Add to cart

Sara Heegaard May 10, 20212 minute read

Sara is a copywriter focused on lifting up Recharge's merchants, partners, and their customers. Before Recharge, her past lives included writing and editing at four different subscription... Full bio

What is an add-to-cart button?

The add-to-cart button is a feature of ecommerce stores that allows customers to choose items to purchase without actually completing the payment. For online stores, it lives on individual product pages, functioning as the digital equivalent of a shopping cart in a brick and mortar store. As opposed to a buy button or a buy now button, the add-to-cart button allows customers to save items to their cart so they can continue shopping, then complete the checkout process later on in the process, resulting in a more seamless customer experience. It also allows shoppers to purchase multiple items at one time.

How can your company optimize ATC conversions?

Monitoring your add-to-cart conversion rate, or the number of people who click the add-to-cart button on your ecommerce store, is important for optimizing your ecommerce store’s conversion rate. This contributes to higher average order value (AOV) and, for subscription model businesses, higher customer lifetime value (LTV). To calculate your add-to-cart conversion rate, divide the total number of sessions for your ecommerce site where a shopper adds an item to their shopping cart by your site’s total number of sessions. Optimal ATC conversion rate for your business depends on your industry and vertical. Establishing a baseline for your own business and monitoring for inconsistencies can help you identify abnormalities and areas for growth. 

There are several strategies businesses can use to optimize their add-to-cart rates. Improving UX and UI for your website helps create a more seamless customer experience, helping drive ATC rate and making it more convenient for people to purchase your products and services. Placing add-to-cart buttons not just on the top of the product page, but also on the bottom of the page and beside the product on a catalog page, makes it easier for customers to add items to their cart. Finally, optimizing your product detail pages, including clear and engaging product descriptions with compelling photos, will help provide customers with the information they need and compel them to purchase.