Dear Retail Entrepreneur: I know the words shopping cart icon may not exactly SCREAM excitement, but believe me when I say those icons and their placement on your homepage (and website) are INCREDIBLY important!!!

Remember: the purpose of your website is not only to showcase your products, but to make purchasing those items SUPER easy for your customer … and your shopping cart icon plays an intricate role when it comes to providing your online shoppers with a deluxe and user-friendly online shopper experience.

First things first, what is a shopping cart icon?

Your shopping cart icon allows your visitors to easily navigate to your shopping cart page where they can then add, remove and view all the products they want to buy from your online store.

And in case you were wondering what a shopping cart icon exactly looks like … well, it pretty much looks something like this:

Location … location … location

We have all heard the age-old phrase: “location, location, location” and I am here to tell you when it comes to your shopping cart icon …. its location matters too!!!

Meaning if you thought merely having a shopping cart icon on your website was enough … then unfortunately you were mistaken. However … fortunately this blog is here to set the record straight. 😉

Let’s look at it this way: when you stroll into Woolworths on a Friday afternoon with your shopping list in hand and a shopping mission in mind … but you cannot see a single shopping trolley or basket in sight … how would that make you feel?

Somewhat displeased, right?! 

Because truth be told: how on earth are you supposed to shop without a proper place to put your shopping? 

AND THE EXACT SAME goes for your online store.

If your online shoppers cannot find your shopping cart icon when wanting to shop, then it does not matter whether you have one or not … they will also be somewhat displeased and some may even leave your site altogether.

And for each shopper that leaves your site, a potential sale goes out the door with them. 

So make 100% sure your shopping cart icons are CLEARLY visible.

Where is the perfect spot to place my shopping cart icon?

We recommend you place your shopping cart icon in the top right corner of EACH and EVERY single page on your website. 

I cannot stress this enough: your shopping cart icon MUST always be:

• easy to find
• easy to see 
• show the total amount of products in the cart
• and easy to use throughout your ENTIRE site to allow your customers to access their cart whenever and wherever — be it on your homepage or your FAQS page — as this helps increase the chances of a sale being made.

Remember what we said earlier about customers demanding shopping convenience? Meaning, if your customer constantly has to leave a page they are currently on to have a look at their cart contents … they simply WILL NOT DO IT and they WILL NOT SHOP.

Therefore, showcasing your shopping cart icon across your site helps ensure easy access and satisfied shoppers.

And speaking of satisfied shoppers: your shopping cart icon must clearly show the exact quantity of ALL the items in your customer’s cart too.

This helps eliminate any confusion whether they have added the item to their cart or not. It also helps eliminate unwanted costs from creeping up. Since absolutely NO ONE likes seeing additional costs staring at them during the checkout process. 

Have a quick look at the example below: 

Your shopping cart icon in the top right corner should show the number of products your customer has in their cart:

And your shopping cart page should show both the number of items and the exact amount to be paid to minimise frustration/miscommunication:

Did you know?

There is no denying strategically positioning your cart icon and a high-converting checkout page go hand-in-hand. 

To learn what constitutes a high-converting checkout page, join me for 4-ish minutes in the video below. This video shares how you can fix your checkout process to potentially increase your conversion rate by 21%!!!

Remember: your checkout page is the ONE place your customers actually hand over their money — so it best be great.

Is your cart icon and checkout page is in tip-top shape? Yet, but customers are still ditching their carts? Then you will LOVE this video!!! I will walk you through our Abandon Cart Sales Accelerator email series with word-for-word script included!!!

Conclusion

Having a clearly visible cart icon is non-negotiable, because it is at the epicentre of your online store’s sales success.

Ready to further transform your homepage into a revenue-generating machine? Then download our Ultimate Ecommerce Homepage Checklist!!! It contains the exact method we use to grow our private clients’ online empires!