when to use cart layout on service catalog items and when not to

[wbwb]

Seems like there's some overlap on settings when choosing between the two.  Can someone tell me the main difference between using cart layout and not?  Currently I have a mixture of both in my catalog and it doesn't seem to be breaking anything, but maybe I'm missing some reasons why some catalog items are set to use cart and others are not. 

[Alberto Consonn · Accepted solution]

Hi, 

I will take the example directly from the ITM Specialist slide of ServiceNow, the main difference to use the Cart Layout or not is if your Catalog Item represent something not tangible in term of quantity and price.

Example: "Request VPN" is definetely a good example where there is no any sense to have the Cart Layout.

I hope this will clarify your doubt.

If I have answered your question, please mark my response as correct and/or helpful so that others with the same question in the future can find it quickly and that it gets removed from the Unanswered list.

Thank you

Cheers
Alberto

[Flavio4]

Hi Alberto,
thank you for the reference in your answer.

While the tangible/quantity criterion is very clear as explained, I am dealing with the following case.

Indeed the catalog item represents something not tangible (to simplify: a service), but the caller is interested to elaborate the order on several sessions, mainly:

- because the request may be complex and need checks on several options before being finalised. Because of the complexity, for the caller it is more efficient to find the "draft" request they worked on previously when they come back to finalise it

but also:

- because the caller might be interested to request several catalog items simultaneusly.

Is it appropriate to use the cart in this case? (It is assumed that it is not feasible to integrate the complexity and the multiple catalog items in the flow of a single catalog item) 
Are there better options than the cart for this type of needs?

Thank you
Flavio