eCommerce Shopping Cart Optimization: 50 Brilliant Strategies

A cluttered shopping cart page has the power to drive away your sure-shot shoppers while a ‘neat’ one can convert even the casual ones.

According to Baymard the top reasons for shopping cart abandonment or the 'clutter' on your cart page are:

Now, let’s define ‘neat’ in this 50-point checklist and look at ways to tackle your shopping cart optimization challenges.

50 Best Practices For eCommerce Shopping Cart

1. Auto apply discounts

A discount appearing out of nowhere in the shopping cart is a pleasant surprise for your shoppers.

Make sure that shoppers don’t have to click anywhere to apply discounts; apply them automatically and make sure to highlight these – both for the individual items and subtotal.

2. Have two checkout buttons

Always and always use two checkout CTA buttons on your cart page – one above the cart and one below the cart.

The first is for those shoppers who quickly want to checkout – without the hassle of going through all the information on the page while the second is for the methodical shoppers who review everything.

The two buttons also serve as the nudge and reminder to checkout 🙂

Check how Zappos adds two checkout buttons on their cart page – and makes them really stand out – which is our next point.

3. Don’t let secondary CTAs sabotage the primary one

Your cart page includes a ton of information to help your shoppers complete the purchase.

One important point to remember is that this information should not distract your shoppers from making the purchase – the CTAs should not compete with each other.

What you can do to solve this:

• Use different colors for different CTAs (don’t include more than 2-3 colors on the page)
• Highlight the primary CTA using the boldest color
• Use lines or columns to structure your page

4. Show product summary

For most e-commerce buyers, the cart is a page used to review their order. This is your opportunity for the final pitch to make your shoppers actually pay.

Help them by displaying:

• Exact name
• Item specifications
• Quantity of items in cart
• Item color

5. Provide support through live chat

In case your shoppers have any queries, you should be available – in an unobtrusive way.

Have live chat support enabled on the cart page. Be quick to answer questions at this stage.

Make sure that dialogue from it doesn’t pop up on the cart page – we don’t want to disturb the shoppers during their checkout process.

6. Avoid hidden costs

The key to trust-building and conversion is that websites come transparent with their charges ASAP.

Hence, on your cart page, as you mention the subtotal, mention other additional costs as well. Keep your customers aware of what they are paying for and how much they are going to pay.

7. Consider exit-intent popups

Cart abandonment is a battle we have been fighting since forever – and the last weapon that can be used to make your shoppers stay back is an exit intent popup.

Give your shoppers an incentive to stay back and complete their purchase.

8. Build credibility with trust seals

Showing trust signals throughout the buyer journey is something that comes across as very obvious, but isn’t always implemented on websites.

We recommend displaying the following:

• Merchant reviews/rating (e.g. rated 4.9 / 5 based on 100,000 orders)
• SSL certificate and mention of secure shopping experience. You could also potentially look at third-party security validation, such as Norton, McAfee, GeoTrust, etc.
• Very clear customer service/help, returns and T&Cs links
• Logos of available payment options (and ideally payment certification – e.g. verified by Visa)

9. Editable cart content 🙂

Online shoppers are quick to change their minds, so you need to ensure that it’s easy for them to amend their orders if you want to keep them from abandoning their carts.

Let your customers adjust quantities, delete items, and add more products.

Additionally, you can also make the order summary sticky and add make it editable. Make sure that editing the cart doesn’t delete the information that is already filled.

10. Provide multiple shipping options

Different shoppers may have different preferences when it comes to how they want their order to be delivered.

Electronics shoppers at times prefer picking the product from the store as opposed to home delivery. Some shoppers may want to receive their order quickly and probably are willing to pay a premium for it.

Hence, consider adding multiple shipping options as per the preferences of your shoppers.

11. Use nudges for faster checkout

There’s a psychological battle happening inside your customer’s mind every time they are about to checkout. Is it worth spending money on? Do they really need the product?

