5 Ecommerce Shopping Cart Flyouts We Love

It’s every ecommerce store’s worst nightmare. Abandoned carts. 

Think about it – a customer wants to purchase your products, they add them to their shopping cart but then before fully going through your checkout page… poof. They’re gone. 

The customer disappears and your ecommerce shopping cart is abandoned. 

But why are they leaving before purchase? What about your ecommerce store, and specifically your shopping cart, is giving them pause to reconsider? 

A recent Baymard Insitute study shows that 17% of shoppers don’t complete their purchases due to a poorly designed checkout process. Drilling down to understand why customers are abandoning their purchases, and what part of your checkout isn’t clicking is a vital part of any ecommerce strategy. 

Think about it, it should be effortless for customers to use your brand’s ecommerce shopping cart. It should be the easiest part of the customer journey. Ecommerce sites love to use the term “frictionless” because that’s how easy it should feel for the customer to convert on your shopping cart.

And it really does come down to your shopping cart. It’s the make-or-break touchpoint of the purchasing stage for a consumer. 

So how can you build an engaging and seamless experience that is effortless to navigate, easy and enticing for customers to add personalized products to their shopping cart, and even rewards consumers for spending more? 

Well, if you’re looking for the best converting (in our humble opinion) and easiest to set up AOV and LTV boosting online shopping cart in the game: Hello Rebuy Smart Cart. 

Smart Cart enables customers to spend more with personalized product recommendations, switch-to-subscription options as well as a tiered progress bar that merchants can customize with rewards based on the customer's spending.

It’s dynamic and doesn’t interrupt the customer's shopping experience, but instead compliments the journey by sliding in on the right-hand side. 

All of these features and dynamic presentation make for a user-friendly customer experience that boosts AOV and LTV while lifting conversion rates.

Whether you go with an option like Smart Cart, a different ecommerce platform’s shopping cart, or are building a custom version for your online store, we can’t recommend the functionality and value of using a cart flyout.

So let’s showcase 5 great examples of online shopping carts done right and what makes them so effective and engaging. 

So abandon your worries over shopping cart abandonment and let’s get to the goods with our breakdown of ecommerce shopping cart flyouts.

Online Shopping Cart Flyouts Explained

So what exactly is an ecommerce shopping cart flyout?

A cart flyout is when an online store’s shopping cart extends out (or "flies" out) from the side of the screen. It appears when a shopper clicks to add something to their shopping cart or clicks on the cart icon.

With the cart flyout, potential customers can clearly see what’s in their cart, can make edits as needed, and interact with additional features all while staying on the same page they’re currently navigating.

Think of how annoying it is when… let’s say you’re browsing on a massive ecommerce website named after a rainforest, and every time you add a new product to your shopping cart you’re immediately brought to a brand new page. 

Great, now I’m staring at the product I just added to my shopping cart and I have to click pack to add additional items to my cart. It’s a needlessly frustrating experience that is instantly remedied by an ecommerce shopping cart flyout. 

With a cart flyout, online sales are a breeze for customers. 

Shoppers can change how many products they want to purchase, add additional recommended products and see an updated cost instantly in their online shopping cart. All this while not having to navigate to a separate page. To close an ecommerce shopping cart flyout, all a customer has to do is click anywhere on the page, which collapses the shopping cart.

Unlike a traditional cart page, the cart flyout lets buyers continue to browse your store while still viewing and editing the items in their cart. Super convenient.

The Upsides and Downsides of Using Cart Flyouts

Before going through the time and effort of creating a cart flyout, let’s discuss the upsides and downsides of using one.

The upsides:

• Fast: Today’s shoppers are all about speed and convenience. A shopping cart flyout delivers on those expectations by immediately showing shoppers what they’re purchasing, how much, and what the cost is—all without leaving the page.
• Immediate: Any changes a shopper makes to their online shopping cart are immediately reflected in the flyout. There’s no need to refresh the page or navigate to a new page which, again, is a huge usability advantage.
• Accessible: Ecommerce shopping cart flyouts are easy to access and designed to automatically appear when new items are added to the cart.

The downsides:

Actually, there aren’t many so long as the flyout is done correctly.

So let’s take a moment here to address some ecommerce shopping cart flyout best practices.

Shopping Cart Flyout Best Practices

Remember, you want to make the experience of shopping your online store as delightful as possible for your customer. This means taking advantage of all the opportunities using an ecommerce shopping cart flyout presents you. 

So first, let’s focus on making use of the space. 

Minimize negative space on your shopping cart

Playing with space can always be tricky, whether you’re hanging up artwork in your home or navigating the backend of your ecommerce platform for your online store. If you have too much it can look cluttered or overwhelming. Too little and the space looks sparse and underutilized.

It’s important to use the space provided by your online shopping cart flyout effectively. If you’ve got too much negative space your cart can look barren and unbalanced. 

Take this one for example:

We love the simplicity of the shopping cart flyout but there’s too much empty space here that could be better utilized. 

The brand could have used this space to promote additional products (or better yet provide personalized product recommendations), discounts, payment options, or a tiered progress bar to reward customers based on their cart total. Not taking advantage of this space by using online shopping cart software widgets to improve your AOV and conversion rates is leaving money on the table. 

