Why is the save cart function missing in the POS app?

[gchristensen]

Where did the save cart function go in the POS app? It converted all my carts to draft orders. I can no longer make changes to the order and save it again from my POS. Very frustrating as this is how we keep track of clients orders. 

[LaurenMcNicol]

I am on Support chat about this right now to complain and all I got was it will be "brought to the developers" but is not guaranteed to be restored. Shopify announced today in the changelog that we can now checkout draft orders in the POS, but they seem to have debuted this new feature at the expense of the save/retrieve cart function. I hate when they do this, they'll launch a new feature that may be useful for a minority of merchants (for us, checking out out a draft order on POS is not something we need, draft orders are something only upper mgmt uses not our part-time retail staff) but take away a core feature that many merchants relied and trained staff on (our retail staff not only save customers in progress shopping in store, but also if we are scanning a bunch of new products to price and then get interrupted by a client, we can use the save cart to pause our task and resume after). To use the "Save Draft Order" function on POS as though it's a cart, it requires more clicks, cannot be retrieved quickly via a tile, and cannot be deleted from POS that we can see. You click "save draft order" (either the tile on your home screen or under "More Actions"), then it prompts for contact details (fortunately you can leave those blank and just click save). To retrieve, you go into Orders > Draft Orders and pull it up again from there. It saves it automatically on your admin draft orders section too, which is annoying / useless for us because we only use draft orders to draft special discounted wholesale orders for specific clients. Now that page of our admin is cluttered with temporary carts of in-store customers! I asked the to restore the function and just make the draft order thing a separate tile on the POS and they gave me the usual runaround where it's like I'm asking for a brand new thing as opposed to an existing longstanding feature to be restored (ex/ "We understand how important this feature would be to you, We do appreciate feedback you shared with us. I will let our developers know that this is something that would be beneficial to merchant's businesses.They review feedback often and try to see what changes can be implemented to make the platform better. While it is not guaranteed this feature will be released, it is certainly something that I will let our developers know about.")

[Cpointpond]

These changes as I am learning the system is frustrating.  I do need to be able to pull up/ create draft orders on the POS side, but holding a cart is also needed in a brick and mortar.  I finally figure out workarounds and then it changes :(.  The hold cart also seemed to be just on the device that it was originally placed hold on when I did place an order on hold.  I imagined being able to start a cart for a customer at the sales area and then have the cashier to able to pull up their order at checkout and be able to add to it.  So many essential features still missing for a brick and mortar.

We need  draft orders, hold cart, and don't get me started on being able to put a check number on a check sale.

[Bridget100]

We run a bar and the save cart function was perfect for what we needed!  Not only is it gone but we had to scramble to figure out how to manage our customers today. Creates a lot of churn and wasted time with our team members.  And that’s time we don’t have given the state of the economy right now.  Shopify should do better!  If they can develop these new paid features, they can figure out better ways to communicate about things will no longer work … how about at least 3 months notice with messages directly in the POS … at least that way we don’t have to scramble.  But even better, don’t take away a feature to force me to pay for a different feature that doesn’t work as well as the one you took away.  Generally I love shopify but this has put me in a really bad state today.

[Pbmauk]

To add to your complaint- you can just ‘send cart’ to create a draft order. There was absolutely no reason for this change, and it is a huge issue for POS. 

[LaurenMcNicol]

We’ve now also noticed that when you retrieve a saved “cart” aka draft order, it cannot be edited further and re-saved. The save draft order button is greyed out. So it’s useless on all fronts. 

 

[CEJared]

This is the part that blows my mind. Takes all functionality out of saving a cart. I wish Shopify put a focus on actual issues being talked about, rather than changing features that everyone was perfectly fine with.

[byoc_co]

Agreed, this is our worst nightmare.

[petgrocer]

How do you have your POS running on a laptop?

[LaurenMcNicol]

This is an iPad with a keyboard attached not a laptop 

[petgrocer]

Shopify doesn't care. POS is not enough of big business for them. They mess with so many things, remove functionality, have so many old bugs that haven't been fixed. This is another example of coders who are not using the system. Shopify's business model does not take into account how the users actually use the system. I'm so fed up. Finally taking the time and expense to pay for a second system elsewhere running concurrently, to see if we can switch off of this. I'm at the end of my patience with how poor this POS is.

