Where the cart lives
The cart is part of the storefront that opens inside Telegram, not a separate page and not a chain of messages. It sits behind a button that carries a count, the way it does in any shop, and it survives while the buyer keeps browsing.
Because the whole thing runs over the chat, closing it by accident is not a disaster. The buyer taps the shop button again and picks up where they were.
Adding items and changing the order
From a product the buyer picks a variant if there is one, sets a quantity, and adds it. From the cart they can change quantities or remove a line before confirming. Nothing is final until they confirm, and nothing is charged for simply adding an item.
Stock is the thing to get right here. If a product is tracked and runs out, the cart should say so before checkout rather than after, which is why the stock setting on each product is worth a minute of your attention.
From cart to confirmed order
At confirmation the buyer gives what you need to fulfil the order: name, delivery details, and any note. They are already identified by their Telegram account, so there is no password to invent and no email to verify.
The order then appears in your dashboard, and the buyer gets a confirmation in the chat they ordered from.
What the seller sees
You see the items, the quantities, the total, and the buyer's handle. You can message them in the same thread, add a carrier and a tracking number, and the buyer gets that update in Telegram. The orders list also shows whether an order was paid online.
Setting the cart up in your shop
The cart is one of the content blocks the storefront is built from, alongside the product grid, categories and search. Turn it on, check that your products have prices and photos, then place a test order yourself from a second account. Walk it end to end, including the message the buyer gets, before you send the link to anybody. More about the storefront on Telegram Mini App store, and the plan limits on Pricing.