Comments on: Shopping Carts and Madness

By: Steve Lawrence

Steve Lawrence — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I have to disagree with number 1: "Calling a Shopping Cart anything but a Shopping Cart."

Shopping cart is an American term, I'm in the UK and I find it looks unprofessional on a UK site (or American site that sells to the UK) to use a term that has no place within the local vernacular. It would be better to use something that is common to all English speaking countries.

By: hotgazpacho

hotgazpacho — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I take issue with #10 above. Unless you offer flat rate shipping, it is not possible to state the shipping costs BEFORE a customer has enterred their shipping information. Likewise with tax calculation. You cannot compare it exactly to a brick-and-mortar store, either, because often, you don't have to worry about shipping, and the tax rate is the same for everyone who purchases at your store.

By: trigger

trigger — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

you've obviously researched this better than me, do you have any examples of particularily well-designed shopping cart apps?

By: tonyd

tonyd — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I agree with hotgazpacho about #10, I also have problems with 1 and 2.
1. I can think of one good reason for not calling a shopping cart a shopping cart – we’re not all American!
2. I can’t see Barbara Chaparro’s point about “buy” buttons – when I put something in a shopping trolley at a supermarket, I do it because I want to buy it, not because I want to take it for a walk round the shop and put it back later.

The worst thing for me is #6 – “Welcome guest – would you like to login or open an account” – aaargh! Back Button!

By: Unit7285

Unit7285 — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

re Item 1: Don't Call a Shopping Cart anything but a Shopping Cart.

Shopping Cart is a purely American-English term. It sounds horrible in English-English. Very unappealing. We have 'shopping trolleys' and 'shopping baskets' in supermarkets instead, so that's why you won't always find Cart. Don't know what they use in Australia/NZ/South Africa. Anyone?

Personally I don't think it's important what you call it nowadays. This whole metaphor of supermarket shopping is unnecessary now - it was introduced in the mid 90's to explain a completely new concept - online shopping. Well, it's not new now, it's a way of life and doesn't need explaining any more.

And before anyone starts whimpering about 'new users', they'll have figured it out in 10 minutes on someone else's site before they ever look at yours, so there's nothing to worry about!

Plain old 'Shop' seems fine to me, and if you must use the dated Cart/Basket metaphor then do it in the colloquial language of your biggest market.

By: cholmon

cholmon — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I have to agree with not using “buy” buttons just to place an item in the cart. I often add/remove many items to my cart, especially when buying computer parts; I estimate prices for complete systems alot more than I actually buy them.

By: AlexW

AlexW — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Although, as an Australian, I'd always use a 'trolley' rather than a 'cart' at the supermarket, I tend to think the concept of an 'online shopping cart' is pretty well-established, and now stands apart from the bricks and mortar equivalent.

I know you don't always have to be entirely literal, but I know johnlewis.com call their shopping cart a 'basket', and the idea of adding a 4 foot wide LCD TV to a 'basket' seems kinda flimsy to me. "I'm spending two grand on a TV and you're making me carry it in a basket?!"

So for the same reason I wouldn't label a search button with 'Find' or 'Where is it?', I'd agree with Barbara and always call a cart a cart.

I'd also agree with cholmon. People use shopping carts for lots of reasons other than directly buying items. I know I sometimes use them as a calculator to tote up how much item A, B and C would be if I decided to by them.

Sometimes I might plug in a random product to just get a feel for potential shipping charges. For instance, if the shipping is over '$x' I might rules out the purchase completely.

Other times I might simply use the cart as a bookmark system. The thinking goes something like:

"This t-shirt store is great... I'm going to pick out three to order .... so far, these are the three coolest t-shirts I've seen... but if I find a better one, I'll ditch one of my current choices."

If, as a shopper, I believe that pressing 'Buy' possibly means they are going to immediately ask me for my credit card, I'm probably going to be reticent to use the cart that way.

And if I have a competitor's t-shirt site on another tab that is making it easy for me play with a list of potential purchases, I'm a big step closer to completing the purchase.

As far as examples go, Amazon spend thousands of hours testing and tweaking their cart system, so you can learn a lot from them.

By: tidalx

tidalx — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I never notice the following before this blog, amazon.co.uk uses ‘view basket’ while amazon.com uses ‘view cart’. Looks like they did their research.

By: ivanv

ivanv — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Very good article. Here are my opinions on a couple of reader comments above:

Buttons shouldn't be called "Buy" because it feels a bit more committing, IMHO.

And you can show shipping and tax information without asking the user to enter all his information. Just look at PriceGrabber.com

Bonus: I *guess* shopping carts are ought to be named that way because almost everybody online is used to that term (in the english world anyway).

By: ntg

ntg — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I saw a site using an “Add to favorites” button and a “Buy Now” button with each article. And inside their Favorites section, there was the “Buy now” again to start the actual buying proces of all things kept in there. I think that was neat, because most people will understand the concept of adding to favorites. Maybe “Bookmark this item” would be even better.