Another downside, the buttons to add or remove products in this cart example are so small they’re not likely to be used. Lastly, if this merchant offers their products on subscription there’s no option for switching these products to subscription or highlighting the benefits (often discounts or loyalty points) that accompany subscribing.

Online Shopping Cart Flyout Interrupts Customer Experience

Remember, the advantage of a shopping cart flyout is that it compliments the customer journey and provides more opportunities to recommend products or services that shoppers would find valuable. 

Using a cart that interrupts that customer experience and makes it more difficult to purchase additional products or adjust an existing order is bad for your online business. 

We hate to bring it back to the buzzword scattered across so many ecommerce sites, but it’s all about making it a frictionless customer experience. 

Let’s look at another example here to highlight what to avoid to make the most out of your pre-checkout experience. 

It may seem slight, but just the inconvenience of having this shopping cart interrupt the shopper’s browning can be enough sour the customer experience and lead to abandoned carts. Though the cart doesn’t dominate the screen it’s just intrusive enough to momentarily halt any further browsing.

Unfortunately, in this particular example, customers aren’t able to add or remove multiple products from the ecommerce shopping cart and instead, shoppers have to click ‘View Cart’ to make further adjustments.

Lastly, there are no other cart-enhancing features like we’d mentioned previously (switch-to-subscription, personalized product recommendations, etc.) to really take this cart experience to the next level.

The big takeaways

Shopping cart flyouts are meant to make the customers' lives easier. The right ecommerce shopping cart for your store will be the perfect balance of convenience and valuable features ( like personalized product recommendations that benefit the customer and your bottom line) as all while providing an effortless shopping experience. 

So now that we’ve seen what not to do with cart flyouts, let’s take a look at ecommerce shopping carts that we should all take inspiration from.

5 Cart Flyouts We're Into Lately

What truly makes or breaks a cart flyout is how intuitive and engaging it is.

Ask yourself:

• Can shoppers add or remove items with a single click?
• Are the subtotal and shipping costs clearly visible?
• Can you collapse the flyout with one click?
• Does it look fantastic?
• Is it a user-friendly experience?
• Am I leaving value on the table for my customers and business by not taking advantage of conversion rate-boosting features?

Once you’ve checked ease of use, remember that the best cart flyouts are those that promote additional product discovery by including personalized product recommendations.

In a recent study by Elastic, more than 88% of online shoppers said they were more likely to continue shopping on a retailer website that offers a personalized experience. That’s almost nine out of every ten shoppers desiring a more tailored shopping experience. 

With all this in mind, let’s take a look at five cart flyouts we absolutely love.

Ned

Ned’s cart flyout really does it for us.

It looks great and it's totally on brand. Shoppers can easily view the subtotal, the items in their cart, and can add and remove products with one click.

Ned takes full advantage of the space by offering complimentary products to encourage product discovery and boost AOV. This cart also features a one-click switch-to-subscription option which has dramatically improved Ned’s subscriber count.

It's clean as a whistle, too. 

12th Tribe

Clothing company 12th Tribe makes it easy for shoppers to see what they’re getting by featuring large product images next to handy options to add and remove items with a click.

Shoppers can also see how far away they are from earning free shipping via the progress bar at the top. The 12th Tribe team doubles down on beautiful imagery, including recommended products in a grid that features nice big product images.

The short message “Your outfit needs this” is a nice bit of encouragement for their shoppers.

Mixhers

What we love about this next example (in addition to the ease of use and visibility) is the creative design.

Health and wellness brand Mixhers designed this custom cart flyout with dev support from the team at Electriq agency.

It features a breakout menu offering personalized cross-sells, an option to upgrade to a subscription for a discount, and a checkbox to manage orders via SMS.

Large images focus attention on the products which can be added to the cart with a single click. Slick. (And creative!)

Flaunt

Not only does Flaunt’s cart flyout include data-driven product recommendations, but it also dynamically populates and changes based on what shoppers add to their cart.

In this example, shoppers are presented with a similar phone case style they're likely to consider.

Two phone rings are also recommended: one that matches the selected case, and one that matches the recommended case should they decide to switch. (Smart!)

It’s a strategic way to include intelligent recommendations and increase overall cart value.

An eye-grabbing message at the top advertises sales promotions and the progress bar rewards more spending with free shipping.

Super clean.

Magic Spoon

Magic Spoon’s cart boasts messaging and design that are completely on brand.

The highlight here is the large Subscribe-And-Save button offering a 25% discount to entice customers to subscribe to items they’re already purchasing.

Buyers can discover new items and add them with the click of the mouse, discounts make the recommended products more attractive, and the checkout button clearly calls shoppers to action. 

Dazzle Your Customers With A Great Cart Flyout

These are all great examples of cart flyouts that increase AOV, decrease cart abandonment, and improve the customer experience. And today, it’s easier than ever to build an optimized cart flyout.

Our Smart Cart is designed to be faster, smarter, and more flexible, providing shoppers with a truly modern shopping experience. With features like a free shipping bar, marketing messages, countdown timer, and more, brands can provide the personalized, convenient shopping experience today’s online shoppers have come to expect.

To learn more about our Smart Cart, check out our interactive Smart Cart demo.

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