Online shopping has never been easier. Find a product, add it to the cart, pay, then sign for delivery the next day. However, what if you're shopping but not paying?

That's where Share-A-Cart comes in, a website (with associated browser extensions for Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Firefox) that lets you browse for items, create a cart, then share the cart with whoever is paying.

Why Share Your Cart?

You might be a teaching assistant or school administrator; perhaps you're a parent buying a reading list for your student offspring. Your role might even be in procurement for a business or a non-profit. Whatever the case, simply following a shopping list can lead to errors. Having a shopping cart with the exact items in it that can be shared with the person who holds the purse strings is immensely useful.

Perhaps it's your birthday and a loved one has promised to pay. Maybe you’re the one paying. Either way, being able to share a cart and load it into the appropriate online store simplifies the process considerably. It improves security and privacy too, saving you from the risk and hassle of sharing credit card details over the phone, instant messenger, or email.

Choose Products With Share-A-Cart

Using Share-A-Cart is incredibly simple.

Head to the website and click Make a new list to get started. You can then select a retailer to shop from: Amazon, Walmart, AliExpress, eBay, or Best Buy. We are told that this isn’t a final list of online retailers and it's sure to grow over time.

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All you do next is enter the search term and check each product that matches, then Add selected. If you're only looking for a single product, click the Add button instead to save time.

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With the list complete, click Save List. You'll see a dedicated link to the cart, which ends with a unique identifier.

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Note that items from different stores cannot be mixed. While it might seem convenient, it really makes no sense since the cart contents are loaded into the online shop that stocks them. To share carts from more than one online retailer, make carts for each store you plan to shop from.

Also, notice that no personal information is shared with Share-A-Cart. It's simply the contents of your cart, with none of the personally identifiable information attached.

Use the Browser Extensions to Share and Receive Carts

As an alternative to using the Share-A-Cart website, the Chrome browser extension saves time by giving you all the tools you need to share with just a single click. Extensions for Safari, Edge, and Firefox are also available.

So, rather than load up your cart from Share-A-Cart's website, head to one of the supported online stores and click the Share-A-Cart button on your browser. We should note that the extension supports a far broader selection of retailers than the website. All of the items in your cart can be added to Share-A-Cart with a click of the Create Cart ID button, ready for sharing.

Using the browser extension, you can also load items shared by someone else into the appropriate cart. Click Receive Cart then enter the Cart ID.

The extension also has a history button so you can check the history of carts created by you, as well as those you've shared with others.

Share Your Cart by Email, SMS, Social Media, and Instant Message

Sharing options for Share-A-Cart allow you to ensure the buyer can get access to the cart. The main sharing URL is in the format https://share-a-cart.com/get/[CODE] with a group of numbers and letters at the end. This is the unique identifier for your cart.

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Using the link, you can share your cart by email, SMS, as a Facebook link, in Facebook Messenger, on WhatsApp, or via WeChat.

Once received, the link will load up the cart and let the buyer add the contents to the corresponding online cart. All that is left is for the products to be purchased.

Create a List, Share Your Cart, Let Someone Else Pay

Online shopping is traditionally a solitary affair. While public wishlists can help you to attract attention to the products you're interested in for birthdays, collaborating on carts is difficult.

Share-A-Cart changes this, instantly democratizing the contents of your cart if you wish, and making it so easy for someone else to pay. You could add a bunch of computer equipment to your cart at Amazon, Best Buy, Newegg, or Gearbest then send it to your Finance Director to approve and buy. If you’re a child, you could make a Christmas list of toys and games from stores like Costco, The Children's Place, Gap, or Macy’s, then send them the adult in your life.

The possibilities of collaborative shopping make Share-A-Cart an excellent way to shop online and be certain you're getting the right products.