Ensuring a product in cart until completed checkout

[CHexclaim]

Dear Zen Cart

I am not a developer nor I am a user of the Zen Cart system.

It is that I came across an unpleasant situation while shopping on an online store which uses Zen Cart platform. This was that I added a product to the cart but during the checkout process (entering shipping address, etc.) the product became out of stock, so the next time the contents of my cart were show it said that the product was out of stock.

As an end user of the system my opinion is that the availability of the products that are inside the cart should be ensured until the checkout process is complete or terminates for some other reason.

Regards, Charlie.

[RescoCCC]

This is not a Zen Cart issue. It is an issue with the way the web site owner manages inventory. In other words, it's the type of thing that can happen with any shopping cart platform.

[stevesh]

There are only two ways to subtract stock in an ecommerce program:

1. Remove the product from stock when it is placed in the shopping cart. Problem with this is that many (many) visitors place stuff in their carts that they really don't have any intention of buying, so that product isn't available to other visitors.

2. Remove the product from stock when the order is completed. As you found out, that isn't ideal either, as if there is limited stock, someone may check out before you do and you'll receive an out-of-stock message.

Every shopping cart program I'm familiar with, including Zencart, use #2, as the lesser of two evils.

[CHexclaim]

Thank you for your replies.

I understand it is a difficult issue to handle.

Regards, Charlie

[CHexclaim]

To add on,

I am not familiar in the way shopping carts platforms work, but the should, at some time, interact with the stock management system.

If Zen Cart platform is able to do it, there should be a way to give the administrator of the online store to decide which way to handle the stock for this particular issue.

If option 1. is chosen there may be some sort of time out mechanism for the user to complete check out process. Some reasonable time.


On the other hand, in Zencart, what happens if I do not delete from my cart a product that becomes out of stock during the checkout process? Is the product automatically deleted from the cart? If not, what happens when the product is re-stocked in the store? Is one of the items automatically assigned to it?

If this is so, some stock issues may occur. For products that take a long time to re-stock, many may become sitting idle in carts of visitors that are not longer interested in the product.

Thanks, Charlie.

[Kim]

Sorry to hear you had a problem using a Zen cart system.

We are constantly improving the program and will consider your feedback. Thank you.

[DrByte]

On the other hand, in Zencart, what happens if I do not delete from my cart a product that becomes out of stock during the checkout process? Is the product automatically deleted from the cart?

The customer will see a message saying that there's insufficient stock to fulfill their order. Or, if you've configured the store to allow it anyway, they will be allowed to checkout even though there's a backorder. It would be up to the store administrator to communicate order status updates to the customer if the storeowner chooses to allow backorder checkouts.

If not, what happens when the product is re-stocked in the store? Is one of the items automatically assigned to it?

If the product is re-stocked and the customer has left the item in their basket, then the next time they login the item will be returned to their basket so they can complete their purchase.
If the item is no longer available, then upon login they will be notified of the items having been removed from their cart.

You can see all of these things in action simply by using the software and creating such scenarios.