How can I temporarily block items in the cart for specific customers?

[taronaggarwal]

Hello Community,

Is there a way to block products in the cart for 10mins, so that others can't buy at the same time?
For example, there is a product and only 1 quantity is left and customer1 is still exploring and adding the product, meanwhile, the customer2 add it to their cart and checkout. Is there a way to block the product for customer1 for 10mins.

[Olivia · Accepted solution]

Hi, @taronaggarwal!

Welcome to Shopify Community.

Thank you so much for connecting with us and sharing your question. At this time. inventory of a product is only put on hold for customers during payment processing in the checkout and not in the cart.

We do appreciate that there are several merchants who wish to employ inventory holds, while a product is in the cart, under many circumstances. Despite this, our research has shown most merchants require a first-come first-serve process particularly during hot product launches with a varying ratio of supply and demand. 

If you are concerned with this becoming an issue, I can suggest several marketing tactics to help build brand loyalty and exclusivity to your products. Consider the following:

• Emailing customers for VIP launches
• Exclusive list of first-access customers 
• Locked/private product collections
• Email sign up for re-stocking 
• Discount incentive for future product releases

This helps cultivate a personal relationship, but also keeps your customers engaged and invested in your product.

Let me know what your thoughts are on the matter so I can share it back with our product development team.

Warm regards,

[taronaggarwal]

Hi Olivia,

Thank you so much for this detailed explanation and solution. We'll be looking forward to this.

Thanks

[Olivia]

I'm so glad I was able to help, @taronaggarwal!

We wish you the best of luck with your business, and would be happy to hear of any other ideas you have.

Warm regards,