Electric commerce, or e-commerce, uses the internet or other specialized networking technologies to facilitate the buying and selling of products. This is accomplished when computer scientists and engineers develop components that facilitate online shopping, including shopping cart software, secure payment gateway software, etc. These components, of which shopping cart software has become the most popular, are collectively referred to as online store software and form the backbone of most shopping portals.
Online shopping cart is used to keep track of all items selected by online purchaser and it also displays total amount to be billed on checkout. It is almost similar to the billing software used by supermarkets all over the world. It is designed in such a way that it is analogous to the physical trolleys we use in supermarkets.
After going through the product listings and product descriptions, if any visitor to an online shopping portal decides to purchase a particular item on sale, he/she will mark that item and drag or select that item using the online shopping cart icon shown on the webpage. This icon is displayed at the bottom of each product image, generally below the marked price.
In the shopping cart panel of the webpage, the item selected, its product code, its price, discount if any etc. is displayed. In case, the customer wishes to buy some other products as well, he can go through the product listings and add them to the shopping cart which already has one item which was previously selected by the customer.
It may sound a very simple application to build. However, developing such software requires immense technical expertise in areas as diverse as real time database management, accounts and billing, secure payment gateway etc. It is also imperative that the software development team does a thorough analysis of the delineated customer profile and utilizes this knowledge to facilitate ease and incorporate principles for “usability”.
Shopping cart software is enabled by using the cookies in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) or query strings. There are two types of shopping cart software on the market today. The first kind requires a one time purchase and then can be used an unlimited number of times, while the second type requires a monthly or yearly fee for use.
The online shopping cart is mainly used for checkout purposes. It is the most popular online store software. After going through the product listings, if any visitor to a shopping portal decides to purchase a particular item, he/she will mark that item and select that item using the shopping cart icon shown on the webpage. Developing software specifically tailored to a client’s needs is a complicated task. Expertise in accounts and billing, database management, and secure payment gateway is required. Usability is also a guiding principle. Cookies in Hypertext Markup Languages (HTML) or query strings are the technology used by shopping cart software.
- jason ciment
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