Cart
A Cart in Salesforce is the Commerce Cloud or B2B Commerce object that holds a shopper's selected items, applied promotions, calculated taxes and shipping, and current totals before checkout.
Definition
A Cart in Salesforce is the Commerce Cloud or B2B Commerce object that holds a shopper's selected items, applied promotions, calculated taxes and shipping, and current totals before checkout. The Cart is the working draft of an order; once the shopper completes checkout, the Cart converts to an Order record and the cart is closed. Cart records are tied to a Buyer Account (B2B) or a Person Account / Guest Shopper (B2C), and child Cart Item records represent the individual products with quantity, price, and configuration. Salesforce B2B Commerce, B2C Commerce, and the Lightning B2B Commerce platform all use the same conceptual Cart model with slightly different schemas.
Carts matter because every e-commerce interaction passes through one. The shopper's experience (add to cart, remove, change quantity, apply promo code) is direct manipulation of the Cart and its items. Backend operations (price calculation, inventory check, fraud screening) all read and write to the Cart. Salesforce's Commerce platform encapsulates these operations as Cart Calculator framework calls; the framework orchestrates pricing, promotions, tax, shipping, and inventory in a defined sequence. Abandoned-cart workflows (the customer left without checking out) operate on Cart records that have not converted to Order, with Marketing Cloud journeys triggered to re-engage the shopper.
How the Cart works in Salesforce Commerce
The Cart data model
A Cart record stores the shopper identity (Buyer Account or Person Account), currency, status (Active, Abandoned, Closed, Failed), totals (subtotal, tax, shipping, grand total), and references to applied promotions. Child Cart Item records hold the line-item products with quantity, unit price, line total, configuration, and any item-level promotions.
Cart lifecycle
Carts start in Active when a shopper adds the first item. They stay Active through additions, removals, and quantity changes. On checkout completion, the Cart closes and the Order record is created. If the shopper abandons (no activity for a configured window), the Cart moves to Abandoned and can trigger re-engagement journeys.
Cart Calculator framework
Salesforce Commerce uses a Cart Calculator framework that orchestrates pricing, promotions, tax, shipping, and inventory in a deterministic sequence. Each step is a calculator that reads the Cart, applies its logic, and writes results back. The framework is extensible; custom calculators handle org-specific pricing or shipping rules.
Promotions and discounts
Promotions apply to Carts through the Promotion engine. Cart-level promotions discount the whole Cart (10 percent off any order over 100); line-level promotions discount specific items. The Promotion calculator runs during the Cart Calculator sequence and writes discount amounts to the Cart and Cart Items.
Tax and shipping calculation
Tax calculation usually delegates to a tax service (Vertex, Avalara) called from the Tax calculator. Shipping calculation similarly delegates to a shipping service or applies internal rate tables. Both write to the Cart's totals; the running grand total reflects all calculated components.
Abandoned-cart workflows
Carts that go inactive for a configured window flip to Abandoned status. Marketing Cloud journeys can trigger on the Abandoned status to send re-engagement emails. Conversion rates on abandoned-cart emails are reliably the highest-ROI marketing pattern in e-commerce.
Cart to Order conversion
When the shopper completes checkout (payment captured, fraud screening passed), the platform creates an Order record from the Cart. The Order inherits the line items, totals, and applied promotions. The Cart closes; the Order becomes the operational record for fulfilment, billing, and customer service.
Common implementation pitfalls
Three patterns recur. Cart Calculator sequences with incorrectly-ordered steps (Tax before Promotion) produce wrong totals. Inventory checks during Cart add (instead of at checkout) frustrate shoppers when items go out of stock mid-session. And neglecting abandoned-cart workflows leaves the highest-ROI marketing pattern in e-commerce unexploited.
How to configure Carts in Salesforce Commerce
Cart configuration is mostly about the Cart Calculator sequence, the Promotion engine, and the abandoned-cart workflow. Get those right and the rest follows.
- Confirm Commerce Cloud is enabled
Setup, Commerce. Confirm the relevant edition (B2B Commerce or B2C Commerce) is enabled and storefronts are configured.
- Configure the Cart Calculator sequence
Set the order: Inventory, Promotion, Tax, Shipping. Each step writes to the Cart; the order matters because later steps see earlier results.
- Build Promotion records
Configure the promotions that should apply to Carts. Test promotion stacking carefully; conflicting promotions can produce unexpected discounts.
- Integrate tax and shipping services
Connect Vertex or Avalara for tax. Connect carrier APIs for shipping. The Cart Calculator delegates to these services during checkout.
- Configure abandoned-cart workflow
Define the abandonment window. Configure a Marketing Cloud journey to fire on Cart status = Abandoned. Track conversion to measure ROI.
- Cart Calculator step order matters. Tax before Promotion produces wrong totals.
- Inventory checks at Cart add instead of checkout cause frustrating Out of Stock messages mid-session.
- Promotion stacking can produce unintended discounts. Test combinations explicitly before launch.
- Abandoned-cart workflows convert better than almost any other marketing pattern; ignoring them is a measurable revenue loss.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- Cart in CommerceSalesforce Help
- Salesforce Commerce OverviewSalesforce Help
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Cart.
- Commerce Developer GuideSalesforce Developer Docs
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
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