Nudge shoppers toward answering “yes” to those questions with psychological triggers such as:

• Scarcity: “Grab this before stock runs out!”
• Urgency: “Order in the next 10 minutes to secure next-day delivery”
• Social proof: “18 people bought this in the last hour”

Also read: 35 Stunning Examples of Checkout Pages

12. Include all popular payment methods

We understand that it is not always practical to include ALL the payment methods – especially if you are accepting payments internationally.

While including the popular ones is a necessity, there is something additional that you can do.

Try to redirect customers based on their IP location to offer them a personalized experience based on the local currency and their preferred payment methods.

13. Limit distractions (pastel colors work best)

There have been many studies about the psychology behind colors. However, there’s no single answer on which color will fit all websites and solve all abandonment rate problems.

One thing that we do know for sure is that visitors love clear designs when it comes to UX.

Notice how Jimmy Choo has made a plain cart page in black and white – making the CTA stand out and the page incredibly simple to read.

14. Show refund and returns policy

What if the product is not as good as it looks? What if it doesn’t fit after buying it?  – concerns shoppers have while making the purchase.

This is where your refund and return policy helps reduce cart abandonment.

As we have mentioned before, do not make it a competing CTA. Mention is prominently close to the checkout button but don’t let it look bolder than the primary CTA.

15. Show “Continue Shopping” option

Let’s say your shoppers are confused and not too sure about the items they have added to their cart – they will abandon your cart and leave. The way to stop them from doing this – add a ‘Continue Shopping’ button.

Empower your shoppers to explore more products without leaving your website.

Now the next question to ask is – where do you want to redirect them to? – Homepage or category page.

Study the behavioral pattern of your shoppers – where do the shoppers convert the best from – redirect them there.

16. Always add high-res product thumbnails

Instead of providing a small illegible thumbnail on the cart page which doesn’t even serve the purpose of product identification, try offering an eye-catching high-resolution image.

Giving a bright and clear image helps customers double-check the color or look of the product after adding it to the bag.

A good-sized image makes it easy for the shoppers who are shopping from their mobile devices as well.

17. Cross-sell, without being pushy

Your cart page is the most optimum place on your website to cross-sell products to your impulse buyers.

Few helpful tips:

• Cross-sell products should be at least 60% cheaper than the product added to the cart
• Go for products that are easily missed out: filters for lenses, earphones for mobile phones, lighters for a gas stove, etc
• Try not to bombard shoppers with too many choices that distract them

18. Don’t force shoppers to create an account

Nobody likes to be forced to do things that consume their time without a lot of return.

Hence, offer a guest checkout to remove forced registration and add a link to allow users with existing accounts to log in.

You can have your new customers create an account after they pay. Alternatively, create an account for guests in the background automatically using the provided email address.

When they decide to create an account, they will have an order history with all their previous orders merged for this account..

19. Save data and enable autofill

The biggest ick online shoppers face – especially on mobile is to fill in the shipping information manually.

A good idea would be to save the data your shoppers might have filled previously and autofill for them every time they return.

Just thinking about it feels like a relief 😇

20. Instill confidence through star ratings

Make sure that your product summary also shows the product rating on the cart page. These ratings give last-minute confidence boost to your shoppers.

Place the ratings directly below the name of the product or right above the thumbnail.\

Also read: Mobile Cart Page: 17 Brilliant Examples (& Why They Work)

21. Don’t redirect shoppers (after they add products to cart)

When you redirect the shoppers to the cart page every time they add something to the cart, you are taking away the opportunity from your shoppers to explore further – and maybe add a few more items to their cart.

Consider adding a drawer cart – this will keep the shoppers on the product page while giving them an option to checkout – convenience at its peak.

22. Add social sharing options

Integrate social sharing options seamlessly into your cart page to empower customers to effortlessly share their shopping cart with friends and followers. By incorporating intuitive social sharing icons, customers can easily spread the word about their favorite products or purchase intentions with just a click. With a simple tap, customers can share their curated selections, sparking conversations and potentially driving referral traffic back to your ecommerce store – a great shopping cart optimization tactic.

