New Sart Cart Function Question

We found the problem and the fix will be part of a patch that we will release soon.

Sean: the issue here was that the saved cart could not be restored after visiting the checkout page. The saved cart was not deleted, it was just inaccessible due to an issue in the database query. Specifically, once you log into the store your customer id is saved with the cart record in the database.

The query used to restore the cart included the customer id, but the customer id was not available on the next visit to the store (unless you logged in). Therefore, the query could not find the record to restore it.

Once again: ProductCart automatically saves the shopping cart. A "Save Cart" button is not the way to go as the customer might forget to save it (see move above on this).

Now, ProductCart automatically clears the saved cart when you begin checkout, since you are now purchasing the products that you had put in the cart.

We understand the some users are suggesting that a saved shopping cart is not cleared until the end of the checkout process (when the order has been completed).

We agree with this and we will make this adjustment to the code soon.

Thanks for your feedback.

Hi Russ,
  It's available to customers via the Account Menu page when they are logged in : pc/CustPref.asp and then "Saved Shopping Carts". 
The available options to the customer are : Restore / Rename / Delete.

Hi Russ,
       I couldn't say without researching it in the code, but it sounds like you might want the Gift Registry functionality ?? http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/productcart/settings-gift_registries

Thanks for your feedback. We'll definitely keep in mind for the future.

There are pros and cons in both approaches.

The feature has been designed the way it is because it prevents scenarios like the following one from happening: customer is shopping, takes a long phone call, session has expired. The cart has been saved because ProductCart saved it automatically. When the customer refreshes the page, ProductCart will offer the customer to restore the saved shopping cart or not. With a "Save Cart" button, the information would have been lost (unless the customer clicked on the button, which they might not have).

FYI: in an update that we will release next week for v4, we have added the "saved shopping cart nicknaming" feature that you mentioned in your post. So if the customer is a registered customer and they log in, they will see a menu item that says "Saved shopping carts" and will now be able to rename any of the saved carts.