Build and send a cart to a customer

StoreConnect administrators can build a cart directly in Salesforce and send the customer a link to complete checkout. Use this process when you want to curate specific products for a customer, apply custom pricing, or help a customer who cannot configure their own cart.

This suits orders taken by phone or email, a showroom or trade counter where staff price a job with the customer present, and customers who send a list of part numbers rather than shopping the catalog. In each case a staff member assembles the order and the customer pays it themselves.

Before you begin

• The customer must have a Contact record in Salesforce.
• The customer must be able to log in to the webstore — cart selection requires an authenticated session. So one of the following must be true:
  • The customer has previously registered an account on the store themselves.
  • An account has been created for them in Salesforce and they have accepted an invitation link to set their password. See Invite customers to create an account for how to send an invite.
• The cart must be linked to the customer’s Contact record so it appears in their account.

Step 1: Create the cart record

1. Go to the Carts list.
2. Click New.
3. Set the Store field to the store the customer will check out on.
4. Set the Contact field to the customer’s contact record.
5. Leave Source as manual — this is set automatically for carts created in Salesforce.
6. Leave Status as open.
7. Click Save.

Step 2: Add cart items

1. On the cart record, go to the Cart Items related list.
2. Click New for each product you want to add.
3. For each cart item, set:
   • Product — the product to add.
   • Quantity — the number of units.
4. Click Save.

The cart item price is calculated from the product’s standard price book entry by default.

Set a custom price with Override Price

To charge a price that differs from the product’s standard or variable pricing, use the Override Price flag:

1. On the Cart Item record, select Override Price.
2. Set Variable Price Amount to the price you want to charge (in the store’s currency).
3. Click Save.

When Override Price is selected, the value in Variable Price Amount is used directly, bypassing the product’s normal pricing rules, minimum price constraints, and any variable pricing amount restrictions. This applies to the item’s price, points cost, and earn points calculation.

:::note Override Price is an admin-only field. It has no equivalent in the Direct to Cart URL feature. Direct to Cart custom pricing still requires variable pricing to be enabled on the product and respects minimum price rules. See Direct to cart link for details. :::

Choose how to reach a non-list price

Override Price is one of three ways to charge something other than the list price, and they are not interchangeable.

Approach	What it does	Where it applies
Override Price on the Cart Item	Uses the amount you enter directly, bypassing the product’s normal pricing rules and minimum price constraints	One cart, set by an administrator in Salesforce
A price book on the customer’s Account	Prices a whole catalog differently for that account, on every order they place	Every order that customer places, once they sign in
Variable pricing on the product	Lets the customer or the link set the amount, within the limits you define	Anywhere the product is sold

Use Override Price for a price that was negotiated on this order, because it accepts whatever figure was agreed. For a rate that should apply every time that customer buys, use account pricing instead, so nobody has to remember the agreement. For a donation or a pay-what-you-want product, use variable pricing.

Step 3: Send the customer a link

Cart selection requires the customer to be logged in to the webstore. There is no anonymous shareable URL that loads a specific cart.

Via the account carts page (recommended)

If your store theme includes an account carts page, the customer can see all carts linked to their contact record after logging in, and switch to the admin-built cart from there.

1. Ask the customer to log in to the store.
2. Direct them to their account carts page (for example, /account/carts).
3. The cart you built appears in their list — they click the button to switch to it and are taken to the cart page to continue checkout.

Via a custom Liquid page (developer option)

A developer can build a Liquid page that renders a form targeting cart.select_path for the specific cart. This can provide a more direct experience, such as a page that auto-switches the customer to the cart as soon as they land on it (after logging in).

Confirm it is working

Ask the customer to log in and open their account carts page, and confirm the cart you built appears there with the products and pricing you set.

Find the order created from a cart

Once the customer completes checkout, StoreConnect creates the Order and writes it back to the Order lookup field on the cart record you built. Open the cart and use that field to reach the order, or query for the cart from the order:

```sql

SELECT Id, Name FROM s_c__Cart__c WHERE s_c__Order_Id__c = ‘' ```

:::warning The Cart Reference field on the Order does not identify the cart. It stores an internal session token rather than a Salesforce record ID, so it will not match anything on the cart record. Use the Order lookup on the cart instead. See About carts for detail. :::

Limitations

• The cart must stay in a resumable status (open, customer, shipping, terms_and_conditions, payment, or failed) and must not have the Abandoned checkbox selected.
• Manual carts are excluded from the automated abandoned cart job, so they are not automatically cleaned up.
• If the customer logs out, clears cookies, or uses a different browser, the cart is unaffected — it is linked to their contact record, not their browser session, so it remains accessible from any device once they log back in.

Choose between a built cart and a link

A direct to cart link also lands a customer on a checkout that is already populated, and it suits a different situation.

	Cart built in Salesforce	Direct to cart link
Customer must sign in	Yes	No
Negotiated price	Yes, through Override Price	Only within variable pricing limits
Survives a change of device	Yes, it is attached to the Contact	The link does, the resulting cart does not
Effort per customer	One cart record per customer	One URL, reusable

Build a cart when the price or the selection is specific to that customer. Use a link when the same offer goes to many people.