23. Equip your cart page with a shipping calculator

Integrating a shipping calculator directly on the cart page allows customers to estimate shipping costs before proceeding to checkout. This transparency addresses one of the primary reasons for cart abandonment – unexpected costs.

24. Progress bar indicator is a must

You must tell your customers how much time and effort they need to put in before placing their order.

Divide the steps from cart page to checkout and create a progress bar – display it at the top of the page.

25. Enable biometric payment for mobile shoppers

Mobile shoppers want speed and convenience which means having them to fill in information manually is an absolute deal breaker.

Implement biometric payment options, such as fingerprint or facial recognition – for faster checkout – hence increasing the conversion rates.

26. Smart information hierarchy

Displaying the product information according to its importance is called Smart Information Hierarchy.

The main aim of a smart information hierarchy is to smoothly drive customers towards checkout without any confusion.

In your cart page focus on specific structuring including lines, and columns and highlight the crucial information such as the specs, subtotal, total, product quantity, shipping address, and a CTA to influence user perception.

This presents the final page as simple and clear, enhancing the user experience. It is also wise to use different colors to highlight information and a separate color for CTA to grab shoppers’ attention.

27. Be sure to auto-save cart items

If customers ever abandon their cart, the items in their cart should be saved and pre-loaded for when they revisit your website. This helps them find the products they were interested in before – and perhaps complete their purchase when they take a look at their cart during the next visit.

28. Don’t request unnecessary information

Avoid asking for unnecessary information on your checkout page. Your goal is to collect only the information that’s going to be used to fulfill their order. Any additional information creates friction on your checkout page and increases the chance they abandon their carts.

29. Offer social login

It is truly a pain to remember multiple user ids and passwords. Be a delight for your shoppers and offer social logins – Google, Facebook or any other account. This allows customers to remember their account information quickly and look up previous orders – a shopping cart optimization tactic you must incorporate.

30. Super clear error messages 🙂

Your checkout page should be equipped with proper form validation and error notifications. Your form validation errors should be displayed in real time so that customers know what information to provide to complete their purchase.

31. Make sure “back” button works

Although your cart pages may have a dedicated ‘Back‘ button that allows customers to return to previous pages, customers will often use the back button on their browser instead. So, the back button on their browser must bring them to the last page with all the cart edits that they have made.

Also read: How to Increase Add to Cart Rate: 30 Brilliant Ideas

32. Keep your domain consistent

A heavily overlooked factor that can immediately break trust – change of domain during the checkout process. Never ever should clicking on the cart icon or anywhere further in the checkout process should change your domain – your shoppers trust your website and not any other domain – it comes across as fraudulent.

33. Specify estimated date of delivery

It is anyway a bummer to not have the product immediately when the payment is made; it gets even worse when they don’t know when they will receive the items.

Do add the estimated delivery date – increase conversion rates and repeat purchases.

34. Highlight savings

Saving a few dollars on the purchase – the opportunity they might not get again –  is a massive push to go ahead and make the payment.

Make sure to highlight the savings in the cost summary. Put the discounts in a different color and bold it so that shoppers don’t miss noticing it.

You can also add the percentage saved or dollars saved right below the total cost in a smaller font.

35. Use smaller fonts to indicate costs

We recommend using smaller font sizes on the price of the items in the customer’s cart. This has a psychological impact on consumers’ minds and shows them that the price isn’t a very big deal.

36. Display wide buttons

Wide buttons on your cart page allow customers to see what the next objective is.

On mobile, each button should fill the entire width of the screen and ideally should be in the thumb zone.

37. Eliminate scrolling

Don’t have your shoppers hunt for information on your cart page.

An eCommerce shopping cart best practice is to place all the CTAs and links in the first fold of your page.

The only section that can go beyond the first fold is the product summary – when there are a lot of products in the cart.

38. Offer surprise gifts

A great way to dramatically reduce cart abandonment is to offer free surprise gifts in the form of product samples on the cart page.

This is always a pleasant surprise for online shoppers and creates a sense of friendliness and trust between the eCommerce store and the customer. So, think about what kind of gifts you can add to each order for free.

