As an ecommerce business owner, having a customized cart page is one of the best ways to increase sales from your existing traffic. But if you‘re not a coder or designer, creating a custom cart page can seem daunting.
The good news is, with the right tools and strategy, you can easily optimize your WooCommerce cart page without touching a line of code. In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll share the tools and techniques I‘ve used over 15 years as an ecommerce consultant to help dozens of online businesses reduce cart abandonment and boost revenue.
Contents
The Costly Impact of Cart Abandonment (and How a Custom Page Can Help)
Before we dive into how to create a custom cart page, it‘s important to understand the impact of cart abandonment on your bottom line.
Research by Baymard Institute shows that the average cart abandonment rate across ecommerce sites is a whopping 69.57%.
In real terms, if your store generates $100,000 in revenue annually, you‘re likely leaving $69,570 on the table from abandoned carts.
There are many reasons why customers abandon their carts, including:
- High shipping costs
- Lack of trust in the site
- Unexpected additional fees at checkout
- Account creation required
- Distractions that divert attention
However, one significant factor is poor page design and lack of optimization. This is evident when looking at the default WooCommerce cart page:
The generic cart page doesn‘t match branded online store designs. And it lacks essential conversion optimizations.
With a custom cart page, however, you can:
- Seamlessly match the look and feel of your online store
- Reduce distractions to keep focus on checkout
- Add social proof like testimonials and urgency elements
- Pre-emptively answer questions and concerns
Data shows that a well-designed, optimized cart page can increase conversion rates by 30% or more.
So if you‘re leaving $70K a year on the table, a high converting custom cart could help you recover $21K or more in abandoned carts.
Let‘s look at how you can easily create such a page.
Method 1: Using a Drag and Drop Page Builder Plugin
The easiest way to create conversion-optimized WooCommerce pages is using a drag and drop page builder plugin for WordPress. This gives you a visual interface for designing beautiful cart pages without coding.
I recommend using the SeedProd plugin, which I‘ve used to create high-converting custom cart pages for ecommerce clients.
Step 1: Install and Activate SeedProd
Install SeedProd from the WordPress plugin directory and activate it. If you want access to all features, upgrade to SeedProd Pro using your license key.
With the premium version, you can integrate with email marketing platforms, access ecommerce templates, and more.
Step 2: Select an Ecommerce Template
In your WP dashboard, go to SeedProd » Pages » Add New Page. Browse the template selection and pick an ecommerce-focused template.
For example, this Clean Checkout template:
The template already contains an optimized checkout structure that you can customize.
Step 3: Set Up the Page Layout
On the page builder screen, you‘ll see your template mocked up on the right with design settings on the left.
Start by adding a full-width header image by choosing the single column layout:
Then add an image block and select your store logo or other header image:
Below, click to add columns again. Pick the sidebar + content layout.
Next, drag the Cart block from the left into the wider content column:
This will display a live view of the WooCommerce cart.
Step 4: Customize the Cart Design
From the left sidebar, select the Cart block to open customization options:
Here you can tweak all design aspects of the cart, like colors, fonts, borders, buttons, and more.
For example, increase font sizes for better readability on mobile. Pick colors that match your brand.
Take your time to ensure the cart matches the rest of your ecommerce store design.
Step 5: Add High Converting Sections
Some additional elements I like to add to cart pages include:
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Countdown timer: Creates urgency and scarcity for time-limited offers. This has increased conversion rates by over 10% for some ecommerce clients.
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Popular products: Encourage customers to add more items they may be interested in.
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Testimonials: Build trust by showing social proof from real customers.
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FAQs: Pre-empt questions and reduce chances of abandonment. Over 50% of cart abandonments happen due to questions or confusion.
For example, add a testimonials block to the sidebar column:
And insert a countdown timer at the top to encourage faster purchases.
Step 6: Set Live and Start Testing
Once you‘re happy with the design, publish your new page and set it as the cart page URL under WooCommerce » Settings » Advanced.
Your custom cart page is now live!
I recommend creating two variations – one with testimonials and one with a countdown timer. Send 50% of traffic to each and measure conversion rates to see which Optimizes better.
Method 2: Add a Sliding Side Cart
If you want to be able to view the cart without leaving the page, adding a sliding side cart is a great option.
This eliminates extra clicks and distractions of changing pages. I‘ve seen side carts boost conversion rates by over 20% for some ecommerce stores.
The Cart for WooCommerce plugin makes it easy to add this functionality. After installing, go to Customize Design to match the style to your store theme:
You can customize the fonts, colors, spacing, borders, and more. It also supports product recommendations within the side cart.
6 More Ways to Reduce Cart Abandonment
Optimizing your custom cart page is crucial, but you can take other actions to reduce abandonment:
1. Add urgency tactics – Limited-time discounts or exit popups with discounts work well. For example, offering 10% off if they complete the purchase within 15 minutes.
2. Show social proof – Display recent purchases, testimonials, and customer ratings on product and cart pages.
3. Recommend upsells – Suggest complementary items or higher priced versions of products added to cart.
4. Offer guarantees – Assure customers with satisfaction guarantees, free returns, or other policies.
5. Send follow up emails – Remind customers of abandoned carts with personalized emails and incentives.
6. Improve checkout navigation – Allow saving carts for later and make it easy to edit cart contents.
Conclusion
Optimizing your WooCommerce cart experience is one of the highest ROI enhancements you can make. You can significantly reduce abandoned carts and earn more from existing traffic.
Using the techniques in this guide, you can create high-converting custom cart pages without any coding or design skills.
Remember to A/B test different versions and pay attention to conversion metrics. Fine-tune over time to maximize sales and recovery of abandoned carts.
Let me know if you have any other questions! I‘m always happy to help fellow ecommerce owners succeed.
