CartSpy
Install on Shopify
Guide · Live add to carts

Can you see add to carts live on Shopify?

Short answer: only as a number. Shopify's Live View shows how many sessions have an active cart in the last ten minutes, but not what was added, what the cart is worth or who added it.

To see each add to cart as it happens, with the product and the shopper, you need a live cart app. CartSpy shows every add to cart within seconds, one shopper at a time.

What Shopify's Live View shows

Live View (Analytics > Live View) is Shopify's real-time screen. According to Shopify's help pages it shows:

It is free, built in and good for a quick pulse, especially on a busy sales day.

What it doesn't show

Shopify's reports do count sessions that added to cart, as one step of the conversion funnel. That is a daily total, not a live view of carts.

Seeing each add to cart as it happens

Shopify fires an event every time a shopper adds a product to the cart. Apps can listen to it through Shopify's web pixel, with no theme code. A live cart app turns those events into a feed.

That is what CartSpy's Live View is. Each add to cart appears within seconds as a card with the product and variant, the price, the cart's running total, the shopper's city and country, their device, operating system and browser, and the traffic source that brought them. Checkouts and orders arrive in the same feed, so you can follow one shopper from the first add to the paid order.

CartSpy Live View: an add to cart from TikTok, an order from Facebook and a checkout from Instagram, each with the product, city, device and browser
An add to cart 28 seconds ago (from TikTok), an order (from Facebook) and a checkout (from Instagram), each with its product, city, device and source. From the CartSpy demo store.

What you can do with it

  • Spot a stuck product early. A product added all afternoon and never ordered shows up in the feed hours before it shows up as a lower conversion rate.
  • Check a campaign while it runs. The source is on each card, so you see whether a new ad brings carts or only visits.
  • Open any shopper. Click a card to see the whole cart, what was removed and the pages the shopper visited before adding.
  • See the totals too. The product report ranks products by adds to cart against orders, with a cart-to-order rate for each.
CartSpy Product Performance: views, adds to cart, checkouts and orders per product with rates
Adds to cart per product next to checkouts and orders: the products that get added but not bought stand out.

CartSpy is a feed you look at, not an alert system: it doesn't send a notification per add to cart. For a summary you don't have to watch, there is the daily email report. When a cart is left, it moves to the abandoned list with its products (see abandoned carts before checkout). More on the feed: live cart tracking. The listing: CartSpy on the Shopify App Store (apps.shopify.com/cartspy).

Questions about live add to carts

Does Shopify show add to carts in real time?

Partly. Shopify's Live View has an Active carts count: the number of sessions that added an item to the cart in the last ten minutes. It does not show which product was added, the cart's contents or the shopper.

How can I see which product was just added to a cart?

Use an app that listens to Shopify's add-to-cart event. CartSpy shows each add to cart in its Live View within seconds, with the product, variant, price, the cart's total, the shopper's location, device and traffic source.

Does CartSpy send a notification for every add to cart?

No. CartSpy is a live feed that updates on its own while it is open, on a computer or in the Shopify mobile app, plus a daily email each morning. It does not send a push message for each add to cart.

Do I need to add code to my theme?

No. CartSpy uses Shopify's web pixel, which is registered when you install the app. Your theme is not changed.

What does it cost?

Essential is $7.99 a month and Advanced is $14.99 a month. Both include the live add-to-cart feed and a 7-day free trial.

More guides

Watch your next add to cart arrive

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