[donnamac]

@petgrocer Would be interested in knowing what other POS you are trying.  We are also looking to change. Thx

[petgrocer]

I'm trialing lightspeed right now. When I asked them can your system do x, y or z they said of course, and I laughed, because that's not the case with what we have right now. I came from a powerful real POS system, to this during it's infancy, and now with the changes being implemented that remove functionality and the new bugs they keep introducing, my staff can't even run sales in store.

[byoc_co]

Yes looking to switch!

[donnamac]

Getting rid of the 'save cart' function is more problematic than helpful.  

The 'Save cart'  function is one of the highest use functions of the POS system.  

During busy hours at our store, this holds sales that are in-process or ones we need to add customer information/comments/notes to as we get time.

We tried 'working with' the 'save draft order' today and it is cumbersome and not intuitive to work with.  

We didn't see any updates telling of these changes.  The online change log has an entry on 2/29 telling about creating draft order on the POS, but does not

mention is is taking the place of  the saved cart function.  

They are 2 different things.  

We looked everywhere in the app and could not find a 'tile' for saved cart anymore.  It seems to be gone.

The function needs to be brought back

Anyone who agrees should contact support and chat with an advisor  to let them know.  

This is the only way they might do something.

[LaurenMcNicol]

Our staff just noticed today when trying to use the draft order as a “cart” that when you pull up a draft order on POS it cannot be edited and saved a second time… so useless!!

[donnamac]

@LaurenMcNicol 

Please go to support chat and ask to talk to a Support Advisor (it's just another chat, but with a person at the other end).

Ask to have your concern forwarded to the development team.  Below is the link for help.

Enter that you wish to talk to a Support Advisor.  It will want you to select your store then put you in queue.

Link to support is : https://help.shopify.com/en

What is installed is a mess.  We need to be vocal about it. 

Thanks!

[LaurenMcNicol]

Thanks, I already did so as soon as it happened, part of the response I got is in my first comment of this post. 

[Pbmauk]

Does [email protected] still work to contact the CEO? 

[byoc_co]

That support link is dead today, shopify probably shut it down.

When I Talked to support on the phone twice they were of no help whatsoever.

[Pbmauk]

Also, as I noted above, ‘send cart’ creates a draft order. The change was unnecessary and destructive to POS systems. 

[troe143]

We used the 'Save Cart' function all the time and of course also noticed right away that it was missing.  When you're build/test/deploy cycle doesn't include the customer/customer feedback the message from the company is very clear:  we just don't care about you and are going to do what we want.  This toxic business approach will only change when customers start leaving which eventually they will do.  What is most discouraging to me isn't the loss of this particular feature but the realization that changes can be pushed out to the POS without my taking any action.  I was under the false impression that unlike the backend POS updates would not occur unless I applied an update.  This why I would never apply updates unless I felt an urgent need.  Learning that the POS changes can/are made at will the same way as they do on the backend was a real kick in the teeth.  Like others, we have also contacted support regarding this situation but are not allowing ourselves to be very hopeful about the the return of this function.  While researching this issue before finding this thread I found this blog post which now seems totally ironic:  https://www.shopify.com/retail/save-cart

So, Shopify...you know how useful this feature was but you removed it anyway...and now you know how upset your customer base is about it...so how about doing the right thing and restoring it?

[Shay]

Thank you for reaching out and sharing your feedback about this change to the Shopify POS app and how valuable the save cart function is for your business. 

EDITED: The information shared in this reply is incorrect. Please see updated post for the correct details:  Re: Where did the save cart tile go on POS? - Shopify Community  

Click to expand...

 This change would only affect merchants on the Shopify POS Lite plan, and all merchants using POS Lite should have received an email on January 23rd communicating this change. As of February 5th the option to have saved carts was no longer eligible for merchants still on POS Lite. This was not a specific update to the POS App, but an update to what your current plan provides you access to. You can consider upgrading your plan or you can continue to make draft orders via your store admin app directly. 

[troe143]

Thank you for this update.  Fyi, if this change was only supposed to remove saved cart from POS Lite subscribers then it has failed as saved cart is missing from our POS Pro location.  And, since we have a POS Pro subscription, then I guess it makes sense we would not have seen your notification that went out to POS Lite users.  If our POS Pro location is still supposed to have Saved Cart functionality then please restore it!  Thank you!!

[donnamac]

@Shay 

Sorry, but this statement is incorrect.  It also happened in the POS PRO version.  

Guess this is why we didn't get notified!?!?!