39. Exclude sold out items from the cart (with a warning)

Oftentimes, we come across websites where payments don’t go through because some items in the cart were not available – major damage in the shopping experience.

To avoid this, place the unavailable items in a different section on the cart page labeled – items not available – and exclude them from the cart and the cost summary.

This will let shoppers smoothly complete the checkout for the rest of the products.

40. Mention free delivery threshold

If you are offering conditional free delivery – above a threshold, then make a note of this.

Do mention the threshold on the cart page – ideally with a bar showing how much cart amount they are lacking to unlock the offer.

41. Make the coupon code field subtle

When people see an “Enter coupon code here” field, they feel less special. “How come I don’t have one?” Many leave the site to find a coupon; and never return.

What you can do instead is have a text link that says “Got a coupon?”. When someone clicks the link, make an input field appear.

Text links are less prominent, so fewer people will pay attention to them.

Customers who already have a coupon code will be looking for a way to enter it. Unless you hide it really well, they will find it and be able to apply their coupon code.

42. Work on site loading time

High site loading time can drive your potential shoppers away forever.

Implementing best practices such as compressing images, leveraging browser caching, and minimizing the use of heavy scripts can significantly improve loading speeds, ensuring a smoother browsing experience that encourages users to complete their purchases.

43. Use a payment form that looks like a credit card

Add real-life touch by designing the payment form in the form of a credit card – makes the user journey more engaging.

Also read: eCommerce Checkout UX: 13 Tips To Boost Conversions (+ Templates)

44. Store card information

Sure, you have to deal with PCI compliance, and there’s a risk of getting hacked, but you will make so much more money off returning users. When people don’t need to enter their billing info, buying becomes a one-click process.

45. Enable currency switching

If you have scaled your eCommerce store for international deliveries, then you need to let shoppers switch between currencies.

Include geolocation capabilities to calculate shipping costs.

Optimize cart and checkout pages so that they are easily translated into different languages as well.  

Also check out: 25 Proven Ways To Reduce eCommerce Shipping Costs

46. Make your CTA button extremely prominent

The goal of the cart page is to make shoppers click on checkout and complete their purchase – and your CTA button is instrumental in that.

A few eCommerce shopping cart best practices for the CTA button are:

• Have a minimum hit area of 7mm by 7mm
• Color the button in major contrast
• Bold the copy on the CTA button

47. Offer incremental payments

Depending on the price of the products on your ecommerce store, offering incremental payments allows customers to pay for more expensive items conveniently. Sometimes customers don’t have enough money to purchase the product outright. So, incremental payments will enable the customer to buy the item immediately but also guarantee the full payment later on.

48. Label your cart – make it personal

Make your cart experience personal by labeling it with a touch of individuality. Instead of simply calling it a 'Shopping Cart,' infuse personality and connection by labeling it with something that resonates with your brand or speaks directly to your customers. For instance, 'Your Stylish Finds,' 'Ready to Treat Yourself?,' or 'Let's Complete Your Wishlist!'

This simple shopping cart optimization not only adds a human touch to the shopping journey but also enhances engagement and encourages shoppers to continue their journey to checkout with a sense of belonging and excitement.

49. Add a gifting option

Imagine getting a gift card but can’t find the option to redeem it. Super annoying.

Make sure to add a text box in the cost summary section for gift cards on your cart page.

By strategically placing this feature within the checkout flow, you can streamline the process and minimize user effort. Consider implementing real-time validation to provide instant feedback on entered codes, reducing errors and frustration.

50. Show loyalty points that shoppers will earn

Another incentive for shoppers to complete their purchase is earning loyalty points.

Explicitly mention how many loyalty points the shopper will earn in that particular purchase and how much are they worth.

Next steps

98% of visitors who visit an eCommerce site—drop off without buying anything.

Reason: User experience issues that cause friction for visitors.

What to do about it?

Sign up for a free audit of your site – where we will identify UX issues, and suggest changes to turn more of your visitors into customers.