When I first installed a side cart for WooCommerce, I was excited to see how it would streamline my store’s shopping experience. The idea of having a cart that followed customers without redirecting them to another page seemed like the perfect solution. But as with anything new, I made a few mistakes along the way—some small, some not so small.
If you’re planning on using a WooCommerce side cart for your store or are already using one, here’s a little heads-up on the common mistakes I stumbled through. Hopefully, my experience can save you some headaches.
1. Ignoring Customization Options
At first, I just installed the plugin and let it run with its default settings. It worked fine, but something felt off. The cart stuck out like a sore thumb against my website’s design.
What I didn’t realize was that most side cart for WooCommerce plugins come with a lot of customization options—colors, layout, button text—you name it. Once I took the time to tweak those settings, the cart blended in much better with my store’s overall look.
Lesson learned: Always check for customization options to make sure the cart feels like a natural part of your website.
2. Forgetting to Enable AJAX Cart Updates
One of the coolest features of any WooCommerce side cart is its ability to update cart contents without reloading the page. But here’s the kicker—I had no idea I needed to enable that feature manually in the plugin settings.
Without it, the cart wasn’t updating instantly, and customers had to refresh the page to see changes. It completely defeated the purpose of having a side cart in the first place.
3. Overloading the Cart with Too Many Features
Some mini cart plugins come packed with extra features—cross-sells, free shipping progress bars, coupon fields, and more. While they all sound great on paper, I made the mistake of enabling everything at once.
The result? A cluttered, overwhelming cart that felt more like a full-blown checkout page.
What worked better was keeping things simple—just the product summary, total price, and a checkout button. Anything extra should be carefully selected based on what genuinely adds value to the customer’s journey.
4. Not Testing on Mobile
I spent hours perfecting how the side cart for WooCommerce looked on desktop, only to realize much later that it was cutting off half the screen on mobile.
With so many people shopping on their phones these days, this was a huge oversight. Thankfully, most plugins come with mobile-friendly settings—I just had to activate them.
Pro tip: Always test how the cart looks on different devices before launching it live.
5. Forgetting to Enable Cart Icon Visibility
There’s nothing worse than installing a great plugin only to have customers not notice it. That’s exactly what happened when I forgot to enable the floating cart icon.
Without that little cart icon constantly visible, customers had no clue there was a quick cart option. Once I turned it on, everything made much more sense.
6. Not Setting Up Cart Abandonment Features
One feature I overlooked at first was the ability to display messages inside the cart—things like “You’re only $10 away from free shipping!” or small discounts to encourage checkout.
I didn’t think those small nudges would make much of a difference, but once I set them up, I noticed a small but steady increase in completed purchases.
7. Forgetting to Test Plugin Compatibility
Plugins don’t always play nicely with each other—something I learned the hard way. My side cart plugin clashed with my caching plugin, which made the cart items disappear randomly.
Now, I always double-check for compatibility and test every plugin update on a staging site before applying it to my live store.
8. Ignoring Performance Impact
At first, I didn’t think such a small feature could affect site speed—but it can. A poorly optimized WooCommerce side cart can slow down your site, especially if it’s loading unnecessary scripts.
After some trial and error, I realized that sticking with well-reviewed plugins (like the Extendons Mini Cart for WooCommerce, which is considered one of the best) usually comes with better performance optimization built in.
Final Thoughts
Adding a side cart for WooCommerce to my store definitely improved the overall shopping experience—but it took a bit of trial and error to get everything running smoothly.
If you’re thinking about adding one, take your time to customize it, test it on mobile, and enable the right features without going overboard. Trust me, those little details make all the difference in how customers interact with your store.
At the end of the day, even small changes can have a big impact if they’re done the right way.
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