Shopping Cart

The shopping cart is one of the most important parts of HostedStore because all the functionality of the store interacts with it either directly or in the background. Because of its importance, many features have been built into the customer interface to aid in the shopping process.

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Static Shopping Cart

All of the store templates supplied with HostedStore feature a static shopping cart of the left sign of the screen that summarizes the number of items and the subtotal price of the items in the cart. The static cart serves as a reminder of the cart status without having to view the entire cart.

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Ordered Product Detail

The cart displays the ordered product and any of the customization details if applicable. If the product has been added from the customer's wish list or another customer's wish list, there will be a small notation that designates the product as a wish list item.

If the product is configurable, then the current product configuration is detailed below the product name. The product name appears as a hyperlink which, when clicked, returns the product detail page with the current configuration for all attributes selected. The customer may then make any necessary modifications.

As is customary with shopping carts, the customer is able to modify the quantity of an item or multiple items simultaneously in their cart. Updating quantities returns the shopping cart detail page with new line item subtotals and recalcalculated shipping cost, tax, and order total.

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Shipping/Tax Detail

Many surveys of online shoppers have revealed that one of the top reasons for abandoned carts and unfinished orders is due to the surprise the customer experiences when they see the shipping costs applied to their order during the checkout process. HostedStore calculates the shipping for all of the cart items each time the shopping cart detail page is viewed. This feature was implemented to help reduce the sticker shock that leads to abandoned carts.

The shopping cart detail page also displays two separate order total columns. One details the subtotal, shipping, and order total for shoppers who reside in a non-taxable location. The second details the tax and total cost for each location that has been configured for taxation. This feature also helps to eliminate "checkout surprise." Some shopping carts force the user to enter their location in order to see the proper total. HostedStore's approach eliminates that inconvenience.

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Email Quote

To help facilitate the decision making process, the customer can email their current cart contents to their own email address or possibly to the email address of the decision maker in their company. The store manager can set how many days the quote is valid and that value is reflected in the emailed quote. Quotes include a detailed breakdown of ordered products including any customization.

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Savable/Recoverable Carts

Multiple shopping carts can be saved with a unique name. This feature allows for the recovery of shopping sessions at a later date. It is also a tremendous aid to customers that may shop from one computer, but would like to purchase from another computer at a later date.