Alert Shoppers who are running on empty

June 29, 2006 | In Getting Started, News & Announcements |

With our 6/28 release we have fixed many of the known issues for Checkout Manager such as the Minimum quantity not being enforced; check out the known issues list for a full list of resolved issues. There is also a small enhancement hidden away on the Advanced Settings page that allows you to customize the empty cart message (when shoppers go to checkout without any items).

empty cart message in checkout

Figure 1: Checkout Manager Advanced Settings Empty Cart Message field.

I believe the merchant that requested this wanted something more personalized for their store—“Your heart may be full, but your cart is empty”. I did some quick testing of the feature and not only can you add text for your message, but the field (like many others in Checkout Manager) also accepts HTML. Some quick thoughts on possible uses for this feature:

  • Customize your empty cart message using CSS so it stands out.

  • Include images to call more attention to no items in the cart.

  • Include links to a coupon page, direct shoppers to a best sellers page, or even a “why shop from us” page if the shopper is trying to see if your checkout looks trustworthy.

Feel free to use my empty cart haiku or submit your own to the blog:

You have no products
Help fight cart abandonment
Click Add to Cart now

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business

7 Comments »

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  1. Dang, Paul. You guys are on a roll!

    You gonna change the name of the blog to “New Store Feature of the Week?”

    Happy Independence Day!

    Comment by Rob Snell — July 4, 2006 #

  2. Thanks for the tip. I have implemented it on http://www.carbsmart.com. Andrew

    Comment by Andrew DiMino — July 5, 2006 #

  3. The first line says “With our 6/28 release….” and so I clicked on the Known Issue List, and the latest release is still showing as back on April 12 for the last update to Checkout Manager…

    Could you please clarify for me what the 6/28 release is for….or maybe have someone update the update? :)

    Thanks !!

    Comment by Pat — July 5, 2006 #

  4. Yes, the Release Notes were running a bit behind the late breaking news of the blog. They are updated now.

    Paul

    Comment by Administrator — July 5, 2006 #

  5. You tease! Minimum quantities are still not being enforced, and it’s still listed as a known issue on the updated June list. Can’t wait to use checkout manager, can’t use it til that’s fixed…

    Comment by Serpinicu — July 7, 2006 #

  6. 7/08/06

    Serpinicu,

    We just did a release to address the minimum quantity issue with Checkout Manager. I’ll update the known issues list shortly.

    Paul

    Comment by Administrator — July 7, 2006 #

  7. Regarding the following outstanding issue: 620637 The Order Status page does not update if a merchant modifies the order directly in the Order Manager. Merchants are advised to communicate updated totals by email with the buyer. This should not pose a problem as order status is typically used for shipment tracking and any order modifications should be communicated directly with the buyer as a best practice so as to avoid chargebacks.

    This issue is a big problem. The method most merchants use to communicate changes is to email the changed Order Status page to the customer. Since the Order Status page is not updated after an order gets modified, we have to compose our own email, which looks less official to a customer, and is also prone to human error. We have been one of many merchants who have filed a bug report on this problem, only to have it automatically resolved, despite not being fixed. This feature worked before the new checkout manager was released, and months have passed since its release. It is time to get this insidious bug fixed!

    Mark

    Comment by Mark Sweiger — July 12, 2006 #

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