In the Sales Interface and online, a customer can have one open Basket / Cart at a time. This behaviour is known as One Active Basket / Cart per customer.
In this article, we’ll explain how the one active Basket / Cart per customer behaviour works and its impact on managing transactions in Spektrix.
Before starting, you should be familiar with:
How does one active Basket / Cart per customer work?
Similarly to other online purchase platforms, in Spektrix, customers can only have one open Basket / Cart at a time. An Open Basket / Cart is one which contains items and where the Order has not been confirmed.
This applies in both the Sales Interface and online.
Depending on whether a payment has been taken, if a new transaction is initiated when the customer already has a Basket / Cart then the existing transaction must either be progressed or cancelled. In some cases, transactions can become blocked or automatically cancelled.
For example, a customer abandoning a purchase online would not be able to start another purchase online or in the Sales Interface until:
- The existing Basket / Cart is cancelled or;
- The transaction in the existing Basket / Cart is completed either by the customer online or by a Sales User taking over the Open Transaction in the Sales Interface.
A customer with a current open Basket / Cart will appear in Customer Search with an orange Basket / Cart icon:
Exceptions
Customer Records with Agent API access are exempt from One Active Basket / Cart per customer.
More detailed information for web developers and integrators is available in the One Active Basket per Customer on the Integrate Portal.
How to manage conflicting customer transactions
To ensure that your Box Office team are managing transactions in the most efficient way, we recommend the following best practices:
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Basket Management: Your Box Office team should regularly clear Recovered Transactions and Open Transactions to ensure Orders are confirmed and payments processed in a timely manner.
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Custom Website Messaging: Add a descriptive Custom Website Message to display online when a customer’s Basket / Cart is blocked.
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Shared Customer Records: If your organisation uses a single generic Customer Record for door sales / quick sales, this will cause conflicts when multiple transactions are started at once. Instead, we recommend processing counter sales without a Customer Record. Read Choosing a Sales Channel for further information.
When is a Basket / Cart automatically cancelled?
Automatic Basket / Cart cancellation depends on whether or not a payment has been added.
The table below displays when a Basket / Cart is automatically cancelled:
| Online | Sales Interface | |
| With a payment in the Basket / Cart | Never. This is known as a Blocked Basket / Cart | Never. This is known as a Blocked Basket / Cart |
| Without a payment in the Basket / Cart |
A Basket / Cart is cancelled when a new one is created. This is known as a progressable Basket / Cart. |
A Basket / Cart is cancelled when a new one is created. This is known as a progressable Basket / Cart. |
A Basket / Cart without a payment added will be automatically cancelled when a new Basket / Cart is created. This is known as a Progressable Basket / Cart.
When a payment is added but the transaction is not completed, this is known as a Blocked Basket / Cart.
What is a Blocked Basket / Cart?
A Basket / Cart is blocked when:
- The Sales Channel is Counter or Phone
- One or more payments have been added to the Basket / Cart
A Basket / Cart that contains payments can never be automatically cancelled.
How do I manage a Blocked Basket / Cart?
To manage a Blocked Basket / Cart, you will need to resolve the existing Open Transaction.
When a customer has a Basket / Cart that is blocked, if you attempt to start a new transaction for the same customer, you’ll see the following screen:
If the transaction contains a card payment, you must load and confirm the current transaction for that customer. It isn’t possible to remove card payments from a Basket / Cart.
If the Basket / Cart contains a cancellable payment type, check with your team before deleting the payment from the Basket / Cart and cancelling the transaction.
Once confirmed or cancelled, a new Basket / Cart can be started.
What is a Progressable Basket / Cart?
A Progressable Basket / Cart is one where:
- The Sales Channel is Web
- The Basket / Cart contains no payments
If a logged-in customer has more than one Basket / Cart open, the Basket / Cart that the customer is currently engaging with will be retained. The older Basket / Cart will be cancelled.
Example
A customer is logged into their online account and queuing on three different devices to buy tickets for a popular event.
The customer reaches the front of the queue and adds seats to their Basket / Cart.
On another device, the customer reaches the front of the queue and adds seats to their Basket / Cart.
As the most recent Basket / Cart takes priority, the seats in the first Basket / Cart will be removed.
REMINDER: When there are no payments added, a Basket / Cart can be cancelled.
How to add a Custom Website Message for a blocked Basket / Cart
When an online customer is not able to continue due to a blocked Basket / Cart, they will see the default Custom Website Message “Unable to continue, please contact the box office”.
To change this Custom Website Message, follow the steps in How to edit Custom Website Messages in the Settings Interface.
TIP: To access the Settings Interface, you’ll need the Settings Administrator Role. If you don’t have this Role, ask the Settings Administrator in your organisation to add this Role to your User Account.
The Custom Website Message heading is Custom message to appear when there is a problem cancelling a customer's current basket to start a new one. Will be shown in relevant iframes and API responses: