Our website has 5 physical store-fronts and they want the visitor to pick which store they will pick up the items - so as they click to a store, the shopping system needs to display only the items that are at that store. They want to not have to enter the same exact item (e.g. ladder, tool, etc) for each store if it is identical, but utilize a central database of items.
Currently the cart will support this requirement. To accomplish this you would add the shopping cart module on different pages of your portal, one for each store in your example. If you want the product to show up in all the store modules you have added you need to check the “Share” checkbox in the product setup screen. If you don’t check share then the product will only show in the store module you added it in. The share flag works the same way for categories. If the share checkbox is checked for a particular category, the category will be displayed in all product catalogs on any pages where you have added the shopping cart module. If the share checkbox is not checked then categories added to your first cart module will remain separate from categories added to your second cart module.
Here is an excerpt from the users guide on it:
The “Share” checkbox only applies if you have added more then one cart module on different pages. This feature is used in situations where you want multiple product catalogs on different pages of your website. If the share checkbox is checked for a particular product the product will be displayed in all product catalogs on any pages where you have added the shopping cart module. If the share checkbox is not checked then products added to your first cart module will remain separate from products added to your second cart module.
http://www.smith-consulting.com/Portals/0/docs/smithshoppingcartmanual.pdf