---
title: "What is Add to cart? | Chargezen"
description: "The action of putting a product in an online shopping cart, and the button that does it. Add-to-cart rate measures how many visitors take that step."
url: "https://chargezen.com/glossary/add-to-cart"
lang: "en"
---

Canonical URL: https://chargezen.com/glossary/add-to-cart

# Add to cart

Add to cart (ATC)

E-commerce

The action of putting a product in an online shopping cart, and the button that does it. Add-to-cart rate measures how many visitors take that step.

## What is Add to cart?

Adding to cart is the first strong sign that a shopper intends to buy. It sits in the middle of the conversion funnel, after viewing a product and before checkout. **Add-to-cart rate** is usually measured as the share of sessions, or of product page views, that include at least one add to cart. Be clear which one you use, because the numbers differ a lot. **What lowers it:** - A button that is hard to find, especially on phones. - Missing information: size, ingredients, shipping cost or delivery time. - Too many choices with no clear default. - Slow pages and broken option pickers. - Prices that look different from the ad that brought the shopper in. **What raises it:** - A sticky button on mobile that stays visible while scrolling. - Reviews and photos near the price. - A clear subscribe option with the savings shown. - Bundles and quantity breaks that make a bigger order the obvious pick. **Add to cart isn't a sale.** Many carts are abandoned before checkout. Track cart abandonment and checkout completion next to add-to-cart rate, or you may celebrate carts that never turn into orders. **Add-to-cart links** skip a step entirely. On Shopify you can build a link that drops a product, and even a subscription plan, straight into the cart, which is handy in emails and texts.

## Formula

Add-to-cart rate = Sessions with an add to cart ÷ Total sessions × 100

## Example

A store has 20,000 sessions in a week, and 1,400 of them add something to the cart. Its add-to-cart rate is 7%. After making the button sticky on mobile, it rises to 8.2% the next week.

## Why Add to cart Matters

It's the clearest early signal of whether your product pages persuade, long before you see the final sales numbers.

## Explore More Terms

Browse our complete glossary of e-commerce and subscription terms.

[View Full Glossary](https://chargezen.com/glossary)