Shopping Cart
Quick Definition
A shopping cart is a temporary holding area on an e-commerce site where customers collect products before checkout. In WordPress, WooCommerce provides the shopping cart functionality — including cart pages, mini-carts, and abandoned cart recovery.
What Is a Shopping Cart?
A shopping cart is the feature on an e-commerce website that lets customers add products, review their selections, adjust quantities, and proceed to checkout. It is the digital equivalent of a physical shopping cart in a supermarket — a temporary holding area between browsing and buying.
In WordPress, shopping cart functionality comes from WooCommerce. When you install WooCommerce, it automatically creates a Cart page where customers can review their items, apply coupon codes, calculate shipping costs, and move to checkout.
How It Works in WooCommerce
- Add to Cart — Customer clicks the button on a product page. Item stored in session.
- Cart page — Shows products, quantities, prices, coupon field. Customer can update or remove items.
- Cart calculations — Subtotal, tax, shipping, and discounts calculated in real time.
- Proceed to Checkout — Customer enters shipping/billing and completes payment.
Abandoned Cart Problem
55–80% of carts are abandoned before checkout. Plugins like CartFlows and FunnelKit recover lost sales by capturing emails, sending follow-up emails, and offering coupon incentives. Effective recovery can reclaim up to 30% of lost sales.
Optimizing Your Cart
- Show shipping costs early — Unexpected costs = #1 abandonment reason
- Allow guest checkout — Do not force account creation
- Minimize steps — One-page checkout converts better
- Display trust signals — SSL, payment logos, guarantees
- Mobile optimization — 70%+ of e-commerce traffic is mobile
Why It Matters
Your shopping cart is where money is made or lost. Streamlined cart + abandoned recovery = 10–30% more revenue without more traffic.
Sources: WooCommerce, CartFlows