More Conversions in WooCommerce with Cart Cache by NitroPack

Last updated on Feb 29th, 2024 | 4 min

It’s no secret online shoppers (and especially the ones on mobile devices) have soaring expectations when it comes to site speed.

In fact, speed has become one of the top factors for eCom businesses’ success.

Currently, retail sites that load in 2 seconds have shoppers visiting 8.9 more pages! In turn, 9.1% more visitors will add items to their cart and ultimately come back to shop again.

Purchase flow improvement statistics
Google 2020 study

So, what’s the formula for induced shopping sprees and higher conversion rates?

  • Excellent page loading speed
  • Seamless browsing
  • High customer satisfaction

Enter, the newest asset to the NitroPack plugin in WooCommerce – Cart Cache. A minor optimization tweak with a big payout!

NitroPack formula for increased sales

What is Cart Cache?

Cart Cache is a new caching feature that enables fast browsing in a WooCommerce store with items in the cart.

Usually, when you add items to a cart, this translates into a variable element near the cart icon.


Amazon cart UI

Items in Amazon cart

From a site speed perspective, this means a page needs to load the variable element for every subsequent page you visit during your browsing session. That way, you know your items are still in the cart.

However, when a site doesn’t use a similar Cart Caching solution, you’ll experience a significant decrease in page loading speed.

It happens because the online store is unable to serve standard optimized cached versions of the pages you browse. And if it did that, you would see an empty cart (when, in fact, it isn’t).

Ericsson study

Ericsson study (2016) 

Let’s see how Cart Cache solves this speed issue for WooCommerce stores.


How does Cart Cache work?

By default, NitroPack stores cached versions of your original pages and serves them whenever a visitor loads a page on your site.

Thanks to WooCommerce’s sophisticated cache-ready cart, our Cart Cache feature enables you to continue serving the same standard cached versions of your web pages to visitors regardless of added items.

This helps you provide a fast shopping experience and bump up customer satisfaction along the buyer’s journey.
 

Higher conversion rates with Cart Cache

In online shopping, a visitor’s willingness to buy directly correlates to speed.

For retail sites, every 0.1s faster loading speed means 8.4% increase in conversion rate. That’s a huge improvement!
 

Conversion statistics

Google study (2020)

On the contrary, a one-second delay in page response results in a 7% reduction in conversions. 

Nonetheless, “Add to cart” doesn’t mean a “Successful purchase”. Using the Cart Cache feature ensures your store:

  • Offers seamless shopping experience;
  • Kindles the shopping urge;
  • Motivates buyers to browse for more items;
  • Keeps visitors happy and inclined to hit “Checkout”.

Here’s what this means for your KPIs:

  • More time spent on page
  • Decreased bounce rates
  • Higher conversion rates
  • Increased average purchase value

Moreover, websites with great loading speed are rewarded by Google as well! The more seconds you shave off the shopping journey, the greater results you can expect in terms of cache hit rate, user experience, and search rankings.


How to enable Cart Cache in WooCommerce?

The Cart Cache feature is available to all NitroPack users on a paid plan via the plugin in WordPress only. We’ve made it super easy to activate with a toggle on/off button inside the plugin’s Settings panel.

Visit our Help Center for a step-by-step guide on how to activate and test Cart Cache.

Want to unlock greater speed for your WooCommerce store? Get started with NitroPack

What’s next

Cart Cache is a sub-set of our greater solution Stateful Cache. Although fairly simple, it is a big step towards a trailblazing advanced feature for all eCommerce businesses.

Stay tuned for sneak peeks into the expansion of the NitroPack Caching Powerhouse!

Lora Raykova
Web Performance Buff

Lora has 7+ years of experience developing in-depth, specialized content for SaaS companies in the CEE region. She has sourced and collaborated with subject-matter experts on site speed optimization for WordPress, Core Web Vitals, and the future of web performance. "If you can't explain it to a 7-year-old, you've not researched it well enough" is Lora's guiding principle when publishing professional insight for complex technical topics.