A shopping cart is a digital shopping feature added to any retailer or seller's website that facilitates the easy purchase of a product or service. Some of the rudimentary features of shopping cart are;

• It accepts online payment.
• It facilitates online shopping.
• It facilitates shipping of the purchased product.
• It keeps history of sales; individual sale, revenue, date and time etc.
• It facilitates retailer to manage the Product Catalogs.
• It lets a customer to sort and select their desired product.
• It facilitates transaction between B2C and B2B.

E-commerce website stands for a digital platform where commercial transactions are conducted. A website facilitates a retailer to add e-commerce and later shopping cart options to sell their products online.

Some of the common E-commerce platform;

• Magento
• Shopify
• 3dcart
• WooCommerce
• PrestaShop
• BigCommerce

Some of the common E-commerce features;

Payment Options

E-commerce allows easy payment option for the customers. Most online buyers prefer to pay by credit card, which can be facilitated by E-commerce feature. To enable online processing of credit card transactions with a real-time payment gateway, you'll need a merchant account.

E-commerce also allows alternative payment systems for buyers who do not wish to use their credit card online. PayPal, Google Checkout, money orders and wire transfer are few examples of alternative payments which allows buyers to shop safely.

Site Search & Browse

Visitors to online stores have a need for speed - and it starts with time-saving search. Consumers expect online stores to allow them to search for a product and quickly find the product they want. Customers also navigate via categories, along with browsing by price, category and brand distinctions. If your E-commerce shopping cart does not include a search feature for your site, your visitor may simply decide to look elsewhere.

Product Reviews

Over 63% of online customers indicate that they are more likely to buy from a website if it has product ratings and reviews from previous customers. E-commerce enables a feature to add customer review and ratings for individual products, also helping to highlight the ‘popular products’.

Wish List

The ‘Wish list’ option allows customers to save their preferred items at online store and return at a later date to purchase those items. E-commerce shopping lets customers decide when to buy their product, hence, decreasing the chances of cart abandonment rate.

Real-Time Inventory

It's a common problem for most buyers to experience the situation where they place an order for a certain product only to find the purchased item wasn’t in stock. With effective E-commerce system, you can manage real-time inventory for available products.

Express Checkout

Most checkout processes at many online stores or websites can be a lot frustrating. The lengthy check-out leads to cart abandonment in most cases, hence you lose a potential customer. Most modern e-commerce comes with express checkout system. They offer registered users to check-out at a go, which saves time and effort.

Order Tracking

An E-commerce should let the customer track their order, which helps to build their confidence. Automated order confirmation emails and shipping notification keeps your customer informed from the time they buy and until they receive the product.

Special Offers

Season-end Sale, Holiday Offer, Gifts and Discounts are few of the special offers you can post in your website or email newsletter to keep your audience informed. E-commerce helps you promote special offers options to add discount, coupon codes, free shipping and gift cards etc. Most E-commerce comes with CRM facility which allows you to send automated email newsletter to your registered users.

Website Security

It is essential to get your website built-in with SSL data encryption for website security. Online consumers feel safer when dealing with an encrypted website and favor only to pay online through encrypted sites.