Reconsider Removing Items from Shopping Cart

[somanypostcards]

Two days ago one of my long-standing repeat customers let me know a postcard was removed from his shopping cart and sold to someone else.  Luckily I found a duplicate, listed it, and let my customer know.  Before he bought it, another long-standing repeat customer put this postcard in his shopping cart.  Today I got a note asking if I still had this postcard, as it was removed from his shopping cart.  I found a duplicate in my own collection, and this time I listed it with "Reserved for" in the title.

eBay, please do not remove items from shopping carts.  If I am in a grocery store and put toilet paper in my shopping cart, another shopper does NOT remove it from my cart.  I have wonderful repeat buyers who often buy multiple postcards, both at fixed price and auctions, and wait to pay to save me money on postage and to get a combined shipment.  This benefits me and them, as often this results in payments high enough so that the postcards are mailed in packages with tracking instead of first class letters.  It seems wrong to penalize these thoughtful customers by STEALING items out of their shopping carts, just because someone else pays first.

[paradiso*bella*a*venire]

The way I understand it, items in carts are fair game until a buyer buys it. People that have items in carts are basically holding the item without committing to buying it.

There are people who put stuff in carts but never buy, so what's  the other interested parties to do? Pass it up having no idea if that person will pull the trigger  or not just because its in the cart?

The saying "you snooze, you loose" comes to mind

[hurryagain]

@somanypostcards 

The reason why the item was "removed from your customer's shopping cart" is because that customer did not buy it.  Putting items in your cart is not a commit to buy.   Unless an item has sold, or the customer hits the buy it now button and "commits to buy," the item is free game for the first person to successfully complete a purchase on the item.

 Could you imagine if I went to your listings and placed ALL of your listings in my cart and then did not bother pay for them...just let them sit in there?   How would you be able to conduct business if i had all of your items tied up in my cart? 

[dhbookds]

It's not sold, til it's sold.  Some people use the cart as a "holding" spot.......some forever, picking and choosing what they will buy when they decide to pay for something.  Someone just posted about putting bread in their groc store cart, going to get something else to put in it, and finding the bread gone......so people at groc stores DO take things out.

The only way to be sure you "have" something is to buy and pay for it..........the boards would light up if listings were removed since they are in carts but people weren't paying for them.........

[eunster1313]

Your shopping cart

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/paying-items/shopping-cart?id=4360&st=12&pos=1&query=Your%20shoppin... 

[lacemaker3]

I'm sorry, but I don't agree with this, and I think most sellers would agree with me.

Other websites have tried this approach, where if a buyer puts an item into their shopping cart, it is reserved for them. But it was widely abused and created hardship for many sellers. Some people called it "cart-jacking" because it effectively blocked a lot of sales.

Many buyers took advantage of the items being "reserved" without thought or consideration for the sellers or other buyers. Sometimes a seller would put a competitor's items into their cart, often all the lower-priced items, to take them off the market and leave their own items available for sale at a higher price. Sometimes an unthinking or inconsiderate buyer would put many items into their cart, so that they could pick and choose at their leisure what to buy, and would block potential sales to other buyers for a long time.

If your buyer really wanted the items, then they should have bought them instead of leaving them in their cart. 

[cynthealee2]

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@dhbookds wrote:

It's not sold, til it's sold.  Some people use the cart as a "holding" spot.......some forever, picking and choosing what they will buy when they decide to pay for something.  Someone just posted about putting bread in their groc store cart, going to get something else to put in it, and finding the bread gone......so people at groc stores DO take things out.

The only way to be sure you "have" something is to buy and pay for it..........the boards would light up if listings were removed since they are in carts but people weren't paying for them.........

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Twas me.... I was thinking that hard when I read that post lol.

Daughter was grocery shopping 4 weeks ago, put stuff in her cart THREE times, and every time she turned around to get something off the shelf and turned back to put it in her cart people had emptied her cart. She gave up and came home.

Next time she went shopping she took a buddy, buddy watched the cart while she got the items off the shelves.

The two differences are, on eBay they TELL you that until you BUY it it's still up for grabs for anyone else... At the store it was the start of the nutty panic shopping for the pandemic.

[somanypostcards]

I understand the current policy is that items in a shopping cart can be purchased by someone else until the item is paid for.  I personally wish this policy were changed.  Most people are honest and considerate.  Many of my customers wait to pay to save me money on fees and shipping costs.  I hate to see them disappointed.  And I still maintain that most people think that an item in a shopping cart is a step towards a purchase.  Anyone else agree with me?

[myboardid]

You do realize that your competition would load your entire inventory into their shopping cart and keep it there forever, right? It would be a bad idea to change it. Explain to your buyer that everything is available to others until actually purchased. They will have to live with it.

[upgradedendmills]

Some people load up a shopping cart in order to obtain a discount. They are not customers until they actually purchase and pay.

[paradiso*bella*a*venire]

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@somanypostcards wrote:

I understand the current policy is that items in a shopping cart can be purchased by someone else until the item is paid for.  I personally wish this policy were changed.  Most people are honest and considerate.  Many of my customers wait to pay to save me money on fees and shipping costs.  I hate to see them disappointed.  And I still maintain that most people think that an item in a shopping cart is a step towards a purchase.  Anyone else agree with me?

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I do want to recognize though, how youre looking after your long time customers and wanting them to have a great  buying experience by allowing items placed in their cart to remain there for them. I totally get that and admire you for that. It tells me you care about them to want them to get what they  are after without issues

Just wanted to add that so you know your efforts are recognized 🙂

[dhbookds]

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@somanypostcards wrote:

I understand the current policy is that items in a shopping cart can be purchased by someone else until the item is paid for.  I personally wish this policy were changed.  Most people are honest and considerate.  Many of my customers wait to pay to save me money on fees and shipping costs.  I hate to see them disappointed.  And I still maintain that most people think that an item in a shopping cart is a step towards a purchase.  Anyone else agree with me?

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I think most do look upon it as "step"............that doesn't mean they will necessarily purchase the item in the near or distant future............. and that's the rub.........to "save" it for them, you have to take it off the market......with no guarantee they will buy it.......which most sellers aren't going to want to do.  On an individual basis, it's different.......someone writes me they want x, but need to wait 4 days to pay.........I cancel the listing and put it back up on their pay date........Most pay/some don't.  But that's my individual choice to hold the item.  I would not like the items held off the market as a general process..........

[hollysfinds]

For better or worse we all ( sellers & buyers ) have to live with how ebay works.

Your buyers need to learn to function within the system if they want a certain item.

Putting something in a cart on ebay is basically no different than placing it on your watch list.

[cynthealee2]

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@somanypostcards wrote:

I understand the current policy is that items in a shopping cart can be purchased by someone else until the item is paid for.  I personally wish this policy were changed.  Most people are honest and considerate.  Many of my customers wait to pay to save me money on fees and shipping costs.  I hate to see them disappointed.  And I still maintain that most people think that an item in a shopping cart is a step towards a purchase.  Anyone else agree with me?

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you got 2 options...

Tell the buyers they can give you a list of the ones they want, you create a listing with just those cards in it with all the discounts, and shipping built in.

Or they need to pick everything out at once and stick it in the cart at one time then buy then.

BOTH ways work well, and I have been doing it for years.

[*madison]

The cart is no different to the watch list, the item is available to anyone who pays first..

Also, as a poster pointed out, competitors would put your items in the cart so no-one could buy them if items were not removable, some sellers would be doing this to each other, and they wouldn't sell anything..