In Chapter 6, From Shop Basket to Final Checkout, we explained how the shop basket is stored in the session. The basket templates are actually different ways of showing the content in the basket. Many site owners prefer to have the shop basket showing in all pages, or at least within the pages related to the online shop. That's where the Joomla! cart modules come in. The mod_virtuemart_cart module is VirtueMart's answer to this request. The same function is also available in the all-in-one mod_virtuemart module. Some third parties also provide a similar function using their own modules. Basically, the principle is the same. We can use the default Minicart template or customize it for our needs.
While the name Minicart may seem to indicate that the cart is small, the actual content of that cart depends on the actual template code. You can make it a giant cart if you like. But, of course that may interfere with the whole design of the page. A giant cart will probably over-shadow...