Do you know that the cart abandonment rate reached 70% for the first time in 12 years as of 2025?
This was the global figure provided by Statista recently.
The shopping cart abandonment rate has been steadily increasing, and as a Shopify merchant, you need to stay on top of the situation with the best shopping cart optimization strategies.
Before we get to the 10 best shopping cart optimization tips, let’s understand some major reasons why customers abandon their carts.
Reasons for Shopping Cart Abandonment
According to Baymard Institute’s research, some of the top reasons for cart abandonment are:
- Complicated/long checkout process.
- Customers couldn’t calculate the total costs upfront.
- Fewer payment methods.
- The website is slow/crashed.
- Trust issues with credit card information.
To optimize the shopping cart user experience, you need to solve the above problems.
We have researched some of the best ecommerce stores and made this list of the top 10 practices of shopping cart optimization for online merchants.
10 Best Shopping Cart Optimization Strategies to Boost Sales
#1 Add a Sticky Cart Drawer
Source: iCart, the Shopify cart drawer app
A sticky cart drawer ensures that the shopping cart is visible and accessible from any page, allowing customers to review their items without leaving the product browsing experience.
If you are a Shopify store owner, applications such as iCart will help you build a sticky cart into your store. You can add features like product upsell, recommendations, bundles, and progress bars to reduce cart abandonment and increase sales.
#2 Clear Shipping & Return Policy in the Cart Page
Tentree sells fashion and apparel items made from sustainable products. Their shipping and returns policy is clearly mentioned on the cart page. ‘Free shipping on all orders above $100’ encourages customers to proceed to add items to their cart and proceed to checkout.
Pro tip: Always display your shipping and returns policy near the ‘Add to cart’ button. This way they know what to expect when something doesn’t fit or arrive on time.
#3 Include Exit-Intent Pop-ups
When we visited Fenty Beauty’s page, we added their beauty product to our cart and were about to exit when a pop-up came up on our screen.
Adding exit pop-ups is a great strategy to encourage customers to return to the cart page with enticing offers. You can also increase the cart conversion rate by optimizng your cart page with pop-ups like ‘You have left something in your cart’
#4 Build Trust With Customer Reviews
When we scroll down the cart page of Condor Cycles, we see that they have integrated their Trustpilot reviews. Customer reviews help brands in many ways.
Buyers trust other customers more than the brand. Positive reviews, when added near the cart or on the cart page, reassure buyers that other customers had good experiences.
Pro tip: Add UGC of positive reviews near the shopping cart to increase trust right before the purchase.
#5 Add Payment Methods that Customers Love
In the above image, Maguire Shoes offers at least three payment methods and displays trusted payment icons at checkout for reassurance.
Customers are more likely to purchase a product if they see their preferred payment method. This can be credit/debit cards, digital wallets (like PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay), BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later), or even local payment options.
Adding different payment options is one of the best e-commerce cart abandonment solutions because it caters to diverse customer preferences.
#6 Add a Guest Checkout Option
In the above image, you can see how Nike offers a guest checkout option. This helps customers proceed to checkout without creating an account.
Forcing your customers to create an account increases cart abandonment. You can create customer accounts automatically in the background with the provided email address.
Pro tip: Merge the account order history when the customer decides to create an account in your store.
#7 Display Total Costs Upfront Before Checkout
One of the reasons for cart abandonment is that customers cannot calculate the total costs before proceeding to checkout.
In the above example, look how Henly has added the subtotal before the checkout button. Displaying total costs is one of the most overlooked best practices in web shopping cart strategies for e-commerce stores.
Customers hate unexpected fees. Offer a full cost breakdown for them before checkout to decrease cart abandonment.
#8 Work On Your Online Store’s Loading Time
According to the Baynard Institute’s research that we mentioned earlier, stores with slow loading times have a higher chance of cart abandonment.
Your e-commerce store’s shopping cart optimization is incomplete if your website is slow. Compress and optimize product images, enable lazy loading, and if you are on Shopify, use fast-loading Shopify themes.
#9 Sell Complementary Products
One of the best shopping cart optimization tips is to add products on the cart page for upselling and cross-selling.
This is not a new feature for online merchants, yet many shopping carts we see have no complementary products. When we were on The Outrage’s cart page, we saw a section ‘pairs best with’ that offered cross-selling products. If you are selling clothes and accessories, ‘pairs well with’ is a great section to add.
Your AOV will substantially increase with these upselling & cross-selling strategies.
#10 Add a Progress Bar
Source: iCart, the Shopify cart drawer app
Increasing AOV is always a goal for online merchants. One proven method is incorporating progress bars or milestone-based incentives directly into the cart interface.
In the above image, we have highlighted the progress bar as seen with iCart, the cart drawer Shopify app. If you are a Shopify merchant, apps like iCart help to add a progress bar to your cart interface.
Customers are more likely to complete a task when they can see how close they are to a reward. For example, “You’re $8 away from FREE shipping!”. This decreases your cart abandonment rate by creating a sense of urgency.
Wrapping Up: Optimize Your Shopping Cart for Maximum Conversions
Optimizing your shopping cart is essential for reducing abandonment rates and boosting your sales.
By implementing cart upselling techniques like offering multiple payment options, simplifying checkout, and displaying total costs upfront, you can improve the user experience and encourage higher spending.
FAQs
1. Why should I optimize my shopping cart?
A user-friendly, smooth, and fast shopping cart helps buyers complete the checkout process faster. Optimizing your shopping cart will increase your store’s revenue.
2. How to build an online shopping cart?
E-commerce platforms such as Shopify and WooCommerce provide built-in shopping carts to merchants. You can install apps like iCart to optimize your shopping cart on Shopify. You can also build a customized shopping cart using coding skills.
3. What is shopping cart abandonment?
Shopping cart abandonment occurs when a buyer adds an item to their cart and leaves the store without completing the checkout process.
4. What is the average shopping cart abandonment rate?
The global shopping cart abandonment rate as of 2025 is 70%.
5. What are some shopping cart upselling techniques to increase sales?
To increase sales through upselling, recommend complementary products during the checkout process, highlighting their benefits. Additionally, offer discounted product bundles when customers purchase related items together.
About the author
Vineet Nair
Vineet is an experienced content strategist with expertise in the ecommerce domain and a keen interest in Shopify. He aims to help Shopify merchants thrive in this competitive environment with technical solutions and thoughtfully structured content.