A Better Cart Button Arrangement, and Ditching 'Empty Cart'

[Jeff]

I have about 80 of the better, most highly customized, SS commerce websites bookmarked. I've just glanced at all of them in an effort to find ways to improve our checkout process.

I've never liked SS's stock two-row (or more) arrangement of cart buttons which places "Recalculate and 'Empty cart' on top and the vital 'Continue' and 'Checkout' buttons lower on the page.

Others must agree with me because several SS sites went to the (slight) trouble of modifying the cart template to put key buttons in a single row. Many also replaced the stock buttons, sometimes just for cosmetic reasons, but often to emphasize the "Checkout" button.

A few sites de-emphasized the "Empty Cart" button, and two eliminated it altogether. At least for a test, I've ditched the 'Empty Cart' button. On our site the customer can still drop products individually. This results in a bit less clutter. Above all, the chance of a shopper wiping out a big order by accidentally hitting 'Empty' rather than 'Checkout' is virtually eliminated.

Does anyone disagree with my thinking on this? Virtually all major commerce sites have an Empty Cart button (often dangerously close to the Checkout one). But I did see one huge site that offered no means of "flushing the toilet' by mistake.

[dortchjm]

I have copied one of the ShopSite templates and modify it as needed so it's now a "custom template". Study the code, you can rearrange the buttons to fit your needs. I have also added comments to help eliminate phone calls and errors. I know this can be done in SS, but by customizing the template, I can put it exactly where I want it.

To me the empty cart button is invaluable as I do quite a few quotes or phone orders so many times when I get to the cart it's leftovers from the previous customer. It's much easier for me to hit the empty cart than delete each individual item. As far as customers hitting the button by mistake has not been a problem.

Janice

[Jeff]

I can see that, Janice. If you'd want to eliminate the public empty cart button you could still add a secret button somewhere for private use.

Often a customer ordering from a shared machine doesn't want someone discovering what was ordered. A single button to wipe a big order might be more convenient than removing products individually. But I think it wouldn't get used often. Logout would be better I would think.

Just looked at the sites of Walmart, Target, Myshape.com, Amazon, Victoria's Secret and others of that quality. None had a "destruct" button to wipe the whole order. Most had checkboxes for individually removing SKUs. SS has about the same ability even without the mass "Empty Cart" button.

My "Empty Cart" button has been gone for a day. I'm increasingly feeling that removing it was a good move for us and the customer. (but still very open to suggestions)