How to Solve WooCommerce Empty Cart Error

WooCommerce turns online shopping into a smooth ride. But unfortunately, you may sometimes face technical issues like “the cart is empty”. Such issues can cause you to lose customers and as a result, you may end up losing money in your online business.

If you are facing the empty cart issue then no worries. You have come to the right place. In this blog,  I have put together all the possible issues that may be causing WooCommerce empty cart errors and ways to solve them.

Let’s get started…

What is the WooCommerce empty cart issue?

Empty cart issue arises when you add products to your online WooCommerce shopping cart but somehow find your cart saying “your cart is currently empty”.  This is not the normal your cart is an empty message this is a technical issue that’s stopping your cart to update when you add products.

10 ways to solve WooCommerce Empty Cart Issues

With customer feedback and my own experiences, I have found there are about 10 reasons that can cause the cart to show empty despite adding products.  Let’s check the problems and how you can solve those ones by one:

Solution #1: Check WooCommerce System Status and WooCommerce Page Set up

WooCommerce system status will give a red sign to point out all the problems with your website environment that may conflict with WooCommerce functionalities. So, your first job is to check if wooCommerce giving you any red flags.

Go to WordPress Dashboard => WooCommerce => Status and fix all the issues with a red warning (if you get any).

Also, make sure to check, all the wooCommerce pages are set properly and your theme is not overriding the default cart page, and if overriding it’s not causing any issue.

Solution #2: Clear Session and Transients Under WooCommerce tools

Clearing WooCommerce transients, expired transients, resetting term counts, and clearing customer sessions can also solve your empty cart issue. Go to  WordPress Dashboard => WooCommerce => Status => Tools and follow the screenshot below to reset and clear all the mentioned options.

Solution #3: Make sure there is no Space in the Checkout endpoints

Go to WordPress Dashboard => WooCommerce => Settings => Advanced tab and check to ensure there is no space in the check-out endpoints.

Solution #4: Update website’s WordPress and  WooCommerce

Having an old and outdated version of WordPress or WooCommerce can cause this issue. So, you need to ensure your site has the most updated version of WordPress and WooCommerce.

You can check from the dashboard if your WordPress or WooCommerce needs to update and update if required.

Solution #5: Update Theme and Plugins

Not just WordPress and WooCommerce, themes and plugins also need to be updated regularly. So, check if the theme and plugins you are using need to update and update if required.

Note: Blindly updating everything(WordPress, WooCommerce, Theme, and Plugins) is also not a good idea. You need to make sure all the updated version is compatible with each other.

Solution #6: Reset the Permalinks

Resettings WordPress permalinks can solve the empty cart issue. To reset go to WordPress Dashboard => Settings => Choose the Permalinks => Click Save changes.

Solution #7: Disable all the plugin accept WooCommerce temporarily

This is a very basic troubleshooting technique. If disabling other plugin fixes your problem, you can be assured that nothing is wrong with WooCommerce on your website and fix the plugin that’s causing the issue.

Solution #8: Switch to WP default theme temporarily

Like plugins, there is a possibility your theme is creating conflict with WooCommerce, so you can switch to any default WordPress temporarily to check if the issue resolves or not.  If it resolves then you know the problem and you can talk to your theme provider to solve the conflict.

Solution #9: Set up proper cache settings on both WordPress plugin and Server side

As the cart displays dynamic contents, it should not be cached. So, always use a WordPress cache plugin that has cache exclusion URLs. Not just WordPress plugins, some hosting provides also use their own cache systems such as Varnish which is also applied on the website. So, you should talk to your hosting company to set up a proper server-side cache setting to resolve the empty cart issue.

Solution #10: Must Follow Default .htaccess Rules

.htaccess file usually is used to put instructions on how user requests are handled.  Check if you are using the standard .htaccess rule that WordPress provides. If not, fix the file to get the default .htaccess configuration.

Bonus Tips

Apart from the empty cart issue, having a boring-looking Cart page can also lead to customers leaving your website without completing the order. However, now you can reduce the cart page’s abundant rate by customizing your WooCommerce cart page to make it more attractive.

ShopEngine is a revolutionary plugin in the world of WooCommerce. Not just cart page customization, ShopEngine gives you the ability to custom-build all your WooCommerce pages. In addition, it gives you 60+ widgets and 10+ extremely useful modules such as Preorder, Backorder, Partial Payment, Sales Notification, Flash Sale Countdown, Currency Switcher, Product Comparison, and many more.

Final Words

I hope this blog helped you to solve your empty cart issue. If you have any questions or confusion about any of the steps, leave a message in the comment box.

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