I believe those are the store owners who are mainly on this thread.

If it was meant to only happen in the lite app, then it got improperly installed.

Maybe that is why when we contact support they tell us exactly what you are telling us.  But I have sent screen shots to them

showing it is the same in the PRO version.  This is a MAJOR issue with us as we utilize the draft orders for REAL draft orders.

It is getting diluted with all these 'saved' orders now as they are not deleted once they are processed as orders.  Terrible design

[LaurenMcNicol]

Hi Shay. We are POS Pro users and the issue is that Shopify Support keeps referring to the new "save as draft order" as though it is the "save cart" feature. They are not the same! We've explained why many times throughout this Community post, but in a nutshell, it is not as easy to use, requires way more clicks, and is cumbersome and not at all intuitive. It is so bad that people are seeking out other POS systems. A POS having more clicks and unnecessary extra steps means slower transactions, confusion when onboarding new staff... the opposite of what we want. So effectively all users, whether Lite or Pro subscribers, have had a function that is core to their workflow removed, and we're being gaslit into thinking that the new "save as draft order" is the same thing that we should either upgrade our subscription in order to access (not worth it imo), or be grateful we have it if we're already paying for it. WE are the end users of this app, so if we tell you that our workflow and ease of use has been greatly compromised, then it would be super if you believed us. Why is it so out of the realm of possibility that they restore the longstanding one-click save and edit cart function, and then have this new "save as draft order" function as entirely separate? Also, what use cases or surveys of merchants do you have to support this change? I highly doubt that if given the choice, any Shopify merchant would say they'd prefer an infrequently used save as draft order function if it meant never being able to easily save a cart again. Not enough retail settings require this draft order feature, but most of them require the easy save cart function which has intuitive edit and delete functions. Make it make sense, please.

[petgrocer]

 - the saved cart option has been removed from all POS users. In addition, I don't know how anyone else is getting actual info emails from Shopify - maybe they banned me from getting news? I have not received any notification about them removing functionality (price overrides anyone?).  There is NO SAVE CART option for anyone. Please update your answer, as a staff member of Shopify you need to provide updated correct information please.

[Cpointpond]

I am a brick and mortar and on the POS Pro Plan.  I no longer have a save cart feature.  I do however have a draft order feature.  We really need both.  So much POS basic functionality is missing. 

Inputing check numbers for check tender.

Ability to easily change draft orders

Hold/ Save cart that temp holds cart for the day and then deletes.  For that customer that starts checkout and goes to grab something.

Ability to use barcode scanner outside of skus area.  For example, use scanner to scan in serial numbers into add note section OR better yet, have the option to caption a serial number of product during checkout as popup box for items designated as serial number capture.

We lost the save cart, but gained the draft order EVEN with having the pro subscription.  Really hoping that they both are able to be managed within the POS system.

[donnamac]

@Shay 

In addition....  below is what was posted on the online Change Log for Feb 29. 

It does not even begin to describe how it actually works. 

As a member of Shopify Staff, we would all greatly appreciate if our voices are actually 'heard'. 

Can you please help us get these pleas to people who can actually help us??

Here is what was publicized in Change Log on Feb 29.

==============================================================================

Checkout Draft orders in POS

You can now create, send, retrieve, edit, save and checkout draft Orders in POS without requiring access to admin. With this improvement, draft orders have become a powerful in-person selling tool, allowing sales associates to create an order on behalf of customers to be completed at a later time.

The functionality of draft orders has been extended in order to support Draft orders seamlessly moving across multiple devices, locations and sales channels, creating a more efficient and decreasing cart abandonment and incompletion of open Draft orders.

To create a draft order for a customer, build the cart and then tap the More actions button to Save as a draft order.

To edit the draft order, find the draft in the Orders tab, then tap Edit or Check out. From here you can edit the products in the cart and check out. If the customer wants to save the edited draft order again, tap the trash icon > Save changes.

[Pbmauk]

Wrong. We are POS Pro. 

I have yet to receive any real feedback from Shopify regarding this. 

Developers need to quit removing functions, with no option for us, your clients. It would be fairly simple to roll out new features as an option under preferences. Instead changes are repeatedly made with out warning, requiring retraining of staff. 

[gchristensen]

Not true- I’m on a pro plan and it was completely removed and replaced with draft orders. It now takes more steps and time than before. It also is not intuitive. In order to save edits you have to select the trash icon. And if you don’t make any edits you cannot re-save.

