Slide-out cart instead of a cart page: +10% conversion rate
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsReplacing a dedicated cart page with a slide-out cart that stayed available on every page raised ecommerce conversion rate by 10% and revenue per visitor by 12%.
Ontrack Digital+ ran this test for the online store Conscious Items, and it was published as a Convert.com case study.
Most of the traffic was mobile, where loading a separate cart page adds friction.
- Ecommerce conversion rate: +10% at 97.55% confidence. This was the main goal and matched the 10% the team predicted.
- Revenue per visitor: +12%, so the extra orders were not offset by smaller baskets.
- Products per visitor: +14.45%. Shoppers added more items when the cart was always within reach.
- Average order value: +2.18%, a small change; no confidence level was shared for it.
The change
The separate cart page is replaced by a slide-out cart that opens on any page.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
Shoppers who added an item went to a standard, separate cart page before checkout.
Variant
A slide-out cart opened over the current page and stayed available across the site until the order was placed, so shoppers could check their cart without leaving the page.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- 87% of visitors were on mobile, where each extra page load is slow and easy to abandon.
- Shoppers could compare products and see their cart without losing their place, which may have led to more items per visit.
- Removing a step between adding to cart and checkout shortens the path to purchase.
Caveats: Each version reached 34,682 visitors over one week, and 90% of traffic came from the US. Confidence was given only for conversion rate, and the results come from a testing-tool vendor's case study.
Who ran it
Ontrack Digital+ ran this test for Conscious Items and published the results (Convert.com case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Ontrack Digital+ →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we replace the cart page with a slide-out cart available on every page, then more visitors will complete a purchase because they can review their cart and keep shopping without a page load.
- Primary metric
- Ecommerce conversion rate
- Guardrails
- Revenue per visitor
- Average order value
- Checkout start rate
- Who should test it
- Stores with mostly mobile traffic and shoppers who browse several products per visit. It may help less if your cart page does heavy lifting, such as complex bundles, shipping calculators or upsells that won't fit in a drawer.
Questions
Is a cart drawer better than a cart page?
In this test it was, for a mostly mobile store: conversion rose 10%.
Results vary, so test it against your own cart page.
Does a slide-out cart lower average order value?
Not here. Average order value rose 2.18% and products per visitor rose 14.45%.
What should a slide-out cart include?
At minimum the items, quantities, subtotal and a clear checkout button.
Keep it light enough to load fast on mobile.
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