The “Add to Cart” moment is pivotal in a customer’s journey—it’s when browsing transforms into potential purchasing. Choosing the right ecommerce shopping cart solution and designing a smooth checkout flow are crucial for preventing customer drop-off and creating a great shopping experience.
In this guide, we’ll explore the meaning of shopping carts for ecommerce businesses, how to add one to your website, and review top market options, including Shopify’s shopping cart integration.
An ecommerce shopping cart is software that allows customers to select, store, and manage items before making a purchase. It mirrors the in-store shopping experience, letting customers add items, adjust quantities, and view total costs before completing a transaction.
Ecommerce shopping carts come in various forms, each designed to meet different business needs and technical capabilities.
SaaS shopping carts are cloud-based tools that businesses can use without local installation. They operate through the internet, like a website.
Merchants pay a monthly fee to access these carts, which come with built-in features. This makes it easy for beginners to start selling online quickly without extensive knowledge of shopping cart technology.
Hosted shopping carts are similar to SaaS carts. A company manages the cart for you on their servers.
You don’t have to worry about software updates or troubleshooting—the hosting company handles that. These carts often include customizable templates and integrated payment processing.
Self-hosted shopping carts offer businesses more control over design and features. You install the cart software on your own server or computer.
While this provides maximum customization, you’re responsible for maintenance and troubleshooting. Self-hosted shopping carts are typically suited to enterprise businesses or merchants with complex tech stacks.
Open-source shopping carts are free to use and can be modified by anyone with coding knowledge. The software is developed by a community of developers who share their work.
These carts can be either self-hosted or used with a hosting service. They’re ideal for budget-conscious businesses willing to invest time in setting up their store. However, you might need to hire a developer for significant customizations.
When researching options for your online store’s shopping cart, consider the following factors:
Budget is a key consideration when selecting an online shopping cart, but it’s not just about finding the lowest price. Sometimes, the cheapest option isn’t the best choice.
Self-hosted ecommerce shopping carts are typically more affordable, but they often have limited functionality compared to full-featured options like Shopify. They also require investment in technical resources for building and maintenance.
When evaluating pricing, consider:
Look for an online shopping cart that offers integrations with your existing ecommerce platform and tech stack, as well as additional options for future growth. Your online business will likely expand over time, so you need business tools and ecommerce solutions that can adapt and scale with you.
Select an online shopping cart that supports a variety of payment methods, including:
Additional payment options can boost both conversions and average order value (AOV). For example, one in four merchants using Shop Pay Installments double their AOV when allowing customers to spread costs over monthly payments. Flexible payment options increase consumer spending power.
The ability to adjust your online shopping cart’s look and feel is crucial for matching your branding and optimizing the user experience. An estimated $260 billion worth of lost orders are recoverable through better checkout flow and design.
Consider reducing the number of steps in your checkout flow to minimize friction. Ecommerce shopping carts like Shop Pay’s 1-click checkout can simplify the process and make it easier for shoppers to convert.
High shipping costs are a leading cause of shopping cart abandonment. Choose an ecommerce shopping cart that allows you to customize shipping options and lets customers select their preferred shipping method.
Ensure the shopping cart experience makes these costs transparent. Many shoppers abandon their cart because they can’t calculate the total order cost upfront. Make it easy for them by providing this information clearly.
User experience (UX) refers to how easily customers can interact with an ecommerce platform, including its shopping cart. A well-designed customer experience can directly influence a customer’s likelihood to buy and return for future purchases.
Look for a cart that allows customers to:
These features are likely to increase customer satisfaction and conversion rates.
Ecommerce shopping cart software can track, collect, and present data related to customer behavior and sales. This information can provide valuable insights for improving your ecommerce site.
For example, if analytics reveal a high cart abandonment rate, it could indicate issues such as a complicated checkout process or unexpected shipping costs. Use these insights to continuously optimize your shopping cart and overall ecommerce experience.
Choosing the right platform for your small business is crucial, both for today and in the future. Implementing business technology takes significant time and effort, and switching platforms later can be time-consuming, costly, and stressful.
Shopify offers a Level 1 PCI-DSS-compliant (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) online shopping cart suitable for new, established, and growing ecommerce merchants. It handles payments directly over SSL encryption, with no third-party accounts required.
