medusa-store/docs/content/modules/carts-and-checkout/overview.mdx

---
description: "A cart is a virtual shopping basket that customers can use to pick products they want to purchase. Learn about the available features and guides."
---

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# Carts and Checkout

A cart is a virtual shopping basket that customers can use to pick products they want to purchase. Checkout is the process of the customer placing an order. This overview introduces the available features related to carts and checkout.

## Features

### Cart Management

Customers can manage their cart including adding, updating, and removing items from the cart.

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    label: 'Storefront APIs: Carts',
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### Shipping and Payment

Developers can integrate any third-party provider or custom logic to offer shipping and payment options for customers during checkout. They can integrate them using existing plugins or by creating their own.

Admins can specify available shipping and payment processors during checkout for customers based on their [Region](../regions-and-currencies/overview.mdx).

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    label: 'User Guide: Manage Providers',
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### Checkout Flow

Developers can implement a seamless checkout flow that include steps related to shipping and payment, tax calculation, and more.

Customers can place orders using the checkout flow.

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    href: '/modules/carts-and-checkout/storefront/implement-checkout-flow',
    label: 'Storefront: Implement Checkout',
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    label: 'Storefront APIs: Cart',
    customProps: {
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      description: 'Check available Store REST APIs for Carts related to checkout.'
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---

## Understand the Architecture

Learn how cart-related entities are build, their relation to other modules, and more.

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      description: 'Learn about the cart completion process.'
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  {
    type: 'link',
    href: '/modules/carts-and-checkout/shipping',
    label: 'Architecture: Shipping',
    customProps: {
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      description: 'Learn about the Shipping architecture.'
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---

## Related Modules

Discover Carts and Checkout’s relation to other modules in Medusa

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      description: 'Discounts can be applied on a cart to reduce its total.',
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    label: 'Gift Cards',
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      description: 'Purchased gift cards can be applied during checkout.'
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