from the cart. Later at the process of finalizing the transaction, the information is accessed and an order is generated against the selected item thus clearing the shopping cart. Although the most simple shopping carts strictly allow for an item to be added to a basket to start a checkout process (e.g., the free PayPal shopping cart), most shopping cart software provides additional features that an Internet merchant uses to fully manage an online store. Data (products, categories, discounts, orders, customers, etc.) is normally stored in a database and accessed in real time by the software. Shopping Cart Software is also known as e-commerce software, e-store software, online store software or storefront software and online shop. Components Storefront: the area of the Web store that is accessed by visitors to the online shop. Category, product, and other pages (e.g., search, bestsellers, etc.) are dynamically generated by the software based on the information saved in the store database. The look of the storefront can normally be changed by the store owner so that it merges with the rest of the web site (i.e., with the pages not controlled by the shopping cart software in use on the store). Administration: the area of the Web store that is accessed by the merchant to manage the online shop. The amount of store management features changes depending on the sophistication of the shopping cart software chosen by the merchant, but in general 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. The administration area can be: Web-based (accessed through a web browser) Desktop-based (a desktop application that runs on the user's computer and then transfers changes to the storefront component). API: most of the major shopping cart software solutions offer an API which allows third party solution providers to build integrations to the shopping cart software. For example, an accountancy platform like Xero or Quickbooks will build an integration with the shopping cart software so that orders placed on the shopping cart are automatically exported as invoices. Types Shopping cart software can be generally categorized into three types of E-commerce software: Open source software: The software is released under an open source licence and is very often free of charge. The merchant has to host the software with a Web hosting service. It allows users