The cart isn’t always where the order happens.
In B2B, a lot of carts are built by one person and ordered by someone else. More than once, what landed on our desk was our own abandoned cart email, forwarded by the buyer. I told that one in Sales, Customer Service, and the Website: Working From the Same Playbook.
It wasn’t a one-off. It’s how a lot of business buyers use your website.
Who Builds The Cart Isn’t Who Places The Order
I saw every version of it.
- A field tech or foreman built the cart, then sent it to purchasing.
- A buyer built the cart, then called it in to sales.
- A buyer built the cart, then emailed or printed it to get a PO approved.
The person who knows what’s needed is out on the job. The person with the company card or the PO is in the office. The cart is how one tells the other.
What Happens After The Cart
It went every direction.
Sometimes sales or customer service placed the order straight from it. Sometimes the buyer came back later and checked out. Sometimes it turned into a quote.
All three are sales. None of them show up as a completed online checkout.
Where It Breaks
The cart doesn’t hold the stock.
It didn’t happen often, but it happened. Someone would call in to check inventory, place the order, and by then we were out. Usually it was an item that was already running low.
The cart said it was there. The buyer believed it. By the time the order went through, it wasn’t.
Low stock is where this hurts most, because that’s when the gap between building the cart and placing the order matters.
Make The Cart Easy To Pass Along
We never changed our setup for this. Looking back, here’s what I’d add:
- A way to share or save the cart. A link, an email, or a print-friendly version the buyer can send to purchasing.
- Part numbers and quantities in the cart and the cart email. That’s what the person placing the order needs.
- A phone number in the abandoned cart email. If the buyer is going to call it in anyway, make it easy.
- Low stock warnings. If only a few are left, say so before the buyer sends the cart around.
Don’t Count It As Lost
If buyers use your cart as a shopping list, your abandoned cart rate is going to look worse than it is.
Some of those carts became phone orders, quotes, or POs. Before you decide the cart is broken, ask sales and customer service how many orders came in from a cart, a cart email, or a buyer reading off a screen.
Ordering is one stop on the journey. For the rest, see 5 Stops on the B2B Buyer’s Journey (And Where You Lose Them).
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