Cart guidelines
What is the cart in e-commerce?
The cart is where shoppers review what they have chosen before checkout: products, quantities, discounts and the total including shipping.
The guidelines below describe what a good cart needs, for shoppers, search engines and AI agents.
13 guidelines.
Platform
Audience
- CART-SR-QTY-01critical
Cart quantity persists across checkout navigation
System Robustnesshuman · agent - CART-DC-QTY-01high
Cart quantity value remains fully readable at all supported quantities
Decision Clarityhuman · agent - CART-DC-TOTALS-01high
The cart states a cost breakdown, not only a total
Decision Clarityhuman · agent · machine - CART-SI-MUTATE-01high
The cart contains only what the customer chose
Semantic Integrityhuman · agent - CART-SR-AVAIL-01high
The cart flags items that can no longer be bought
System Robustnesshuman · agent · machine - CART-SR-CONTROL-01high
Cart controls work with the keyboard alone
System Robustnesshuman - CART-SR-EDIT-01high
Cart line items can be changed and removed in place
System Robustnesshuman · agent - CART-SR-PERSIST-01high
Selected offer state persists unchanged from PDP to Cart
System Robustnessagent - CART-TE-REINFORCE-01high
Cart reinforces the user’s selected product decision with clear visual and attribute confirmation
- CART-DC-CODE-01medium
Entering a discount code gives a clear result
Decision Clarityhuman · agent - CART-DC-FREESHIP-01mediumSeasonal
The cart says how much is missing for free shipping
Decision Clarityhuman · agent - CART-DC-GIFT-01mediumSeasonal
Gift options are visible before checkout and can be chosen in the cart
Decision Clarityhuman · agent - CART-ME-CONTENT-01medium
Cart contents are readable as text without interaction
Machine Extractabilityagent · machine