[Shay · Accepted solution]

Hi Folks, 

I've connected with the team handling this feature change and I want to apologize as the information and resources I had access to were out of date and incorrect. 

I previously noted that the "Save A Cart" feature had moved to POS Pro plans, this was not right. As many of you noted, this feature is no longer available and has changed to "Save as Draft Order". I sincerely apologize for any confusion my previous post may have created, and I will update it to reflect the correct details. 

While all merchants have the ability to create a draft order via the store admin, the Save As Draft Order tile and functionality in the POS app is only available to merchants on the POS Pro plan. 

I also was able to connect with the team to share your feedback, and while the Save a Cart feature itself will not be returning, they are actively working on changes to the workflow of the draft order feature so that it is as easy and as streamlined to use as you would like it to be. This is something being addressed directly, so I expect to see workflow improvements in the near future. I can't offer a timeline at this stage, but I'll be happy to update you as I receive more information on this. 

Thank you again for your feedback and energy in this thread! Please feel free to continue sharing constructive feedback with us. 

I have marked this reply as a "Solution" so that anyone coming across this thread can find this updated information about the feature and it's availability. 

[petgrocer]

How can we turn off the draft feature? It's ruining our admin side of things, and messing with our inventory. It is not useful as a save cart feature at all and we would rather not have it all. If they had left the perfectly operational save cart and added an OPTION to use the draft thing, that would enable all users to be happy. But as it is, no one is happy and you are messing up our way of doing business, and slowing down our cashiers. Please let us know how to turn off the draft feature?

[LaurenMcNicol]

Hi Shay. I appreciate you acknowledging that you provided misinformation and sharing our feedback, but the issue is very much NOT resolved. No solution was provided! All you said was that we would need to wait for "workflow improvements in the near future". I know our word doesn't matter as much as that of shareholders, but at some point Shopify cannot function as an entity without its merchants. Moves like this tell us you don't value our insights as merchants, our user experience, or our feedback....

[Pbmauk]

Shopify is still advertising’save cart’ as an available feature on PRO- which it obviously isn’t. 

[Pbmauk]

As of right now, Shopify is still advertising save cart as an option on POS Pro. 
03/18/2024 6 PM. 

Will we be receiving a refund for paying for this service that you don’t provide? 

[petgrocer]

They change things so often, with so little advance thought into it that they don't update the helpfiles or documentation. This is why you get community Shopify staff giving you wrong answers. They are just looking in the helpfiles same as us. I have had support staff tell me before that this is what tier 1 support does. I am perfectly capable of looking up the incorrect out of date helpfiles myself!

[Trevor]

Hey folks. 

I know not having access to a feature, or being provided incorrect information can be frustrating. Our Community team works on internal documentation and mistake can happen; however, we're quick to update if things change. 

That said, because this thread has a long history, @Shay marked their reply for visibility purposes. This is a common practice to help new comers know where we currently stand. Accepting the solution also surfaces this faster for members searching for it, and by no means shuts down the conversation or implies we're not logging your feedback.

The comments will remain open and we welcome you to continue voicing your feedback in a constructive manner. Any speculation, attacks, or otherwise abusive behaviour towards members or Shopify staff will not be tolerated as per our Code of Conduct. 

[petgrocer]

Why did they shut down my thread then? There is no open communication it seems - I have the email history of that other thread, which now shows:

Access Denied

Your account does not have access to this discussion board or topic. If you should have access please click here to send a note to our community team.
If you are a Shopify Partner and require access to the Partners discussion board please complete this form so access can be granted.

Return to my original page

[Trevor]

We aim to keep the conversation in one place, instead of separating it across several threads. The new thread that was created, suggested that this thread had been blocked, or otherwise had been shut down. As this was incorrect, we opted to remove the content to avoid separating the conversation. This helps keep things in one space for our product teams and support staff to review and action when needed. 

[Akashdeep1]

Hey @Trevor Sorry I am tagging you in a wrong thread but this would need your urgent attention, can you please have a look at the thread I have just mentioned below and may be tagg it back there to avoid the confusion on this thread. Your quick response will be highly appreciated.
https://community.shopify.com/c/payments-shipping-and/accidently-purchased-a-wrong-plan-for-shopify/...

[petgrocer]

It also removes it from the 'most recent' tab in the retail section.

[donnamac]

@petgrocer 

Should we open a new one then??  It will probably be taken down...but maybe we should be a greasy wheel??

