Magento 2 shopping cart: importance and functionality
Having the cart in your eCommerce site with various features and convenient design is one of the most important aspects that improve a store’s conversion rate. Since cart abandonment is a significant problem, merchants should consider the practices that reduce this rate more seriously. In this regard, we will discuss what cart functionality can be implemented for Magento 2 online stores and why it is so crucial for sales.
The importance of shopping carts
The initial reason why every eCommerce merchant should pay close attention to shopping cart functionality is the alarming statistics of cart abandonment. Namely, Finance Online reports that the cart abandonment rate is between 59.2% to 79.8%. Even though the primary reason for the abandonment is the fact that customers are not yet ready to purchase. Some of the customers leave the cart because a site has slow performance, the store does not have a suitable payment option, or they were distracted while browsing.
“90 Compelling Shopping Cart Abandonment Statistics”. Finances Online
Also, lack of small features in the cart can annoy a customer and lead to the bouncing from a site. For instance, if a price in the cart does not display the right price or it is impossible to change the products in the cart (choose another quantity and/or remove) without reloading a page and returning to the main store interface.
With the importance of cart optimization, the merchants should focus on investing in the technologies and marketing practices that will influence the successful purchases and conversion rate. The eCommerce platforms also understand that great cart functionality is crucial for online stores. Therefore, these platforms provide multiple plugins and extensions that improve this aspect of a store. Nevertheless, the open-source Magento 2 has a different approach to building an online store and requires customization and adding features to a cart with the help of a developer’s skills.
The Magento 2 cart
Photo by Rubaitul Azad on Unsplash
As with every open-source platform, Magento 2 has almost limitless possibilities for customization. However, a user has to be technically proficient to implement the desired functionality to a cart and follow the documentation on how to configure the backend of a store. The basic Magento 2 functionality already includes the most crucial features, like removing and changing the characteristics of items. Moreover, there are additional configuration options like applying the discount to particular products, the number of items in the cart, and even sending cart abandonment notifications as part of the email marketing strategy.
Out of the box, Magento 2 has various cart configurations that can be found on the official documentation page. For instance, one can indicate the number of items in the cart displayed near the mini cart icon while browsing a site.
Cart configuration. Experience League Adobe
Also, a merchant can configure the displaying minimum required sum of order or quantity required to proceed with the purchase. Another feature that can be turned off or on is the redirection cart after a customer adds the product to the page. And most importantly, a Magento cart can display the cross-selling items in the shopping cart. All these configurations can be performed from the admin page > settings > and choosing Checkout from the Sales panel. Meanwhile, for the marketing features that should be included in the checkout, like setting the rules for the discount (e.g. buy 3 – get 10% off, buy 3 – get one free, coupons, etc) can be changed in from the Marketing panel. Adobe’s documentation dedicated to the Cart Price Rules explains the most common practices in this area and how to perform them.
Another benefit of the Magento 2 cart and as an eCommerce platform is that a merchant can add any payment option and delivery option with the custom-made modules or extensions from the store. In particular, in one of our articles about the best Magento 2 payment getaways, we explained what payment systems are available for Magento 2 and how they can increase the financial effectiveness of a store. Also, Magento 2 allows integration of any delivery service. Even if there is no dedicated plugin from the provider, developers can implement the needed solution by themselves. Considering that the availability of popular payment and shipping options influences a customer’s decision to purchase, having the best selection can reduce the abandonment rate and improve conversion.
Bottom line
Consequently, the optimization of a shopping cart is the essential factor for the success of an eCommerce operation because it contributes to how conveniently and without problems customers purchase from a store. The goals of an effective cart are to remove the barriers that disrupt the purchase process and make the cart experience as smooth as possible. With Magento 2 as an eCommerce platform, a merchant can implement the basic functions from the settings menu. However, with the help of the development team, the Magento 2 cart can be customized to have any feature by adding the required code and modules.
