Electronic Shopping Cart Software

Electronic shopping carts are software applications used for electronic commerce that help people with online buying. These are much like the actual traditional shopping carts, or shopping baskets, used in physical stores throughout the U.S. and Europe. This application permits online shopping buyers to compile a number of items that they desire to buy; this is analogous to actually putting physical items into a shopping cart in a store. At checkout, this application calculates the total amount due, which often includes a shipping and/or handling fee, and any applicable sales tax.

Electronic shopping cart software usually offers a means for the buyer to enter payment information. Usually, these applications also feature a secured payment gateway for the conduction of safe online credit card sales. This requires some HTML setup in the website’s code, and the installation of the shopping cart software on the server that is hosting the payment site. Alternatively, the software is installed on the secure server that accepts protected payment or ordering data.

Typically, these e-shopping carts are created through the use of HTTP cookies or query strings. The majority of server- based applications, however, permit data concerned with the shopping cart to be maintained in the session object. This data is utilized and manipulated during the user’s interactions with the shopping cart application. At the point of purchase, the needed information is retrieved, and a buy order is placed for the chosen item, which clears the shopping cart.

The most basic shopping cart applications simply permit items to be included in a shopping basket to initiate a payment process. An example of this is the free shopping cart used by PayPal. In reality, however, the majority of software applications also offer extra features used by online marketers to facilitate the management of an Internet store. Certain data, including sales merchandise, discount offers, customer information, ordering history, and product categories, are maintained in a database so that they can be accessed by the software at any point in time.

Other names for shopping cart software include ecommerce software, online store software, e-store software, or storefront software.

Shopping carts usually feature two main elements: the storefront, which is that aspect of the online store seen by site visitors, and the administration, which is the part of the online store utilized by the merchant for the purpose of managing and maintaining the shop. In the storefront area, the software application continually changes the categories, products, and search pages. In addition, the shop owner is usually able to change the appearance of this component so that it it appears similar to the remainder of the website.

The online marketer manages the store through the administration component. The extent of management capability is dependent upon the degree of sophistication inherent in the chosen software. Generally, though, the marketer managing the store can add or edit product information, discounts, shipping fees, category information, payment fees, and so on. Certain types of management features are available in most shopping cart applications. The administration component may be web-based, in which it is accessed via an Internet browser. Alternatively, it may be desktop-based, in which an application on the user’s desktop runs on the hard drive of the manager’s computer and transmits changes to the storefront-based component of the application.

Should Managers Choose Licensed or Hosted Shopping Carts?

There are two main types of shopping cart software. The first of these is licensed software, in which required software is downloaded to a computer and installed to an Internet server. Usually a one-time fee covers the usage of this installation, and many optional free products can also be chosen with this purchase. In this case, the Internet marketing holds a license to use this product. Therefore, he or she can utilize this software on any Internet server that is capable of meeting the server’s specified requirements, and in which the source code is able to be accessed and altered to individualize the use of the application.

Alternatively, some applications feature a hosted service approach. Here, the user does not download software, but rather accesses it online through a hosted service provider. The user typically pays a monthly or annual fee for use of the service. This approach is also sometimes referred to as the application service provider, or ASP, software application. Certain ASPs charge a portion of sales commissions as well as the scheduled monthly charge. Typically, this application features preset templates users can use to customize and meet the needs and requirements of their store. Usually, however, users have limited ability to change or individualize the software application. In return, however, the software host continuously maintains and updates the software, in addition to adding new features from time to time.