Shopping Cart Funnel Example for E-commerce

If you are struggling to convert visitors to customers with a limited ads budget, or people are clicking your paid ads yet leaving your site without buying anything, you need a shopping cart funnel to maximize your results. 

Cart Funnel Breakdowns

The cart funnel typically has 4 stages, they are:

• Best-selling product description page 
• First upsell page 
• Second upsell page
• Thank you page

If you are running paid ads, you should be running ads specifically for only one product. All the messaging, creative, and visuals should be about that one product. When people click on your ads, you should send them to your best-selling product description page instead of a general product page. 

Not the latest nor the most expensive product, again, it's one single product that most of your customers would want. 

Nonetheless, we're not going to let the best-selling product sells itself as that allows people to compare prices easier with other stores. You would have to create an irresistible offer that they can't get anywhere else such as offering a bundle or a discount. This helps increase the purchase intents of your visitors. 

Essential elements for the product description page

Here's a checklist of the essential elements you should highlight on your best-selling product description page:

• Strong social proof
  • e.g. reviews, star ratings, video testimonials
• Great product presentation
  • e.g. good product photos with 360-view, a video showing your product, and compelling copy highlighting the benefits of the product
  • Watch the hot spots of your best-selling product page here
• Call-to-action button
  • e.g. clear button directing people to read the review section, watch the product video and buy the product
  • This provides clear guidance for your visitors to move through the funnel 
  • Find out your CTA analysis here
• Frequently asked questions addressing the common concerns of your visitors
  • You can survey people using the exit intent website survey to find out their concerns

The most important thing about a cart funnel - upselling pages

The most important thing about a cart funnel is the moment between when the visitor adds the product to the cart and clicks a check-out. 

You'll want to have an order bump which is cross-selling (creating a bundle) or up-selling (greater volume at a discount) before the visitor lands on checkout. 

You might be tempted to bundle your second best-selling product. However, we recommend using an upselling strategy with a discount.

This is because the visitors already understand the product they are going to buy and they might just increase the quantity to stock up for themselves or a friend. They can proceed without the offer as well, it's their choice.  

The more you have to explain your offer, the less likely it will convert. So, keep it simple. 

After they have decided on the first upselling item, you then take them to the second upselling page. It should be different yet complementary to the first offer. Alternatively, you can also upsell a greater service such as rush shipping. 

Creating an offer wall for thank you pages

Finally, you can create an offer wall on the thank you page in addition to providing the basic order details and shipping information. 

The offer wall is to give the customers an overview of your online store by showcasing other products or leading them to another funnel such as subscribing to a membership so there's a reason for them to come back to your store. 

With the use of a cart funnel, you can improve your average order value, your customer satisfaction, and number of returning visitors.