[petgrocer]

They will take it down. I kept a copy of the thread I started, with listing it as a feature request. That feature request (and others I've posted) have been removed. Some get left up some do not. It's not an open forum. I think our best chances for success are still to be opening complaint tickets with the (reduced customer service levels) chat function. That's how seven years of complaints finally got them to work on being able to merge duplicate accounts. I'm no longer hopeful - when they take away easy function items and replace it with clunky poorly tested ones, I do not believe they intend to improve the product. I hope I am wrong. It would be ideal to just improve the current system. They even just messed with Stocky again - for no good reason. Why waste programming hours on that? It removed functionality instead of adding to it. It didn't improve the flow. There is a poor quality control check at Shopify when changes are implemented but there is no one to within their organization to question why functionality is removed and how it improves the customer experience. Like many large organizations, that disconnect between staff who code and change functionality and the upper level management, needs to be addressed.

[donnamac]

@Shay   Morning. Appreciate your update!

However, the issue should not be marked resolved.  It is 'in process'. This is misleading. 

I believe the person who wrote the post should mark it resolved?

We have no idea how long it will be until a change is ready.  And then we have to figure out how it works and adjust again to that.

[Shay]

@donnamac Thank you for that additional feedback. In threads like this one our community support team will mark the most up to date post as resolved so that merchants joining the thread can see the most relevant information that has been shared. This also makes the thread more easily found by merchants searching for related things in our community forums. 

By marking as resolved in this way, we are not saying that the concerns in the thread are solved to everyone's satisfaction, or that a direct solution has been provided. Just that the feedback has been received and updates from our team our being provided. At this time, "Saved Carts" is not expected to be returned as an option. We are continuing to optimize the Draft Order function in the POS app and are happy to continue sharing feedback about workflows with our developers as work on this.

@christo2 Thank you for sharing that blog post. That article was originally shared in 2022, and you are correct that the information related to the term "saved carts" is no longer correct. The expected benefits of saved carts is still available using the new draft order workflow though (while still being optimized), so the context of the blog article is valid information for merchants still. 

@Pbmauk Can you share where you are seeing the saved cart function being advertised? I am aware of the older blog article that was shared in this thread, but I wasn't able to see any references to it on our POS pricing plan page. Happy to flag any instances of this for an update with the appropriate team. 

If anyone using Shopify POS did not receive a communication about this change to your plan features, please connect with our retail support team directly to report this. We can confirm on our end that emails were delivered to your email provider without bouncing. You may need to contact your email host for additional support past that though. I was able to confirm that communications were sent out before this change was made.

[LaurenMcNicol]

Hi @Shay. The Save and Retrieve Cart feature is highlighted as a way to "continue serving other customers quickly" on the Shopify POS App Store download page under a header called "Checkout's Best Friend". The only email communication we got about this was on Feb 29 announcing that we would be able to checkout draft orders on POS [see screenshot]. The Learn More button takes us the Changelog post, which again, explains that a new save as draft order feature will be available. It does not mention or make explicit that this will be replacing the save cart feature entirely, nor that it does not have the same ease of use or functionality as the save cart feature. My partner works for another multi-national tech company, when major services or features are being retired that will affect thousands of clients' workflow, months of notice are given, exceptions are made if some accounts just signed up and already pre-paid, more clear communication is granted, etc. This is bad practice from Shopify, all around. 

[DHCass]

There are many needlepoint stores that now use Shopify POS. The Save Cart
feature is an integral part of our business. Many customers either want to
keep shopping, and we are able to help numerous customers with the Save
Cart feature. We also have many teachers that teach in the shop...so we
can put a customer's daily purchases in the Save Cart, then they can cash
out at the end of the day or end of the class period. This feature should
be returned...

[CEJared]

@Shay you said that you are "continuing to optimize" the draft order function. Why was this implemented before it was ready? The amount of complaints, outside of the fact that this shouldn't have been changed in general, is incredibly high. The software is glitchy, redundant and does not work. This issue is far from solved. 

[twoplusone]

We are a POS PRO user and never receive any emails about new features/changes. It is always a mystery when we start the day. Please let us know how to receive these updates.

Also, with all the problems this is causing for your customers, I do not understand why 1.) These updates are pushed without adequate testing and 2.) Why your customers have to deal with all the problems caused by this feature change. It should be pulled out until it is working properly.