How can I share my Amazon cart with a friend?

Question

Ive been using Amazon basically since it started so I usually know my way around the UI but honestly right now im about to pull my hair out. Im trying to organize this big camping trip to the Deschutes River in Oregon for next month and me and my buddy are splitting the costs on a bunch of stuff. I spent like three hours finding the right portable stove and a specific four person tent and some bulk dried meals and I have them all sitting in my cart ready to go. I thought for sure there would be a simple button to just send him a link to the whole cart so he could take a look and see if he likes the specs or if he wants to add anything else before I hit the checkout button.

Ive tried the wishlist thing but its so annoying because half the items dont show the right shipping time and it doesnt seem to sync the quantities properly for some reason. its like they want to make it as hard as possible to just collaborate on a simple order. I tried looking in the account settings to see if there was some kind of shared cart feature like some other sites have but i cant find anything and searching google just gives me a bunch of weird third party chrome extensions that look super sketchy and I dont want to put my login info into some random plugin just to share a list of gear. Is there actually a native way to do this that I am just missing or did they get rid of it? How do I just get my cart items over to him without taking ten screenshots on my phone like a boomer...

WilKEX · Accepted Answer

Omg, I had this exact same nightmare planning my Yosemite trip! Amazon doesnt have a button, so definitely avoid those sketchy extensions because theyre massive security risks.

use a gift registry Its amazing!

OsemitSmoth · Answer

^ This. Also, its honestly ridiculous that a multi-billion dollar platform still relies on session-based cookies that make sharing a live cart basically impossible without third-party middleware. I ran into this exact wall last year when I was spec-ing out a rack-mount server build with my business partner. We had about 40 different line items—proprietary rails, specific ECC memory modules, high-static pressure fans—and trying to verify the exact model numbers across two different logins was a total nightmare because of the way Amazon handles cart persistence. The native way to do it is hidden under the Lists section, but it is not a cart. You have to create a new list and toggle the Collaboration setting to on, which generates a specific invitation token for your friend. Once they accept, they can see the exact SKUs and quantities, though it still doesnt show real-time stock levels for their specific zip code until they move items to their own cart. Are you guys looking to just verify the specs before one person pays, or are you trying to do a split-payment checkout where you both pay for your own halves of the gear? Also, are any of these items from third-party marketplace sellers? That usually complicates the list functionality because the price and seller ID can fluctuate while the item sits there. It is technically more stable than screenshots, but definitely not a seamless sync.