Link To OSEL Checkout Page From Email? What's the best way...

[Siamese-Dream.Com]

Hi there, Everyone:

I sometimes email people who abandon their shopping cart with a discount coupon.

I would like to send them a link that would take them directly to the OSEL page, or even the OPAY page, so they can complete their orders in just one or two clicks.

Because those URLs USUALLY have a session ID attached, can I still just send them a URL to those pages WITHOUT a session ID that will work? Will the CORRECT session ID (the one the visitor had when they first started the checkout process) be passed to that customer through a cookie stored on their computer?

what would be the best format for the URL if I want them to go directly to the OPAY or OSEL screens?

One more thing:

If I give them a link directly to the OPAY page, will their shipping methods and payment selection still be sent to that page? (I am using a function in the ToolKit module which keeps their address persistent even when they leave the checkout funnel. I just don't know if the shipping selection and payment selected are persistent or not).

Thanks in advance.

[eMediaSales]

Re: Link To OSEL Checkout Page From Email? What's the best way...

Hi Mark,

The basket session might expire between the abandoned basket and receipt of the coupon. There are several email service providers such as Listrak that have modules and services specifically for this purpose. Specifically, Listrak (we wrote the original module) will send follow up abandoned basket emails, with a special link code that will re-assemble the abandoned basket.

Best,
James

[eMediaSales]

Re: Link To OSEL Checkout Page From Email? What's the best way...

Another email service provider, Bronto, has something similar. But I don't know if they have a general purpose module installation.

[wcw]

Re: Link To OSEL Checkout Page From Email? What's the best way...

One of the issues is the login and password. You would never want to pass both of those in a single non-secure email. So getting the address info might be problematic. You may need to send them to the OCST page.

As for the basket, you can easily use the Tool Kit, which you already have, to re-assemble the basket. There are three different ways to save a basket. One of those could be re-assembled no matter what device they read the email on. If you save the basket to email (could be done without extra steps as they save their customer info on the OCST page), you can restore it by putting that email and a couple other variables in a link. They click the link and you send them to either the BASK or OCST. Those items, which did not go out of stock between the time they left and when they clicked the link, would be ready for purchase.

[Siamese-Dream.Com]

Re: Link To OSEL Checkout Page From Email? What's the best way...

Hi there, James:

Thanks for the mention of Listrak and Bronto. At first glance, they seem a bit more than what I might need now, but they certainly look like they might work out further down the road when I might need something a bit more comprehensive.

thanks again.

[Siamese-Dream.Com]

Re: Link To OSEL Checkout Page From Email? What's the best way...

Thanks for the thoughts, Bill:

One of the issues is the login and password. You would never want to pass both of those in a single non-secure email.

Since my checkout process DOESN'T require the customer to login - nor to create an account, can I avoid that whole problem altogether?

So getting the address info might be problematic. You may need to send them to the OCST page...

Good point. However, I forgot to mention that I would ONLY be sending out email to customers who had AT LEAST made it through the OCST (ship to / bill to page, for anyone wondering) to the OSEL page. I am currently using the Lost And Found Orders module / and show baskets module to manually look for baskets that were abandoned that already had ship to address information filled in.

If you save the basket to email (could be done without extra steps as they save their customer info on the OCST page)

can this be done automatically with toolkit?

I know there is a way to save their basket to email on the basket screen if they input their email address if they actively click the save basket button.

but is there a PASSIVE / automatic way to save their basket on the OCST page to an email address so that IF they return to the checkout process from a different device, it can be automatically reassembled?

Also, I am using a function in toolkit to keep the customer's address info persistent, and my basket timeout is three days. Now if a product goes out of stock and the customer clicks on a link that takes them directly to the OSEL or OPAY pages (without reassembling their basket via the restore basket function of toolkit) will they get an error since one of the products is no longer available? Or will it show correctly just WITHOUT the out of stock product?

~~~~~~

BTW: One thing that would make the lost and found orders module even MORE helpful is if it had the ability to email the details of the basket to the store owner (similar to the Restock Shelves module) after a user-defined period of inactivity.

I see that the Show Baskets module will show the period of inactivity after a basket has been started. So maybe the email could be sent from Show Baskets instead of Lost and Found module?

The only thing I see is that Lot and Found displays ALL the address / checkout info, while Show Baskets shows only a limited amount of info. Is the more complete info available to Show Baskets?

[wcw]

Re: Link To OSEL Checkout Page From Email? What's the best way...

The basket info is based on session which is device specific. So if they were on the mobile and just decide to leave, reading the email at home on the PC/MAC and clicking the link would not refill the address info.

If you could overcome the above (which I don't think you can), you will still need paymentmethod variable. I don't think lost and found is showing the payment info so the deepest you could go is OSEL even if they were on the same device.

There is one token to save the basket to email. You could put that on the OSEL so if they got that far it would be saved. The downside is if they had saved it and then put something different in the basket, you would lose the previously saved basket.

The restore basket could run and just don't display the error messages for those items out of stock. It would reassemble whatever it could based on availability.