In general, the feature preserves information about customers using a long-term cookie. Once a customer logs in to a site, a long-term cookie is established for that browser/device combination. The customer is now able to view the contents of their shopping cart in subsequent sessions without logging in again.

With persistent shopping cart, a customer can add a product to their shopping cart from one browser session at work, review his shopping cart and change the product configuration from his mobile device and then complete the transaction at home with another computer (session login required initially per browser/device combination to establish the long-term cookie). The persistent behavior feature reduces consumer frustration when they try to access their shopping cart from multiple browser sessions.