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Let's take Shopify. They consider a shopping cart abandoned right after a customer has entered their email at the 1st step of checkout. I think it's wrong because a customer might need at least 5-10 minutes more to complete a purchase. Even if he doesn't complete it now, he might come back to browse products, then we might find one and go to other websites to read reviews, watch videos about a product elsewhere, and so on. That can take about 1 hour. And then he might become ready to buy. A cart was never abandoned.

Some customers might mull over a purchase a half a day or several ones.

And in some cases, indeed, 10 minutes may be a correct time frame to decide that a cart has been abandonded.

What factors should a developer of an ecommerce shop take into account in regards to the desicion of deeming a shopping cart abandoned? And at what point is it better to consider a cart as such?

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  • 4
    What is the motivation to consider the cart abandoned? Are you running so low on storage that you cannot afford to keep shopping carts?
    – Erik Eidt
    Jun 20, 2020 at 14:28
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    I've left items in my Amazon shopping cart for days, if not weeks
    – Peter M
    Jun 20, 2020 at 15:00
  • @ErikEidt if you don't know why - you won't know an answer; the question isn't for you
    – goja3318
    Jun 20, 2020 at 19:02
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    @goja3318, my question is serious. Perhaps neither of us can speak for Shopify, but you claim 5-10 minutes more is appropriate, so do you want to motivate that?
    – Erik Eidt
    Jun 20, 2020 at 19:14
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    @goja3318 , your attitude in several comments seems rather rude, do you understand that you are pissing off people with your style? if you care to get answers, you might want to be a bit friendlier.
    – Aganju
    Jun 20, 2020 at 20:52

3 Answers 3

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What factors should a developer of an ecommerce shop take into account in regards to the decision of deeming a shopping cart abandoned?

When a shopping cart should be abandoned, if at all, is a business decision (developers don't decide - unless the developer is also the owner).

Every company decides if they want to do this and after what amount of time. Most companies don't do it because it's a dumb idea. Adding something to the shopping cart is the client's clear intention for wanting to buy that item. Why would you ever consider that idea abandoned and give up on a possible sale?

In my personal opinion, a cart should never be abandoned. If I add something to the cart I expect the thing to sit there until I purchase it or I remove it myself, or to stay there until the end of time. If the item becomes unavailable, I still want it to remain there but marked as unavailable or with some message prompting me to update the cart items. What Shopify is doing and how, is entirely their business.

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    When a shopping cart should be abandoned, if at all, is a business decision (developers don't decide - unless the developer is also the owner). --> it doesn't matter who's decision it is. I may be a biseness, but that's not what you need to know to answer the question
    – goja3318
    Jun 20, 2020 at 19:01
  • @goja3318: so what do you think I need to know in order to answer the question?
    – Bogdan
    Jun 21, 2020 at 7:48
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That’s not a software decision, but a business decision. Hopefully the business makes an intelligent decision; if not, you can point this out to them.

The usual method is to leave all purchases in a shopping cart until deleted or purchased. It is also an excellent idea to check that the product is still available at the same price.

Stupid things the business should not do: remove old items from the shopping cart automatically and loses sales. Make it hard to remove items from the shopping cart and possibly force the user not to buy from you ever again.

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  • It probably depends on whether items in shopping carts are removed from the inventory other people see.
    – user253751
    Jun 23, 2020 at 16:17
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The goal of any eCommerce site is to convert your browsing into a sale.

This is why you often don't see back buttons after you hit buy. The site doesn't want to make it easy for you to back out and return to browsing.

Conversely If you leave the site without completing a sale, the site wants to hang on to your basket, so that if you return, its easy for you to continue where you left off.

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  • that's not an answer
    – goja3318
    Jun 20, 2020 at 18:59
  • how do you mean?
    – Ewan
    Jun 20, 2020 at 19:04
  • "What factors should a developer of an ecommerce shop take into account..."
    – Ewan
    Jun 20, 2020 at 19:04

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