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Increase Your Order Value With Smart Upsells
Personalize product recommendations, customize upsell offers, increase AOV, and boost sales with our all-in-one WooCommerce Upsell plugin.
Cart abandonment sits at roughly 70% across eCommerce, and one of the biggest culprits is friction between browsing and buying. WooCommerce side cart plugins remove that friction by letting shoppers review and edit their cart without ever leaving the product page.
But not all side cart plugins are equal. Some just slide open a panel. The best ones turn that panel into a revenue engine – showing upsells, tracking progress toward free shipping, and nudging shoppers toward a higher order value.
We tested six of the top options on a live WooCommerce store, evaluating each on five criteria: features, ease of setup, pricing, support quality, and verified ratings. Whether you want a free AJAX cart drawer or a conversion-focused cart with built-in upsells, this list has you covered.
Disclosure: UpsellWP is our own product. We’ve included it on the same criteria as every other plugin on this list – no special treatment.
Allow customers to easily manage their purchases and discover upsell opportunities with a visible sliding widget on your WooCommerce store.
| Plugin | Best For | Free Version? | Starting Price | Standout Feature |
| UpsellWP | In-cart upsells + AOV | ✅ Yes | $75/year | Cart upsell campaigns inside side cart |
| FunnelKit Cart | Funnel builders | ✅ Yes | $99.50/year | Reward tiers + A/B testing |
| XootiX Side Cart | Free AJAX cart | ✅ Yes | $29/year | 100,000+ installs, lightweight |
| Merchant | All-in-one suite | ✅ Yes | $79/year | Module-based suite |
| Barn2 Fast Cart | Fast checkout UX | ❌ No | $79/year | Inline checkout in cart |
| Caddy | Upsells + rewards meter | ✅ No | $99/year | Multi-tier rewards + cart analytics |
These three terms get used interchangeably, but they’re not the same thing.
For most WooCommerce stores, a side cart beats the other two on conversion. It gives shoppers full cart control without a page redirect, and it’s the only format that comfortably fits upsell offers, free shipping progress bars, and coupon fields.
UpsellWP is a WooCommerce upsell and cross-sell plugin that covers every stage of the buying journey – and its Side Cart add-on is one of the most conversion-focused cart drawers available. Unlike standalone side cart plugins, UpsellWP lets you run rule-based Cart Upsell campaigns directly inside the sliding cart panel.
This is our own product, reviewed on the same five-point criteria as every other plugin here.
Stores that want a side cart built around upsell revenue – not just a prettier cart icon.
Show WooCommerce cart upsells using UpsellWP’s side cart to enhance accessibility and customer loyalty.
FunnelKit Cart (part of the FunnelKit suite) is a polished cart drawer built for stores that are already running FunnelKit funnels. It brings reward tiers, upsell offers, and A/B testing into a single side cart experience.
Stores already using FunnelKit for checkout optimization who want a matching cart drawer.
With 100,000+ active installs and a 4.8★ rating on WordPress.org, Side Cart WooCommerce by XootiX is the most widely used free side cart plugin in the ecosystem. It’s lightweight, fast, and does exactly what most stores need out of the box.
Small to mid-size stores that need a reliable, fast AJAX cart drawer at no cost.
Merchant is a modular WooCommerce plugin suite that includes a Side Cart module alongside dozens of other store-optimization tools. If you want a side cart plus buy-more-save-more, sticky add-to-cart, and product bundles – all from one plugin – Merchant is worth a look.
Stores that want to consolidate multiple optimization tools into one plugin and don’t need deep specialization in any single feature.
Barn2’s WooCommerce Fast Cart takes a different approach: instead of just sliding open a cart panel, it embeds a lightweight checkout form directly inside the cart drawer. Shoppers can complete their purchase without ever visiting the full checkout page.
Stores that want to shorten the path to purchase with an inline checkout experience.
Caddy positions itself as “the smarter side cart for WooCommerce” – and it earns that label. It’s one of the few side cart plugins built specifically around conversion mechanics: in-cart upsells, a multi-tier rewards meter, automation workflows, and cart analytics.
If your primary goal is AOV and you want a dedicated tool for it, Caddy is the strongest specialist on this list outside of UpsellWP.
Stores that want a side cart built specifically around upsells, rewards-meter AOV mechanics, and cart analytics – and don’t already have a dedicated upsell plugin.
Also Read: Best WooCommerce Cross-Sell Plugins
Choosing the right plugin comes down to your store’s primary goal. If you’re focused on increasing average order value, the upsell-capable options below are worth the investment over a free cart drawer.
| Store type | Best pick | Why |
| AOV-focused, wants in-cart upsells | UpsellWP ($75/year) | Native upsell campaigns inside the cart drawer |
| Free option, high-traffic store | XootiX Side Cart ($29/year) | 100,000+ installs, 4.8★, battle-tested |
| FunnelKit funnel users | FunnelKit Cart (~$99.50/year) | Reward tiers + A/B testing, native integration |
| Rewards-meter + cart analytics focus | Caddy ($99) | Multi-tier rewards, automation workflows, analytics |
| Fastest path to purchase | Barn2 Fast Cart ($79/year) | Inline checkout inside the cart panel |
The right WooCommerce side cart plugin depends on what you’re optimizing for. If you want your cart to actively grow revenue – through upsell offers, rewards meters, or inline checkout – step up to UpsellWP, Caddy, or FunnelKit Cart.
Whatever you choose, install it on a staging site first, verify compatibility with your theme and checkout setup, and check current pricing on the vendor’s live page – prices change.
For more ways to lift AOV from the cart, see our roundup of the best WooCommerce order bump plugins.
A side cart plugin adds a sliding drawer that lets shoppers review and edit their cart without leaving the page, reducing the friction that fuels the roughly 70% eCommerce cart abandonment rate today.
A side cart slides in showing full cart details on the same page. A mini cart is a hover summary, and a popup cart interrupts browsing with a modal overlay after adding products.
Yes. XootiX Side Cart is the most popular free option with 100,000+ installs, while UpsellWP, FunnelKit, Merchant, and Caddy all offer free versions, though advanced upsell and analytics features need paid plans.
They can when they include AOV mechanics like in-cart upsells, free shipping progress bars, and reward tiers. Plugins like UpsellWP, Caddy, and FunnelKit are built specifically around these revenue-driving conversion features today.
UpsellWP is the top choice, running rule-based upsell campaigns directly inside the cart drawer. Caddy is a strong alternative if you also want a multi-tier rewards meter and built-in cart analytics features.
A well-built side cart has minimal speed impact, and lightweight options like XootiX stay fast at scale. Still, install any plugin on a staging site and test your theme and checkout first.
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