eBay Shopping Basket FAQs: how long does stuff stay in my basket?

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Full shopping trolleySince eBay UK’s shopping basket was introduced, a number of people have wondered about the longevity of items added to it. How long do they stay put? Might they just disappear if you’re shopping over a number of days? eBay gave us an answer:

The content of the basket will remain as long as you keep it. eBay will never remove an item from your basket unless the buyer clicks the “remove” link. The buyer is in full control. So if the item expires, eBay will just show a message saying that the item has expired.

It’s nice to know they’ve designed this part properly. If your website has a shopping cart cookie that expires in days or even hours, you might want to reconsider the idea: losing people’s shopping because they haven’t paid for it instantly is a great way to cost yourself both sales and customers.

7 Responses

  1. And – does anyone else have the basket coming and going without them doing anything to affect it? Mine disappeared yesterday and I was back to “buy it now” buttons: this morning, my basket is back. I didn’t opt in or out of any tests in the meantime.

    Freaky.

  2. I’m obviously having a dense moment here:

    I sell unique items. If somebody puts one in their cart, and then doesn’t pay for it, why do I want it to stay there “indefinitely”? Don’t I want the basket to empty?

  3. Oh, that makes more sense. So will the seller know it’s in anybody’s basket, or does it only reveal that when actually bought?

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