Once a customer has emptied their cart, there remains little else to be done on the cart page. It’s a dead end. Some may have deleted the items on their cart while others may have checked out. It doesn’t matter. 

Customers with nothing to do on your site are customers on their way out. Many will leave since their business has been concluded but there are still some who might still linger about. You need to give those in the second group something to do before they also find the metaphorical door.

 

Categories

You can display your main categories similar to how you would present them on the homepage. The goal is to get them scrolling and hope something catches their eye.

 

Recommended products

This feed is modelled on the one you’d normally have on the homepage. You can recommend your bestsellers, your most popular products, or even the newer ones. If the customer is signed in, this feed should be made more relevant by personalization. 

You can base this on previous purchases and any other relevant information you have on the customer in question. If you know the customer is male for example, you probably shouldn’t put tampons in their recommended feed.

You can also show customers products they viewed before but didn’t purchase. Products that people repurchase often (food items, cleaning supplies, toiletries, and clothing ) are also fair game for this feed.

 

Deals and discounts

If you’re offering a special deal, the empty cart page is a pretty good place to promote it. You won’t be interrupting anything so customers are bound to be less hostile and more responsive.