Placing an order

Placing an order is the purchase (or sale) stage of an online transaction, the point at which the buyer, having searched for information, settles on what to buy and commits to the deal. This stage broadly covers negotiating the price, closing the purchase or sale deal, and moving on to payment.

• The shopping cart: While browsing an online store, the buyer picks up items and drops them into a shopping cart, which is simply an online record of everything selected so far. Just as in a physical store one can put items into a trolley and take them out again, an online shopper can freely add items to the cart or remove them before deciding. …