By the end of this you will have a cart drawer live on your store. It takes about ten minutes if you enable a couple of modules. You need the Atlas Cart Upsells app embed active on your published theme, and a product or two to offer as upsells if you plan to use them.
In this article:
Step 1: Start a new cart drawer
Open Cart Upsells in the Atlas menu and select Create cart upsell. You can also use + Create cart drawer on the Cart drawers tab of a project.
Step 2: Choose a template or start from scratch
Atlas opens Select Cart Upsell Template with pre-built configurations, each showing Used by {count} stores and offering Solid and Gradient colour variants.
Select one and choose Proceed, or start from scratch and configure everything yourself.
💡 Start from a template even if you plan to change everything. It arrives with sensible module choices and coherent colours, and editing something is faster than deciding everything from a blank drawer.
Step 3: Name it and set the basics
In the editor, open General Settings:
Set
Cart upsell name. Customers never see this, so make it something you will recognise.Set
Cart Title. Use{qty}where you want the item count, as in the defaultYour Cart {qty}.Set
Checkout Button Text. Use{total}for the cart total, as in the defaultCheckout • {total}.Set
Empty Cart Message TextandEmpty Cart Button Text.
ℹ️ Putting the total on the checkout button reduces surprise at checkout and is worth keeping. Customers who know what they are about to pay abandon less often.
Step 4: Enable the modules you want
Each module is off by default and shows a banner explaining what is missing until you activate it.
Suggested order, most valuable first:
Order | Module | Why |
1 | Reward progress bar | Usually the biggest lift, if you already offer free shipping above a threshold |
2 | Product upsells | Adds items to orders that were already happening |
3 | Shipping protection | Pure margin, though the customer must opt in |
4 | Payment icons | Cheap trust, no downside |
5 | Announcement bar | Useful if you have something real to say |
6 | Discount codes | Only if you actually issue codes |
⚠️ If you enable the reward progress bar, you must also create the matching automatic discount in Shopify. Atlas shows the bar; it does not create the free shipping. Without the discount, customers reach the threshold and are still charged. See Creating the discounts behind your reward bar.
Do not enable everything at once. A drawer with six modules is long, slow to read, and buries the checkout button.
Step 5: Style it
Use the Colors and Text sections to match your store. At minimum set Cart Background, Cart Text, and Checkout Button Background.
Take the values from your theme rather than choosing new ones, so the drawer looks native.
Step 6: Preview
The editor has a live preview, with two toggles: Show items in cart and Show empty cart.
Check both. The empty state is what a customer sees if they open the cart before adding anything, and it is easy to leave looking unfinished.
The preview reflects unsaved changes, so you can experiment freely before committing.
Step 7: Make it active
Set
Cart statustoActive.Select
Save. You should seeSaved successfully!
⚠️ Only one cart drawer can be active at a time. Activating this one deactivates any other. If you have several drawers and are unsure which is live, see Why do I have more than one cart drawer, and which one is live?
Not ready? Leave it as Draft. A draft drawer shows nothing to customers.
Step 8: Test a real cart
The preview is not proof. Test on your storefront.
Open your store in a private window.
Add a product to the cart and confirm the Atlas drawer opens.
Check each module you enabled actually appears.
If you enabled the reward bar, add enough to cross the threshold and go all the way to checkout to confirm the discount applies.
If you enabled shipping protection, toggle it on and confirm it appears as a line at checkout.
Test on a phone.
💡 Test the checkout, not just the drawer. The drawer showing an offer and the offer actually applying are two different things, and the difference is only visible at checkout.