).
A module to manage customers (customer information, etc.) and orders effectively (pending, processed, shipped, returned, etc).

Licensed vs. Hosted options

Shopping cart software can be generally categorized into two categories.

Licensed software: The software is downloaded and then installed on a Web server. This is most often associated with a one-time fee, although there are many free products available as well. The main advantages of this option are that the merchant owns a license and therefore can host it on any Web server that meets the server requirements, and that the source code can often be accessed and edited to customize the application.

Hosted service: The software is never downloaded, but rather is provided by a hosted service provider and is generally paid for on a monthly/annual basis. Some of these services also charge a percentage of sales in addition to the monthly fees. This model often has predefined templates that a user can choose from to customize their look and feel. In this model users typically have less ability to modify or customize the software with the advantage of having the vendor continuously keep the software up to date for security patches as well as adding new features.