Simple Shopping Cart Troubleshooting

Table of Contents

• Cart Not Updating
• Shopping Cart Requires Cookies
• Can’t Remove an Item from the Shopping Cart
• The Price Shows as $0.00 in the Shopping Cart
• Variation Controls Not Working

Cart Not Updating

If items aren’t being added to or removed from your cart as expected, this is likely due to a caching issue. You’re viewing a cached (static) version of the page, which doesn’t reflect real-time changes.

What to try:

• Empty/clear all your cache from the site.
• Perform a hard refresh: Press Ctrl + F5 (Windows) or Cmd + Shift + R (Mac).
• Clear your browser cache and cookies for this site.
• Try adding items in an incognito/private browsing window.

For more details on how caching affects e-commerce sites (and why this happens), see our documentation: impact of caching on e-commerce site.

Shopping Cart Requires Cookies

Our shopping cart feature relies on cookies to work correctly. It tracks items you add, updates quantities, and maintains your cart across pages.

If cookies are disabled or blocked in your browser (or by a privacy extension), the cart will not function properly.

For sites that prefer not to use cookies (e.g., to comply with certain privacy requirements), we recommend switching to our WP Express Checkout plugin. It allows direct, one-click checkout for individual products without a traditional shopping cart and therefore does not require cookies.

Download it here: WP Express Checkout on WordPress.org

Can’t Remove an Item from the Shopping Cart

If you’re unable to remove an item from your cart, this is often caused by special characters (such as apostrophes ‘, quotes “, or ampersands &) in the product name.

What to do:

• Edit the product and remove or replace any special characters in the name (e.g., change “Women’s Shirt” to “Womens Shirt” or “Women’s Shirt” using the proper curly apostrophe if supported).
• Save the changes and test the cart again.

This issue occurs because certain characters can interfere with the underlying code that handles cart removal.

If the problem persists after updating the product name, please contact support with the exact product name and a link to the page.

The Price Shows as $0.00 in the Shopping Cart

If product prices appear as $0.00 (or equivalent in your currency) in the cart, it’s usually because the price was entered incorrectly in the product settings.

Correct format:

• Enter the price using numbers and a decimal point only, with exactly two decimal places.
• Good examples: 10.00, 6.70, 199.95, 1250.00
• Do not include currency symbols ($ £ € etc.), commas, spaces, or text.

What to do:

• Go to your product settings and update the price field to the correct numeric format.
• Save the product and test by adding it to the cart again.

Once corrected, the proper price should display immediately. If it still shows $0.00 after fixing the format, clear your browser cache or contact support for further assistance.

Variation Controls Not Working

If product variations (e.g., size, color dropdowns) aren’t functioning—such as options not updating the price or “Add to Cart” button remaining inactive this is typically caused by JavaScript errors on your site.

These errors are often triggered by conflicts with other plugins, your theme, or custom code.

How to troubleshoot:

1. Check for JavaScript errors:
   • Open your browser’s developer console (press F12 or Ctrl + Shift + J on Windows / Cmd + Option + J on Mac).
   • Look for red error messages in the “Console” tab while interacting with the variation controls.
2. Test for conflicts:
   • Temporarily switch to a default WordPress theme (like Twenty Twenty-Five).
   • Deactivate other plugins one by one to identify the culprit.
3. Try in a clean environment:
   • Test the product page in an incognito/private browsing window.

For more detailed guidance on identifying and resolving JavaScript errors, see our article: JavaScript error troubleshooting.