Accelerating Customer Checkout with Shopping Cart Permalinks

Shopping cart permalinks (cart permalinks for short) are a sales channel that takes customers directly to the checkout page with products already added to the cart. Providing cart permalinks to your customers accelerates their shopping experience. They no longer need to select products and add them to the shopping cart themselves, which in turn reduces the time and communications you spend on guiding them to purchase. Customers only need to complete the payment to place the order.

What Are Shopping Cart Permalinks?

As the name suggests, cart permalinks are permanently valid once they are generated. You can add information to the URL link, such as product SKU and quantity, and send this link to customers. When customers click on the link, they will be directed to the checkout page with the specified products and information where they can complete payment. In addition to sharing the links with your customers, you can also flexibly and conveniently utilize permalinks for a variety of marketing campaigns, such as email recalls, recurring orders, and designated event offers.

How to Create a Cart Permalink

You can add products, checkout and discount information, order notes, and more information to the URL of cart permalinks.

To create a permalink, follow the steps below:

1. Starting with your store domain, add /cart/ at the end. For example:
   http://{handle}.myshopline.com/cart/
2. Use sku_id:quantity to add one or more SKUs and the quantities. If you want to add multiple SKUs, separate them by commas.
3. Optionally, if you want to include discount codes or other order information in a cart permalink, refer to the permalink examples in the next section.

Cart Permalink Examples

Cart Permalinks Containing Product Information

• At least one product is required in the permalink. 
• Follow the format in this example to add product information to your cart permalinks and separate multiple products by commas.
  http://{handle}.myshopline.com/cart/sku1_id:quantity,sku2_id:quantity,...

• Product sku_id can be obtained from the corresponding product details page URL.

Cart Permalinks Containing Checkout Information

• You can optionally add the checkout information you expect customers to use in cart permalinks. Follow the format in this example to add checkout information. Concatenate multiple checkout information with  &.
  http://{handle}.myshopline.com/cart/sku1_id:quantity,sku2_id:quantity?checkout[email]=example@example.com&checkout[shipping_address][city]=NewYork
• Checkout fields supported are listed below:
  

  Format	The corresponding field in the checkout page
  checkout[email]	The email address that customers use to place the order.
  checkout[phone]	The phone number that customers use to place the order.
  checkout[shipping_address][name]	The recipient’s full name.
  checkout[shipping_address][first_name]	The recipient’s first name.
  checkout[shipping_address][last_name]	The recipient’s last name.
  checkout[shipping_address][address1]	Shipping address — Detailed address 1
  checkout[shipping_address][address2]	Shipping address — Detailed address 2
  checkout[shipping_address][district]	Shipping address — District
  checkout[shipping_address][city]	Shipping address — City
  checkout[shipping_address][province]	Shipping address — State or Province
  checkout[shipping_address][country]	Shipping address — Country
  checkout[shipping_address][zip]	Shipping address — Zip code

Cart Permalinks Containing Discount Information

• You can optionally add discount codes in cart permalinks, and separate multiple discount codes by commas.
  http://{handle}.myshopline.com/cart/sku1_id:quantity,sku2_id:quantity?discount={discount_code1},{discount_code2}

Cart Permalinks Containing Order Notes

• You can optionally add order notes in cart permalinks.
  http://{handle}.myshopline.com/cart/sku1_id:quantity,sku2_id:quantity?discount={discount_code1},{discount_code2}&note=permalink_test

Cart Permalinks Containing Order Annotation

• You can optionally add order notes in cart permalinks.
  http://{handle}.myshopline.com/cart/sku1_id:quantity,sku2_id:quantity?discount={discount_code1},{discount_code2}&attributes[key_example]=value_example