I have a question hopefully somebody out there has some experience with. I want to know what people have experienced with conversion rates with their shopping cart located on the right (or left) navigation bar versus leaving it off the site?

I'm planning on incorporating this into your left hand side design, but am a little skeptical that flashing the $$ amount customers are adding to their cart might make them a little hesitatnt to put items in there.

Any thoughts?

Jon

I haven't experimented to see if having the cart there or not makes a difference with conversions, I've just always had our store with the side cart - on the right side.

I just like having it there, and we've had great feedback from customers. They especially like being able to figure shipping charges before placing their orders.

Also, many of our customers are busy professionals, and they like that they can just glance over to see what's in the cart. Imagine working on an order, getting interrupted, then going back and not remembering which items you already ordered.

I think it may depend on who your customers are, though. So many design issues revolve around customer needs.