Cart restore
Sending a customer back to a cart they abandoned. Audience: store admins and CS leads following up on abandoned carts.
Getting a link
On the dashboard’s Highest-Value Abandoned Carts widget, the Share action copies a restore link for that cart. Send it to the customer.
The link is a front-end URL of the form:
https://your-site/actions/best-sellers/cart/restore?number=<cart number>The cart number is Commerce’s own order number, not the reference. Nothing else is needed on the URL.
What happens when the customer opens it
The cart becomes their active cart, a “Your cart has been restored” notice is set, and they are redirected to the page configured in Commerce’s Load cart redirect URL setting.
Who can restore a cart
| Cart belongs to | Visitor | Result |
|---|---|---|
| A guest | Anyone | The cart is restored. |
| A registered customer | That customer, logged in | The cart is restored. |
| A registered customer | Logged out | A “Login Required” page, with a login link that returns to the restore URL. |
| Anyone | A different logged-in user | The same page, saying the cart belongs to another account. |
A logged-in visitor can never take over another account’s cart, and a logged-out visitor can never open a registered customer’s cart. Anonymous and guest carts have no such restriction, so treat those links as shareable secrets: anyone holding one can load that cart.
When a link stops working
- The cart has been completed. The link reports that the order is already complete.
- The cart has been purged. Commerce deletes inactive carts on the schedule set by its Purge inactive carts settings, and once a cart is gone the link 404s. The dashboard widget shows the store’s current purge duration next to the cart list, or says purging is disabled.
- The cart number is missing or wrong.
Requirements
The route is a front-end action, so the visitor needs no control panel access. Restoring sets the cart on the visitor’s session, so it takes effect in the browser that opened the link.