Make items in cart disappear from catalog

vintageshop:

Yes, I tested it and I see the error. An error that can only be fixed if the user deletes all of that item from the cart and starts over. I was wondering why this was allowed. Why not give the error, but not increase the number of items in the cart beyond 1? My cart will keep adding items so long as you go to the item again and hit add to cart without any seeming limit. I understand it probably would not let you check out, I just wanted to prevent the entire ability to have more than one in your cart. I posed the possibility of shifting the continue shopping button so it didn't immediately take you back to the same item that you just added to your cart. This would cause less temptation or mistakes in trying to add it again.

Many people seem to think this is a dumb idea. Maybe. I've seen it work for other sites so I would say not everyone agrees with this assessment. Still if zencart saves the cart for logged in users then this isn't something that would be easy to apply, but before I abandoned the idea I wanted to see if I was missing something within the zencart structure. Seems I'm not. This is just the way it is programmed to work.Well there are several years of experience at work here from the folks who responded to this post who KNOW it's not a good idea and it's really not the e-commerce works even for large retailers.. I can tell you not just from my years of experience, but from my own personal experince as an online shopper is that this is not the way large retail e-commerce sites work either.. As an example, I was shopping on Sears.com for a blouse.. By the time I was ready to check out one item in my cart was no longer available (as someone else purchased the item after I added it to my cart). My ONLY option was to select a different color that was in stock, and in order to do that, I had to remove the out of stock item from my cart.. So Zen Cart doesn't operate ANY differently..

Ran out of time to edit the previous post. I did want to thank those that responded. It revealed the attributes of the default cart clearly, so I'm sure now that I can write a description of the way this all works so that my customers know what to do if the error occurs and that just because an item is in the cart does not mean that it will be available when they go to check out.

DivaVocals:

As an example, I was shopping on Sears.com

I do hear what you are saying. I wonder if other e-commerce sites would have the same issue as Sears. Neiman Marcus as an example, won't let you add to your cart a number that is greater than the number in stock. You don't appear to have this problem of having an item in your cart and then it is gone. So I think different clients have different expectations. I was hoping to mimic Neimans, Saks, Gilt, and some of these other high end sites as opposed to Sears. Which may sound snobby, but I wanted to model my site after stores that have good reputations for customer service so I was looking at those sites and trying to copy their functions.

I am a bit confused ...

I go to Saks website ...

I add 10 of their product for:
3.1 Phillip Lim Scout Drawstring Hobo

to my cart ... they tell me there are only 7 ... and change my quantity ...

I open a different browser at the same time and add 10 to my cart ... they tell me there are only 7 ... and change my quantity ...

But, that quantity does not change based on what other customers are doing at the time of making the order, meaning there could be 50 people trying to get 1 of the seven products ...

Now in Zen Cart, you are told that the quantity is more than what is in stock ... we mark that to be changed by the customer ...

We do not change the quantity for the customer, just give the message that they are trying to order too many ...

Now you could customize the code to change the quantity and give the message at the same time ...

Other than that difference of the quantity being changed for the customer or having the customer make the change themselves that appears to be the only difference ...

The nice things about Zen Cart, is if there is something you want to work a little differently, you can customize the code to work "your way" ... and you would be closer to what Saks is doing but they do not appear to be watching what "all" customers are doing at the same time, just the current customer based on the current stock ...

Is this the only change that you are trying to accomplish? The change of the quantity to what is available rather than just have the message? :lookaroun

vintageshop:

I do hear what you are saying. I wonder if other e-commerce sites would have the same issue as Sears. Neiman Marcus as an example, won't let you add to your cart a number that is greater than the number in stock. You don't appear to have this problem of having an item in your cart and then it is gone. So I think different clients have different expectations. I was hoping to mimic Neimans, Saks, Gilt, and some of these other high end sites as opposed to Sears. Which may sound snobby, but I wanted to model my site after stores that have good reputations for customer service so I was looking at those sites and trying to copy their functions.

It does sound snobby because you are still missing the point that EVERYONE responding to this thread has been trying to make.. Because Sears isn't a HIGH END store you think that the functionality of their e-commerce functionality is somehow not as "good" as Neiman Marcus?? Rubbish.. If I try to add more items than what's in stock in ANY of the MAJOR retailers (and for the record Sears IS a MAJOR retailer) I am not allowed to do it.. That includes Sears, Target, Walmart, Macy's or Neiman Marcus etc.. etc.... Bottomline is as Linda pointed out MAJOR retailers function very much like Zen Cart in that if there is only ONE item in stock, TEN DIFFERENT shoppers can ALL add that item to their cart.. However, only ONE of them will be allowed to complete their purchase and the others will be given a message at CHECKOUT that the item is no longer in stock.. (as demonstrated in my example)

Now like Linda said you can change this so that the quantity added to the cart cannot exceed the number in stock (versus displaying an out of stock message), and you can even have it automatically re-set the quantity to exactly what's in stock.. However, you maintain that you want to change Zen Cart to function in a way the no other MAJOR retailer's shopping cart systems system functions, and for the same reasons that have been communicated in this thread.. we have ALL been trying to explain to you WHY that is a bad idea, and you have been trying to convince us that this is how MAJOR retailer's shopping cart systems work. As others have already stated, the truth is they don't operate this way. Happy to be proven wrong.. Can you provide even ONE example of a MAJOR retailer who's shopping cart system functions in the manner you are describing??

vintageshop:

Ran out of time to edit the previous post. I did want to thank those that responded. It revealed the attributes of the default cart clearly, so I'm sure now that I can write a description of the way this all works so that my customers know what to do if the error occurs and that just because an item is in the cart does not mean that it will be available when they go to check out.

Which is how it works for MAJOR retailers as well..

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