There are thousands of styles and types of Websites on the Internet today and, as most Websites are designed and developed to sell a product or service, a shopping cart and payment gateway are required.

A Website shopping cart is software that is installed on a Website to provide the consumer with a means of capturing selected products or services for purchase. A payment gateway is an additional software module that is used in conjunction with the shopping cart.

The payment gateway software is provided from a secure payment gateway provider such as a bank, PayPal, or a credit card processing company. This software allows for the secure processing of credit card and bank debit card payment transactions online.

To activate a shopping cart and payment gateway, an initial setup must be completed in the HTML code after which the shopping cart software must be installed on the server which hosts the site, or on the secure server that accepts sensitive ordering information.

There are both generic and custom designed shopping carts. The custom designed carts tend to have superior Website integration over the generic variety.

Shopping cart software typically consists of two components:

Storefront: Is the area of the Web store that is accessed by site visitors to do their online shopping. The category, product, and other pages (e.g. search, best sellers, etc.) are dynamically generated by the shopping cart software based on the information saved in the Web store's database.

Administration: The area of the Web store that is accessed by the merchant to manage the online shop. The quantity of store management features varies depending on the sophistication of the shopping cart software; however, as a general rule, a store manager is able to add and edit products, categories, discounts, shipping and payment settings, etc. Order management features are also included in many shopping cart programs

Artistic Website Creation Specialists possess the essential expertise and experience to evaluate your Website requirements and determine what type of shopping cart and payment gateway would be the most advantageous for your needs.

In many cases, the shopping cart software must integrate with the Website’s database. This can be a complex procedure to set up and configure as the shopping cart must be customized to correctly integrate not only with the products or services on the Website, but also with the payment gateway.

Since the shopping cart and payment gateway is a critical part of any Website design, it is highly advisable to select a Website developer that is expertly skilled and experienced with all facets of shopping cart installation, configuration and integration.
View live demo of shopping cart sample.

We invite you to schedule a free consultation to discuss the design of a shopping chart and payment gateway for your Website.