Shopping cart programs are software that allows customers to view, add, delete, and purchase items from an online store. Such carts are often bundled as part of a prepared hosted storefront package or they are available a la carte. Many companies that already have programs and systems in place may prefer stand alone online shop software, so that it can be integrated with the existing business. Start-ups or smaller companies may prefer all-in-one online store package deals.

Shopping cart abandonment is the bane of many ecommerce sites. Sites average abandonment rates of 30% or higher. Industry studies show that most Web users abandon a cart at least once a month. Many reasons are cited for this high rate of abandonment.

There are numerous ways to improve your shopping cart. One is simply naming it "shopping cart". Most consumers expect this name, and when they do not see it they become confused. Also, changing your "buy" button to an "add item to cart" button will encourage users to utilize your cart. Don't require users to register and do not make them look at the contents of the cart and interrupt their shopping experience each time they want to add an item. Instead, make it easily accessible for them to view when they are ready.

Of course, technical flaws aren't the only reason for a user to abandon his or her shopping cart. But remedying such technical glitches always improve the odds of a user completing his transaction. No matter how perfect the online cart, it will probably always have a higher level of abandonment than physical store carts. An online cart is very different in many ways. Shoppers online are not pushing around the actual items, oftentimes they aren't even the items they intend to purchase but just items they don't want to lose track of.

Shopping carts appear to be most useful to shoppers as sort of a bookmark or highlighter. The contents of a cart don't necessarily indicate what they will actually buy when the transaction comes to an end; rather, it represents a 'wish list' or the items that a shopper finds interesting or desirable while browsing. For this reason, online abandonment rates are much lower than traditional ones. It can be difficult to find what you're shopping for online, but shopping carts make it simple to mark the items you like. Even abandoned carts aren't useful. The abandoned shopping cart holds a wealth of information about the consumer.

To maximize the amount of successful cart checkouts, study your abandoned carts as well as those that are successful. Using one metric without the other will not result in a successful ecommerce solution. Balance the metrics used for the optimal plan of improvement. You should be able to improve the percent of people that use your carts as well the percent that start and then complete a checkout.

If your cart has some of the mistakes that have been identified as top mistakes, you need to review them and eliminate them where possible. E-business need to take a further step, and find out what their abandoned carts are telling them, and how this information can be put to use. Looking at carts in greater detail not only helps identify ways to improve them, but also can tell you a great deal about your customers and what they value.