# Carts

Here you can find an overview of the Emporix carts concept, along with its features and benefits.

{% hint style="info" %}

* Looking for code tutorials? Check out the [Cart Service guide](/api-references/api-guides/checkout/cart/cart.md).
* Looking for API reference? Check out the [Cart Service](/api-references/api-guides/checkout/cart.md) in the Emporix API Reference.
  {% endhint %}

## Purpose

Carts allow your customers to compile a list of items for purchase. The Emporix carts concept aims to simplify cart management by introducing features such as cart merging or automatic deleting of inactive carts.

## Features

The Emporix carts concept introduces a set of features that make cart management easier:

| Feature                          | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             |
| -------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Anonymous and customer carts** | <p>The Emporix e-commerce system distinguishes two types of carts:</p><ul><li>Anonymous carts for customers who are browsing the store without logging in.</li><li>Customer carts for logged-in customers.</li></ul>                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    |
| **Cart merging**                 | <p>You can merge a customer's anonymous cart with their customer cart to preserve the shopping flow.</p><p><span data-gb-custom-inline data-tag="emoji" data-code="2139">ℹ️</span> <mark style="background-color:blue;">See:</mark> <a href="#cart-merging"><mark style="background-color:blue;">Cart merging</mark></a><mark style="background-color:blue;">.</mark></p>                                                                                                                                                               |
| **Inactivity time**              | If a cart is inactive for over 30 consecutive days, it is automatically deleted from the database.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      |
| **Statuses**                     | <p>A cart can either be active (<code>OPEN</code>) or inactive (<code>CLOSED</code>). A cart's status is automatically set to <code>CLOSED</code> in the following cases:</p><ul><li>The cart belonged to an anonymous customer, and it was merged with a logged-in customer's cart.</li><li>The cart went through the checkout process.</li></ul><p><span data-gb-custom-inline data-tag="emoji" data-code="26a0">⚠️</span> <mark style="background-color:red;">You can only perform operations on <code>OPEN</code> carts.</mark></p> |

## Overview

The following section provides more information on cart management features in the Emporix e-commerce system.

### Cart merging

Sometimes a customer will browse products and add them to the cart before logging in. In such a case, you can merge their anonymous cart with their customer cart to preserve the shopping flow.

Once the carts are merged, the anonymous cart's status is set to `CLOSED`.

You can use the merging functionality to perform the following actions:

* Merge an anonymous cart with a customer cart.
* Merge multiple anonymous carts with a customer cart.

{% hint style="danger" %}
You cannot use the merging functionality to perform the following actions:

* Merge a customer cart with an anonymous cart.
* Merge a customer cart with another customer cart.
* Merge two non-empty carts that use different currencies.
  {% endhint %}

Common conflicts that may occur while merging carts are described in the table below.

| Conflict                                                                                              | Approach of the merging functionality                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Both carts contain the same items.                                                                    | The quantities of the items are added together.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        |
| The same item is added to both carts, but one is added as an `itemYrn` and one as a `Product` object. | The item is treated as two separate entries. The quantities of the item are not added together.                                                                                                                                                                                        |
| The carts use different currencies. Both carts are empty.                                             | The currency of the customer cart is preserved.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        |
| The anonymous cart includes items that are out of stock.                                              | <p>The items are preserved.</p><p><span data-gb-custom-inline data-tag="emoji" data-code="26a0">⚠️</span> <mark style="background-color:yellow;">If a customer proceeds to checkout, an error message appears, prompting the customer to remove said items from their cart.</mark></p> |
| The carts use different custom attributes.                                                            | The custom attributes are consolidated.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                |
| The carts use the same custom attributes, but their values are different.                             | The anonymous cart's custom attribute values are preserved.                                                                                                                                                                                                                            |


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