A persistent cart is a feature in ecommerce systems that ensures the items a visitor adds to their shopping cart are saved across multiple sessions. Even if the visitor logs out, switches devices, or leaves the website, their cart remains intact. When they return, they can see their selected items just as they left them, without starting over.
How it works
The persistent cart uses a cookie to track and identify the customer. To view the items in their cart, the visitor must use the same device and web browser they were using before the cookie expires. This ensures a seamless shopping experience, as customers can continue shopping without losing their cart contents.
Persistent cart across devices
You can integrate the ecommerce systems to pass the cart contents or a Cart ID through the URL, allowing the cart to be rebuilt on any device.
However, this generally requires code customization on your ecommerce system to handle it.
Learn more in Rebuilding the Shopping Cart on your ecommerce system.
Why do customers see an empty cart
Sometimes, ecommerce systems don’t recognize or record the customer’s cart content, causing the customer's cart to appear empty at checkout. The systems display the cart content as soon as they recognize the customer. This delay can be due to various factors, such as slow server response times, issues with the cookie, or other technical glitches.