Things in Shopping Carts you HATE

[grnidone]

I started a discussion in "Let's Talk about Shopping Cart Conversion" (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=3122) but nobody wanted to talk about it.

So, let's talk about the things in shopping carts you *hate* that will cause you *not* to complete your buy.

I hate having to create an account *before* I can see what's in my cart.

[seomike]

finding out that payments go through paypal or somewhere offsite.

[Opie1Canopie]

Finding out something is out of stock after I've placed it in my cart.

[Mel66]

Opie, I can go you one better -- finding out something is out of stock when you receive your email order confirmation, only to find out (by CALLING the business) that they already shipped your other items, which you may not have wanted without the out-of-stock item, and by the way they'll be charging you shipping fees twice (once for the in-stock items, and again when the out-of-stock items come in and ship) - and it's too late to cancel the order for the in-stock items since they're already in the pipeline. UGH!

Here's another one - a shopping cart that has a section for "pay by gift card" which DOESN'T WORK. And the only way you find out it doesn't work is, again, by calling their CS department - because their cart doesn't give you any kind of error message, it just keeps prompting you to enter your credit card number! This just happened to me this morning as I tried to order from a major national retailer. Their phone rep told me the "pay by gift card" section was broken. I suggested they remove that portion from their shopping cart, and he said, "well, when they tried to do that, it removed all the payment options including 'pay by credit card,' so they had to leave it in there." HUH?? Unbelievable. And then, when you cave and input your credit card info and try to complete your order for an item that was advertised as having free shipping, your confirmation page tells you you're being charged shipping. Are ya kiddin' me?? :mad: Oh, and this was after their very confusing, yet required, sign-in process at the beginning of the checkout. I am totally stunned that major retailers would have such poorly designed carts.

[seomontreal]

I hate having to add something to my cart to find out what currency it is listed and/or how much the shipping will be.

I think this accounts for a great % of shopping cart abondonment! We weren't planning to buy at the stage we added the products to our shopping cart!

[grnidone]

seomontreal,

Help me understand...you added it to your shopping cart, but did not want to buy?

Or are you saying that you don't like having to add something to your cart just to find out what the shipping costs are?

[seomontreal]

seomontreal,

Help me understand...you added it to your shopping cart, but did not want to buy?

Or are you saying that you don't like having to add something to your cart just to find out what the shipping costs are?

OK...Dec 24 I decided to purchase Norton AntiVirus software for my Mom as a Christmas gift. I went to the Norton site first, but wasn't sure if I was seeing US or CDN dollars - I assumed US because I don't think Norton is a CDN company. I then went to the Future Shop website and the Best Buy website to do a price comparison.

It looked like Norton was the better offer of the three, but I still wasn't sure what the currency was so I added the software to my shopping cart as you are sometimes told there.

I did end up buying from Norton because I was pretty sure the price was in US dollars and with the exchange it was still a better price.

I am saying that I don't like to add something to my shopping cart just to find out what the shipping costs are and what the currency is. Currency should be all over the website (IMHO) and there should be a link to a page with info on shipping rates.

this is a huge problem for Canadians. For example, we have a Best Buy store here, which also owns Future Shop, though Future Shop is a Canadian store. I can buy anything online at FS and when I went to buy an MP3 player from Best Buy, found out that what I am seeing pertains only to the US and they cannot ship to Canada!!! I found this out only when trying to pay! Toys R Us had the same problem years ago. We have the store here, they have an online presence...never did it occur to me that they don't ship to Canada or won't let you enter a credit card with a Canadian address! *argh* I could just scream! And they wonder why Canadians shop online so little...we have so little choice *grin*

...stepping off the soapbox now...

[fathom]

Finding an item I am willing to buy, willing to pay the exchange, willing to pay for shipping, and willing to pay cross-border duty... but the merchant only ships to US distinations yet doesn't have a big sign at the entry page indicating this!