What counts as a cart drawer
This collection covers slide carts and side carts that open after Add to Cart, the trust and shipping copy inside them, and the upsells they show. One result is an add-to-cart popup on the product page, tagged here because it does the same job.
The win/loss record
5 results, 5 marked won, 0 losses. Two of the five are upsell product swaps, and one win came partly from removing an upsell, so the record does not say "add more to the cart".
Where cart drawers were tested
- Cart: 4
- Product page (add-to-cart popup): 1
Biggest wins and their numbers
Reassurance under the checkout button
Oliver Kenyon's fashion store test added three lines under Checkout: tracked next-day dispatch, 14-day returns, and accepted payment methods. It also confirmed free shipping in the cart header and let shoppers change size from a dropdown. Result: +23.8% RPV and +21.9% CVR at 99.4% confidence. Oliver's summary is that the cart is the place to remove the last reason to wait, not to sell harder.
Dave Diederen's single line, "Ships by Tomorrow", under the checkout CTA gave +6.65% CVR, +9.04% RPV and +2.24% AOV.
The right upsell, or none
Milos tested a leather strap against a mystery box as the cart upsell for a watch brand: +15.26% RPV, +18.19% CVR and +$28,912/month, with AOV down 2.48%. Dave Diederen's two upsell products in the same add-to-cart popup gave +7.80% RPV; Dave says the product shown mattered more than placement.
Oliver Kenyon's slide cart redesign removed a $25 pre-checkout upsell that Oliver judged out of step with a $300 AOV, and added security badges and a clearer item summary. Result: +$31,000/month.
@oliverkenyon@oliverkenyon
@DaveDiederen
@CROguy_@DaveDiederenTests that lost or were flat
None were shared. The redesign that removed an upsell is the nearest warning: a pre-checkout offer that is out of scale with the order can cost more than it adds.
Design patterns that won
- Delivery speed, returns and payment methods directly under the checkout button.
- Free shipping confirmed in the cart header.
- Variant changes possible inside the cart.
- One upsell that is an obvious next step, priced in proportion to the order.
Ideas not yet tested
Dave Diederen and Kasper Dolk both suggest per-item subscribe-and-save toggles in the drawer, savings breakdowns, and a money-back guarantee or review under the checkout button. Dave also suggests a countdown in the side cart after add to cart, and testing a full-screen cart popup instead of a drawer.
How to add or change cart drawers on Shopify
Many themes have a drawer cart setting; text under the checkout button usually needs a small theme edit or a cart app. For upsell blocks, see the Shopify upsell apps.
How to test it on your store
Hypothesis: stating delivery speed, returns and payment options under the checkout button will raise revenue per visitor. Measure revenue per visitor and checkout starts, and size the test with the sample size calculator.