Customers Losing Carts
Printed From: ProductCart E-Commerce Solutions
Category: ProductCart
Forum Name: Using ProductCart
Forum Description: Running your store with ProductCart
URL: https://forum.productcart.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=5574
Printed Date: 10-March-2025 at 11:02am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Customers Losing Carts
Posted By: Polly
Subject: Customers Losing Carts
Date Posted: 18-April-2013 at 8:01pm
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In the last few months, we've had increasing numbers of customers complain that their cart gets lost, and sometimes I've managed to replicate it. It only happens to customers who are logged in. And only to people who have left their cart for a period of time, perhaps a half-hour or more. The rest is a little hazy. Some of them had a named saved cart that got lost; others lost their only (default-named) cart. Here are some of my test results: 1) I logged in at 9:08 with 3 items already in my cart. I didn't name my cart; I walked away and returned at 9:54 - the cart was gone. (I did not make a note of what page I left it sitting at.) 2) Logged in, Saved cart with name "Testing" - Searched for an item, then sat at the search screen and went to a meeting. Returned an hour later - cart was gone. No cart named Testing, and top default-named cart was an old date with old items. 3) Same test, same results, but I left it sitting at the View Cart page. I believe I've gotten this message each time: Your cart is empty. https://shop.rings-things.com/cart/pc/CustSavedCarts.asp" rel="nofollow - View saved shopping carts . (You may need to https://shop.rings-things.com/cart/pc/Checkout.asp?cmode=1" rel="nofollow - log back in .) Thank you! https://shop.rings-things.com/cart/pc/default.asp" rel="nofollow"> 
4) I did a long series of tests with named carts and had some very strange results. Sometimes my newest-named cart was gone, but the PREVIOUSLY-named cart had my newest cart's items! I can write this up too, but it's rather long and messy so if you don't need it, I'd rather not. We don't currently have any add-ons for saved carts or saved sessions, since the session saver is now built in, and the carts SAVE fine; they just sometimes disappear. I assume it happens when the customer gets auto-logged out. The only setting we can find for saved carts is for restoring them when returning to the store, and that works fine. (It always works when you weren't logged in.) It *generally* seems that if you left our site / closed your browser promptly after the last time you viewed your cart, you were safe. We can't retrieve these orders for our customers, because they didn't actually go through checkout and get to the Payment page, so there is nothing in the Incompletes. They are just plain gone. Help! ------------- ~~ R&T systems director |
Replies:
Posted By: whizzinpc
Date Posted: 19-April-2013 at 8:00pm
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We've had some weird behaviors with the carts not being saved also. I think it has something to do with when your logged in and you add stuff to your cart then your session times out and the cart is gone. Sometimes people will go to checkout and fill out the first part that creates an account then they linger around or go back and decide to keep shopping.... and eventually they will lose the cart. |
Posted By: Matt
Date Posted: 19-April-2013 at 9:08pm
| Sometimes people have issues with premature session loss due to incorrect server settings. However, it sounds like a normal timeout in your case. The default timeout on the server is usually 20 minutes. It ensures the server is not wasting resources on sessions that are inactive. Once the customer comes back the cart is automatically restored. |
Posted By: Polly
Date Posted: 22-April-2013 at 11:19am
That is definitely true when they are **not** logged in. But, sometimes when they **are** logged in, the most-recent saved cart is gone. Which is very frustrating for them if they spent a few hours shopping, have 40+ lines in their cart, and were ready to place their order. I've been able to replicate this about 50% of the times I've tried. It's just gone. Occasionally when I return, my active saved cart is gone, but my second-most-recent saved cart has my "current" cart's contents. ------------- ~~ R&T systems director |
Matt wrote:Posted By: Polly
Date Posted: 24-April-2013 at 8:23pm
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We'll submit this as a ticket, with the details above, plus I will write up the other (stranger but related) issue of some (older) saved carts getting my newest cart's contents, but the newest cart is gone. I assume it is related so it may help solve the mystery. I may be able to replicate this in someone else's shop too, if that would help! ------------- ~~ R&T systems director |