# Slide-out cart instead of a cart page: +10% conversion rate

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Cart (Ecommerce)
- Elements: Cart drawers & slide carts
- Test run by: [Ontrack Digital+](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/ontrack-digital/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://www.convert.com/case-studies/sales-funnel-simplification-ontrack/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/conscious-items-persistent-cart-slider/

Replacing 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.

## Result

**+10% conversion rate**

- 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.

## 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)

- 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.

## How to run this test

- 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
- Guardrail: Revenue per visitor
- Guardrail: Average order value
- Guardrail: 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.

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Credit: Ontrack Digital+ ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/conscious-items-persistent-cart-slider/).
Usage: Free to use, quote and build on, with credit and a link: name the practitioner or organization that ran the test and link to its LiftArchive page. The results belong to the practitioners who ran and shared them; the summaries and commentary are LiftArchive's.