Every additional step in the buying journey means a few lost customers. The classic path - add to cart, then the cart page, then checkout - has an intermediate step that can often be shortened. Instead of sending the customer to a separate cart page on every addition, you can show a cart drawer to the side that confirms the addition and offers to continue immediately. That way the customer stays with the products and reaches checkout by a shorter path. Below is how to implement this approach and when it makes sense.
A cart drawer on adding a product
When the customer adds a product, a cart drawer (a side panel) should slide in from the side and clearly confirm the addition. It should show the added product, the total amount, the number of items, and ideally the progress toward free shipping. This immediate but unobtrusive display reassures the customer that the action succeeded, without tearing them away from browsing. A customer who wants to keep choosing simply closes the drawer and stays where they were.
An immediate choice: continue or check out
The cart drawer should offer two clear options: continue shopping and go straight to checkout. The checkout button should be emphasised so a customer who has finished choosing finds it at once. This saves a step: instead of leading them to a separate cart page and only continuing from there, you offer the continuation immediately. Fewer steps mean fewer opportunities to change their mind or get lost.
Skipping the separate cart page
If the cart drawer contains everything the customer needs to review and continue, a separate cart page is often no longer necessary. A "Go to checkout" button can take the customer straight into the payment process, which shortens the path and reduces drop-off between steps. Example: the customer adds a product, sees the summary in the cart drawer, and continues to payment with one click, without visiting a special cart page in between. A shorter path usually means a higher conversion.
When a full cart page is still better
Skipping the cart page is not right for every store. For orders with many items, for business (B2B) purchases, for complex configurations, or when customers often enter discount codes and carefully review the order, a full cart page with an overview of everything is still the better choice. So it makes sense to judge what your typical carts look like: for quick purchases with few items a shorter path works excellently, while for large or demanding orders the customer needs room to review.
Do not lose the key elements
If you skip the cart page, its key elements must find a new place. The cost summary, the trust elements, and the progress toward free shipping should move into the cart drawer or to the start of checkout, so the customer is not left without these reassurances. The goal is fewer steps, not less information - a shorter path works only if the customer still gets everything they need for trust and a decision along the way.
How to set it up in Magento
In Magento you implement the cart drawer as an extension of the mini-cart in the header, which opens automatically to the side when a product is added. You set up the path without a separate cart page so that the button in the cart drawer leads straight to checkout. For a more elaborate cart drawer or a reliable skip of the cart page with the summary and trust elements preserved, a dedicated module or a theme customisation is often required. Before launching, it is worth checking that none of the key elements drops out.
How to measure whether it works
The best way to check the effect is by comparison: how many steps the customer takes to purchase and what the conversion is on the cart-drawer path compared with the path through the cart page. The most reliable answer comes from a test in which some visitors see the shorter path and some the classic one. Also track whether the shorter path does not increase the share of errors or returns due to checking out too quickly.
