E-commerce suspend checkout while updating item price
In an e-commerce you update a shop item's price. This should of course be updated throughout the system, including carts with that item in them. How would I go about "suspending" cart checkout while prices are being updated? Just to be clear: The point is to ensure that the new prices are equally applied to everyone, and that the user is informed about the change before checking out! It could also be something other than item price, for instance delivery fees.
6 Replies
I'm no expert, but I think I've seen shopping carts lock in a price at the point that it's presented to the user? So the price of an item when the user clicks "Add to cart" is the price that it remains in the cart, and the price that they pay when they check out, regardless of whether the price changes in the meantime. Same with inventory stuff: show the user what they'll pay, and then lock that in
(Life gets more complex if carts can live for a long time though...)
In that case I guess it requires me to apply some kind of maximum cart lifetime
Exactly
I guess it's just moving the problem 😛 But it's a slightly better user experience?
At least it's a clear approach, but that also means a user could potentially lock in an item that will be on offer, say 50%, and pay full price
I think that would cause some serious backlash
I guess it's similar to reserving an item when a user adds it to their basket -- you don't want to suddenly inform them that it's now out of stock when they check out, but equally you don't want to reserve it forever
Makes sense
"Shopping Cart Theory"