19Dec2008

Shopping Cart Design Showcase

In doing research for some ecommerce work I wanted to see how online retailers approached the layout of different types of store pages.

Perhaps my Google skills were lacking, but I couldn't find any examples of where someone else had done something similar. I've seen showcases of shopping cart icons and add to cart icons, but nothing where the layout of a whole page is examined.

So, I thought I'd create a showcase of great (or at least good-to-great) shopping cart page design.

Mia and Maggie shopping cart

It certainly wasn't easy to find as many examples as I did. There are lots of examples of bad shopping cart design. Lots.

Even when the rest of the site may be really nicely designed, the shopping cart page often feels like an afterthought or something that has been thrown together without much concern for the overall presentation of the page.

Which is surprising to me as this page is so critical to the customer purchase process.

Of course, it's worth noting that I have no idea whether the shopping cart pages I've singled out actually convert better than ones I've passed over. Maybe not. However, it's fair to say that they certainly look a lot better from a customer standpoint.

It's also true that shopping cart pages by their very nature — part web app, part marketing page, part customer support tool — are very hard to design well.

Hopefully, my shopping cart design showcase will help other designers see what approaches may work best.

11 Comments Posted

Building a cart now — thanks for the useful info!

1. Posted by SOS Media Web Design on December 21, 2008

I agree that all aspects of the website should be really good design with intuitive features, but I don't think it will have a bearing on conversion as people will already have decided that they want to buy it. All aspects of design should be important.

2. Posted by Digital Design on December 22, 2008

One of the first thing my client's say is that the website we build for them must be simple to use with simple navigation. This is often something that is overlooked when creating ecommerce websites.

3. Posted by Nebulas Web Design Essex on December 22, 2008

A good shopping cart can make or break your sales so it is def. important to really take it to the right level.

4. Posted by Local Web Design on December 22, 2008

Thank you for putting all these together, you're right that it's hard to find a good gallery of ideas for shopping carts.

5. Posted by Genius Monkeys on December 24, 2008

It definitely needs more info - a discussion on common pitfalls, etc. - but you might be able to use this Shopping Cart UI pattern ?

6. Posted by Anders Toxboe on December 24, 2008

All aspects of a sites design are important. From finding the product through to purchasing it, design (both asthetic and site structure) is the most important aspect of any web site.

7. Posted by Web Design on January 16, 2009

I've spent quite a bit of time studying the booking/shopping process and haven't found many places that discuss the design or the whole process at all.

Getting the design right is important to make it as simple and easy to understand. At the slightest frustration users can drop off from the sale.

The shopping bag is also a great place to up and cross sell. So definitely get the shopping bag design right, and also don't forget the full shopping process - you want to make it as quick and easy as you can. If it's done right it WILL improve the conversion rate.

8. Posted by Elane McVicar on January 20, 2009

Terrific design showcase, hadn't seen a few you mentioned, others are long time personal favorites. All in all it was a good mix of new and old. More and more we see long standing sellers upgrading their designs to compete, so I'm sure this received a warm welcome and will give many of those designers a good place to start.

Also, thanks a bunch for mentioning our Shopping Cart Best Practices article! Keep up the good work, look forward to more posts like this one on SmileyCat.

9. Posted by eCopt on January 21, 2009

Without making an exact count, it looks like 10% of the product pages are unisex targeted with the main 90% targeted towards women.

Any thoughts? Do women respond more to good design where men don't-care-I've-decided-what-I-want-to-buy-and-now-I'll-buy-it?

10. Posted by Jonathan Hayward on January 23, 2009

Thank you for the link to your summary of "shopping cart design showcase". I need it later for my own webproject. Ralph

11. Posted by Ralph on February 09, 2009