You can use over 100 payment gateways and tailor for international selling, supporting more than 50 languages, tax rates, and currencies. Shopify is also optimized for mobile commerce, catering to merchants who prioritize selling on mobile devices.
For shipping, Shopify’s online shopping cart lets you choose fixed-price, tiered, location-based, or weight-based rates. If you’re on the Advanced plan, you’ll also get automatic shipping rates from major carriers like UPS, USPS, and FedEx.
The platform’s marketing tools let you send automatic cart abandonment recovery emails and create customer profiles with saved payment information for smoother checkouts.
Shop Pay checkout stands out as the fastest and highest-converting online shopping cart available. Websites using Shop Pay convert 1.91 times more than those with regular ecommerce checkouts.
You can extend Shopify’s reach by adding the Shopify Buy Button to other websites, such as your blog, landing pages, or online storefronts on different ecommerce platforms. This creates a consistent Shopify checkout experience across your online presence.
With Shopify, you get access to a comprehensive suite of business tools to manage every aspect of your operations. The platform’s library of thousands of third-party apps allows you to build a robust tech stack that meets all your business needs, whether you’re selling online or in-person.
Here’s a snapshot of the Shopify online shopping cart:
ShopWired combines an online shopping cart with a basic ecommerce site builder. You can create a customized, branded online store and sell across multiple channels.
The platform offers a two-click checkout with more than 60 different payment gateway providers. However, it lacks a companion mobile app, which can make managing your business on the go more challenging.
ShopWired online shopping cart at a glance:
OpenCart is an open-source ecommerce cart ideal for businesses with the technical expertise and resources to build and customize an effective checkout. While it’s free to download and use, you’ll need technical know-how to create an effective online shopping cart.
OpenCart online shopping cart at a glance:
Weebly is a basic online store builder with affordable pricing options. Owned by Square, it integrates seamlessly with other Square-owned platforms.
However, Weebly has its limitations. It’s more restricted than other online shopping carts in terms of functionality and customization. Its affordability comes at the cost of fewer features.
The Weebly online shopping cart at a glance:
Ecwid stands out from other options on this list. While it offers a dedicated online store builder, its primary purpose is to transform existing websites into ecommerce sites.
You don’t need technical coding skills to start selling online with Ecwid. However, while it offers an online store builder, it may lack the depth of features that growing brands require.
Ecwid online shopping cart at a glance:
Selecting the best software ensures a seamless shopping cart experience, making customers more likely to complete their purchase. The shopping cart is the final touchpoint before a customer buys, so you want to minimize the risk of shopping cart abandonment here.
With an average cart abandonment rate of 70%, choosing the right ecommerce shopping cart for your online store can help you recover many of these lost sales and boost your conversion rate.
Plus, an ecommerce shopping cart is essential for converting online sales, accepting payments, and processing transactions. Without it, online shoppers would have no way to select items and pay for them, rendering your ecommerce site a mere website without selling functionality.
Modern online shopping carts also store valuable data you can use for various purposes, including marketing, forecasting, and pricing strategies.
In Shopify, abandoned carts typically remain active for three months by default. After this period, the cart expires and the items are removed.
Shopify doesn’t send abandoned cart emails automatically out of the box. However, you can easily set up automated abandoned cart emails using Shopify’s built-in abandoned checkout recovery feature or through third-party apps available in the Shopify App Store.
Yes, you can track customer behavior in your shopping cart using analytics tools. Most ecommerce platforms, including Shopify, offer built-in analytics that shows cart additions, removals, and checkout progress.
A shopping cart in ecommerce is software that allows customers to purchase items from your shop or save a list of items they wish to buy together in the future.
Shopify offers the best ecommerce shopping cart solution. Shop Pay, in particular, is the fastest and highest-converting online shopping cart available.
The cost of an online shopping cart can range from free to several hundred dollars per month, depending on the features and the capabilities you need.
You can create a cart for your ecommerce website using either a self-hosted or licensed shopping cart. A self-hosted cart involves fewer steps and relies on integrations, while a licensed shopping cart is custom-built from scratch to meet your specific needs.
