Usability question: is cart restore a Good Thing?

[tlahtine]

Think about the following scenario:
User is logged in, adds a product to the cart, logs out(logs out explicitly or just leaves site and timeouts).

She comes back later and logs in. Now the product previously added to shopping cart will appear in the shopping cart, i.e. the shopping cart content from previous session is restored.

I would like to hear opinions/experiences/usability study results whether this zen-cart functionality is a good thing or just confusing? Do people really expert and understand that the shopping cart content is stored between sessions?

[Kim]

Amazon seems to think so ...

[Kenichi]

So do every other major shopping companies I can think of. If millions of $ are spent on research and you see that these companies restore items in your cart, then it's probably a good idea

[stevesh]

Amazon does think so, and I've ended up with two copies of the same book as a result when I wasn't paying attention.

My preference as a customer would be to have a persistent but not permanent cart, with a timeout of a day or two. That would give me time to check other sites, but not so long as to cause the problem above.

[kobra]

Amazon does think so, and I've ended up with two copies of the same book as a result when I wasn't paying attention.

We need a new saying along the lines of

Look before you leap

Maybe

Look before you click

[tlahtine]

I have to admit that "Amazon does so" is indeed a strong argument.

Some of the products I will be selling will have an expiry date. I have made a modification that checks the expiry date and does not allow adding an expired item to the cart. However, I now have an issue with expired items which have been added to the cart earlier.

I think I have three options
1: disable the cart restore all together
2: remove expired products upon restore and keep the rest
3: the "stevesh-way": no restore if the cart is older than timeout period (some days or so), otherwise like #2

What would be the best option?

[kobra]

I now have an issue with expired items which have been added to the cart earlier.

Test it, but if in a previous cart session, but now expired or out of stock it should fail

Do not know what your code checks for or when
Out of stock will fail

[tlahtine]

Do not know what your code checks for or when

During cart restore it checks nothing. This is the part that is not implemented, yet.

[lbowenc]

I have a situation where my client does not allow retail customers (only wholesale) to make accounts. BUT she does want the cart contents to remain between sessions for all customers. Do you know of a way to do this or is there a thread where someone else has done this?

[kobra]

Do you know of a way to do this or is there a thread where someone else has done this?

There has been a discussion and using cookies, which is not totally reliable as the user might not allow them, delete them upon closing browser, might access from another station, etc