@Reply #1 - good point! Amazon really leaves us hanging on this for no reason. Not sure if things have changed recently but I think I found a solid way around this last year. I used a tool called Share-A-Cart for a big group trip and was honestly so satisfied with it. I was the one organizing the kitchen supplies and had very specific quantities for spices, bulk grains, and coffee. I was worried it would mess up the counts like the lists do, but it worked well. No complaints at all, it basically just clones the cart for everyone. Its also super helpful for cost considerations since you can see the final price with shipping before you actually commit. Someone told me its way safer than extensions because it doesnt stay in your browser... definitely worth a shot imo. TL;DR: Use a cart-sharing site instead of lists to keep quantities locked in and help everyone see the total group cost upfront.

Saw this earlier and had to jump in because I went through this exact nightmare last summer! I was trying to coordinate a massive DIY solar generator build for a group trip and had about 35 different components in my cart—specific wire gauges, fuses, the works. I tried the extension route and honestly, looking at the source code of one of them made me physically cringe because of how they handle your session data. It is a total security mess! Basically, Amazon treats your cart as a volatile state tied to your specific login cookies. They dont generate a unique ID for the cart itself in a way that is publicly queryable through their standard API. Its actually fascinating from a data architecture standpoint, even if it is super annoying for us users! When you use those sketchy extensions, they are basically scraping your browser DOM and trying to re-inject those SKUs into another persons session. It breaks constantly because Amazon updates their site CSS all the time. I love digging into the mechanics of how these sites are built, and honestly, the way Amazon handles the shopping bag is very legacy-heavy and focused on individual security rather than social features. TL;DR: Amazon cart data is locked to your specific session cookies for security, which is why sharing it is such a pain. Sketchy extensions just scrape your screen data, which is super risky for your privacy and data security!

Re: "@Reply #1 - good point! Amazon really leaves..." - yeah, it is honestly so frustrating how behind they are on this. i had a really bad experience trying to coordinate a charity drive using their built in tools and it was just a mess. stuff would vanish from the list or the quantities wouldnt update after someone bought something. it felt super risky relying on it when we had a strict budget and needed exactly 50 of everything. unfortunately it seems like they just dont care about the user experience for groups. before i can really tell you what worked for me i need to know a bit more about how your group is actually doing this:

• are people supposed to be clicking buy on their own devices or are you just trying to show them what you picked out?
• also are you guys using the mobile app mostly or are you all on desktops? honestly i wouldnt trust most of those chrome extensions either... i saw one that asked for way too many permissions and just noped out of there. i just want something that works without feeling like im handing over my password to a stranger. let me know how you guys are planning to split the actual payment and maybe i can point you toward a safer way.

Gonna try this over the weekend. Will report back if it works!

Would love to know this too

Amazons lack of a native cart API is honestly pathetic. Ive had issues with collaborative lists failing to track quantities, but thats basically the only safe workaround currently available.