Stop Chasing Traffic: 3 Ecommerce Features That Increase Conversions
More traffic isn't always the answer.
Many ecommerce businesses spend heavily on ads to bring visitors to their stores, only to lose potential revenue because of small friction points in the shopping journey. Customers abandon carts, miss complementary products they would have purchased, or leave after finding an item marked out of stock.
The result? Revenue leaks that often go unnoticed.
The good news is that fixing these leaks doesn't require more traffic. It requires a better shopping experience.
That's why Smart Commerce by Amazon has introduced three new features designed to help sellers improve conversions from the visitors they already have: Side Cart for uninterrupted browsing, Basket Building for smarter product discovery, and the Catalog Inventory Dashboard for faster inventory management.
Let's look at how each feature helps create a smoother path from product discovery to purchase.
Many ecommerce businesses spend heavily on ads to bring visitors to their stores, only to lose potential revenue because of small friction points in the shopping journey. Customers abandon carts, miss complementary products they would have purchased, or leave after finding an item marked out of stock.
The result? Revenue leaks that often go unnoticed.
The good news is that fixing these leaks doesn't require more traffic. It requires a better shopping experience.
That's why Smart Commerce by Amazon has introduced three new features designed to help sellers improve conversions from the visitors they already have: Side Cart for uninterrupted browsing, Basket Building for smarter product discovery, and the Catalog Inventory Dashboard for faster inventory management.
Let's look at how each feature helps create a smoother path from product discovery to purchase.
70% of online shoppers abandon their cart before completing a purchase.
Of those who do buy, most check out with far fewer items than they would have with the right nudge at the right moment. And a significant chunk of sessions that could have converted end with an "Out of Stock" page because inventory updates couldn't keep up.
Online shopping cart abandonment rate worldwide between 2006 to 2026
Of those who do buy, most check out with far fewer items than they would have with the right nudge at the right moment. And a significant chunk of sessions that could have converted end with an "Out of Stock" page because inventory updates couldn't keep up.
Online shopping cart abandonment rate worldwide between 2006 to 2026
The point? Most sellers are sitting on untapped revenue from visitors they already have. More traffic isn't always the answer; a better online shopping experience is.
Smart Commerce by Amazon just launched 3 new features built specifically for this: Side Cart for smoother browsing, Basket Building to increase average order value, and a Catalog Inventory Dashboard to keep products available when customers are ready to buy. Here's what each one does and why it matters.
Smart Commerce by Amazon just launched 3 new features built specifically for this: Side Cart for smoother browsing, Basket Building to increase average order value, and a Catalog Inventory Dashboard to keep products available when customers are ready to buy. Here's what each one does and why it matters.
The Real Conversion Killers in Ecommerce
Before diving into the features, it helps to understand what's actually causing revenue to leak. Cart abandonment reasons almost always come down to friction - something interrupted the shopping flow at the wrong moment. A customer was browsing happily, clicked the cart button, got sent to a different page, lost their place in the catalog, and the motivation to keep shopping dropped with it.
The second leak is missed upsell moments. A customer buys one product when they would have bought three with the right suggestion. The opportunity existed, but no one presented it.
The third leak is out-of-stock frustration. The customer finds exactly what they want, clicks through, and sees "Currently Unavailable." That sale is gone, and often so is the customer.
Ecommerce conversion optimization isn't about reinventing the wheel - it's about plugging these three leaks. That's exactly what these features do.
Ecommerce conversion optimization isn't about reinventing the wheel - it's about plugging these three leaks. That's exactly what these features do.
The second leak is missed upsell moments. A customer buys one product when they would have bought three with the right suggestion. The opportunity existed, but no one presented it.
The third leak is out-of-stock frustration. The customer finds exactly what they want, clicks through, and sees "Currently Unavailable." That sale is gone, and often so is the customer.
Ecommerce conversion optimization isn't about reinventing the wheel - it's about plugging these three leaks. That's exactly what these features do.
Ecommerce conversion optimization isn't about reinventing the wheel - it's about plugging these three leaks. That's exactly what these features do.
Side Cart: Browse More, Drop Off Less
The Side Cart feature gives customers a slide-in cart panel that they can access without leaving the current page. It sounds like a small UX detail. In practice, it changes the entire shopping flow.
Here's what the old experience looked like. A customer finds a pair of earrings they like, clicks Add to Cart, and gets redirected to the cart page. They decide to keep browsing, click back, and either lose their place in the catalog or lose momentum entirely. That interruption is one of the most common cart abandonment reasons in ecommerce, and it's completely preventable.
With Side Cart, customers add items, and the panel slides in from the right. They see what's in their cart, can adjust quantities, and close it to continue browsing - all without leaving the page they were on. For a customer browsing jewelry who adds earrings and wants to look for a matching necklace, the experience stays uninterrupted. The cart stays visible, browsing continues, and checkout happens when the customer is actually ready.
A smoother ecommerce checkout experience starts long before the checkout page. It starts the moment a customer adds something to their cart.
Here's what the old experience looked like. A customer finds a pair of earrings they like, clicks Add to Cart, and gets redirected to the cart page. They decide to keep browsing, click back, and either lose their place in the catalog or lose momentum entirely. That interruption is one of the most common cart abandonment reasons in ecommerce, and it's completely preventable.
With Side Cart, customers add items, and the panel slides in from the right. They see what's in their cart, can adjust quantities, and close it to continue browsing - all without leaving the page they were on. For a customer browsing jewelry who adds earrings and wants to look for a matching necklace, the experience stays uninterrupted. The cart stays visible, browsing continues, and checkout happens when the customer is actually ready.
A smoother ecommerce checkout experience starts long before the checkout page. It starts the moment a customer adds something to their cart.
