permanent cart or session cart

searain

I am doing an e-commerce cart.

In the past, I would have the cart saved in session. So the cart is destroyed when the session is terminated.

But I saw zen cart and other system using the permanent cart now.

Using the permanent cart is good for the sale I think. But add a little confustion, say the shopper didn't log in yet, but he add some thing to his current cart, then he logged in, he also has something in his permanent cart.

Do I merge these two carts together? Will the shopper feel inconvience if we merge his old cart to the new cart? he may not need the old cart.

We already has wish list, is this more like the permanent cart?

So what do you think, make the cart session or make the cart permanent?

Thanks!

planetsim

Im not sure inconvience is the correct word, Id be a little concerned really and would probably not make that purchase.

No a wish list is not a permanent cart, a wish list is basically something to user in time would like to one day purchase, not the very next purchase they make.

searain

planetsim wrote:
Im not sure inconvience is the correct word, Id be a little concerned really and would probably not make that purchase.

No a wish list is not a permanent cart, a wish list is basically something to user in time would like to one day purchase, not the very next purchase they make.

Thanks!

So you mean you prefer to use the session cart instead of permanent cart.

I kind prefer to the session cart too. But zen-cart, and amazon both use the permanent cart approach. And the zen-cart even make the permanent cart as a benefits register customers could have.

It seems that permanent cart is a trend here. Any comments?

Drakla

You could offer them a choice when they log in, like:

You have these items in your cart since your previous visit, would you like to keep them?

searain

Drakla wrote:
You could offer them a choice when they log in, like:

You have these items in your cart since your previous visit, would you like to keep them?

Thanks, that is a good idea. Surprise enough, my salesperson come up with the same idea the seconds after I finish the question.