I’ve addressed this w/ CS-Cart via my support subscription, but want to restate it here both as a reminder and to have the need publicly declared. I think I made my case well as support committed to ‘most likely’ incorporate it in SP2, but the importance of this can’t be understated.
Currently CS-Cart’s cookies expire when a visitor’s browser closes. Actually, the cookie will expire after a short time of inactivity. This is very short-sighted, as typical internet customers do not buy on 1st visit, but on a 3rd or 4th visit which may be many days or weeks later. It is unreasonable to expect customers to register or login to shop, so dependence on registration is also a short-sighted approach.
Any merchant using a cart that does not retain unregistered visitors cart contents is losing out on a large number of potential sales. There is nothing more irritating as a customer than to step away from your computer and return to an emptied cart for no apparent reason. Similarly, many customers place items in their cart while they shop around, expecting to return and complete a transaction … having their cart emptied is a sure way to convince them to go elsewhere. Lastly, it is simply in our best interest as merchants to remind a customer of what they had intended to purchase the last time they visited.
Almost all viable carts out there retain customer cart contents for at least 30 days … my personal belief is that 30 days is too short. I requested that an admin interface be provided to set cookie expiry to the merchant’s specific needs.