Basket Building: Turn One Purchase Into Three
Basket Building enables product recommendations during the shopping journey that suggest complementary or related items to increase average order value and encourage larger basket sizes.
The timing matters here. Recommendations that appear when a customer is actively shopping, right after adding something to cart, while reviewing what's in their cart, or during checkout, can convert significantly better than generic "you might also like" sections buried at the bottom of a product page. That's exactly when Basket Building surfaces them.
Here's how it plays out for different product categories:
• A customer buying a kurta sees a matching dupatta, earrings, and footwear recommendation before checkout. The order grows from ₹900 to ₹2,400, not because of hard selling but because the styling suggestion was genuinely helpful.
• Someone purchasing a face serum gets shown the moisturizer and SPF from the same skincare line. They were planning to buy those anyway; they just needed the reminder.
• An electronics buyer adding a Bluetooth speaker to cart sees compatible accessories: a carry case, charging cable, and extra audio adapters. Items they'd probably search for separately anyway, now available in the same transaction.
The timing matters here. Recommendations that appear when a customer is actively shopping, right after adding something to cart, while reviewing what's in their cart, or during checkout, can convert significantly better than generic "you might also like" sections buried at the bottom of a product page. That's exactly when Basket Building surfaces them.
Here's how it plays out for different product categories:
• A customer buying a kurta sees a matching dupatta, earrings, and footwear recommendation before checkout. The order grows from ₹900 to ₹2,400, not because of hard selling but because the styling suggestion was genuinely helpful.
• Someone purchasing a face serum gets shown the moisturizer and SPF from the same skincare line. They were planning to buy those anyway; they just needed the reminder.
• An electronics buyer adding a Bluetooth speaker to cart sees compatible accessories: a carry case, charging cable, and extra audio adapters. Items they'd probably search for separately anyway, now available in the same transaction.
Basket Building works because it's not about pushing products, it's about helping customers discover what completes their purchase. Done right, the customer experience improves while revenue per order goes up.
Catalog Inventory Dashboard: Stop Losing Sales to Out-of-Stock
The Catalog Inventory Dashboard brings all SKU inventory into one centralized view where sellers can check levels and make fast updates without opening individual product pages or running bulk upload files every time something changes.
Out-of-stock products are quiet revenue killers. The customer finds the product, clicks through, sees it's unavailable, and leaves. There's no error message on your end, no alert, just a lost sale that never shows up in any report.
This gets worse during exactly the moments it hurts most. Flash sales, festive seasons, a product going viral on social media - these are high-traffic moments when inventory moves fastest and when out-of-stock messages cause the most damage.
Old ecommerce catalog management required opening each product individually or preparing and uploading bulk files, which meant inventory levels lagged behind reality by hours. The Dashboard solves this with one screen showing your entire catalog's inventory at a glance.
Out-of-stock products are quiet revenue killers. The customer finds the product, clicks through, sees it's unavailable, and leaves. There's no error message on your end, no alert, just a lost sale that never shows up in any report.
This gets worse during exactly the moments it hurts most. Flash sales, festive seasons, a product going viral on social media - these are high-traffic moments when inventory moves fastest and when out-of-stock messages cause the most damage.
Old ecommerce catalog management required opening each product individually or preparing and uploading bulk files, which meant inventory levels lagged behind reality by hours. The Dashboard solves this with one screen showing your entire catalog's inventory at a glance.
One Customer Journey, Three New Features
Separately, each feature solves a specific problem. Together, they create a shopping experience that's fundamentally smoother from first click to final order.
Walk through what this looks like for one customer. They land on the storefront and start browsing a fashion collection. They add a kurta to the cart, Side Cart slides in showing their selection, they close it, and keep browsing without losing their place. They add accessories. Basket Building surfaces a matching dupatta suggestion while they review their cart. They add it. Checkout is one smooth flow.
Meanwhile, the seller had updated stock levels earlier that morning via the Dashboard, so nothing showed out of stock even at peak traffic.
Order value: ₹2,400 instead of ₹900. Zero drop-off from cart interruption. Zero lost sales from out-of-stock. That's the combined impact of all three working together, and it all happened without a single extra visitor.
This is website conversion optimization in the most practical sense: fixing what's already broken in the journey instead of pouring more traffic into a leaky funnel.
Walk through what this looks like for one customer. They land on the storefront and start browsing a fashion collection. They add a kurta to the cart, Side Cart slides in showing their selection, they close it, and keep browsing without losing their place. They add accessories. Basket Building surfaces a matching dupatta suggestion while they review their cart. They add it. Checkout is one smooth flow.
Meanwhile, the seller had updated stock levels earlier that morning via the Dashboard, so nothing showed out of stock even at peak traffic.
Order value: ₹2,400 instead of ₹900. Zero drop-off from cart interruption. Zero lost sales from out-of-stock. That's the combined impact of all three working together, and it all happened without a single extra visitor.
This is website conversion optimization in the most practical sense: fixing what's already broken in the journey instead of pouring more traffic into a leaky funnel.
Better Revenue Starts With Better Experience
Getting more traffic is expensive. Fixing the experience for traffic you already have is essentially free revenue.
These 3 new features – Side Cart, Basket Building, and Catalog Inventory Dashboard – tackle the most common ecommerce conversion optimization problems directly resulting in fewer abandoned carts, higher order values, fewer lost sales to out-of-stock for all sellers alike!
These features are live on Smart Commerce by Amazon right now! Try them out and let us know how they affect your conversions.
These 3 new features – Side Cart, Basket Building, and Catalog Inventory Dashboard – tackle the most common ecommerce conversion optimization problems directly resulting in fewer abandoned carts, higher order values, fewer lost sales to out-of-stock for all sellers alike!
These features are live on Smart Commerce by Amazon right now! Try them out and let us know how they affect your conversions.
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