October 5, 2026 Shopify Expert

How to Add Shopify Cart Notes to Capture Requests

Shopify Cart Notes allow customers to share special instructions or requests before placing an order. This feature is useful for merchants who want to collect delivery preferences, gift messages, and other order-related details directly through their online store. By enabling cart notes, you can make it easier for customers to communicate their requirements without contacting your support team separately.

In this blog, you will learn how Shopify Cart Notes work, their key benefits, and how to enable them in your store. Theme Studio Shopify themes, including Gravity and Soft, offer this feature to help merchants collect customer requests and deliver a more convenient, personalized shopping experience.

What Are Shopify Cart Notes?

Shopify Cart Notes are a storefront feature that allows customers to add special instructions or requests to their orders before completing a purchase. These notes give customers a convenient way to communicate specific requirements, such as gift messages, delivery preferences, packaging instructions, or other order-related details. Instead of contacting the store separately, customers can provide this information directly through the shopping cart.

For merchants, Shopify Cart Notes provide an additional way to understand customer expectations and manage personalized requests. For example, a gift store customer might request special packaging, while a home decor customer might include instructions related to their order. The information submitted through cart notes can help merchants review these requests while processing orders.

The Cart Notes feature can be particularly useful for stores that handle personalized purchases or receive frequent customer instructions. Theme Studio Shopify themes, including Gravity and Soft, offer this feature to help merchants make order communication more convenient. By enabling Cart Notes, store owners can give customers a simple way to share relevant details during the shopping process.

Benefits of Shopify Cart Notes for Online Stores

Shopify Cart Notes help customers share special instructions directly through the shopping cart. Here are the key benefits of using this feature:

Collect Special Customer Instructions: Allow customers to add gift messages, packaging preferences, and other order-related requests before completing their purchase.
Provide a Personalized Shopping Experience: Give customers the flexibility to communicate their preferences, making their shopping experience more convenient and tailored to their needs.
Simplify Order Communication: Let customers submit instructions directly through the cart instead of contacting your support team separately.
Support Personalized Orders: Help stores selling gifts, clothing, accessories, and home decor collect specific customer requests during the ordering process.
Simplify Order Processing: Keep customer instructions available with order details so merchants can review requests while preparing orders for fulfillment. By making it easier for customers to share their requirements, Shopify Cart Notes help merchants understand order preferences and manage special requests more efficiently.

By making it easier for customers to share their requirements, Shopify Cart Notes help merchants understand order preferences and manage special requests more efficiently.

How to Enable Shopify Cart Notes in Your Store

Enabling Shopify Cart Notes is straightforward when your Shopify theme includes a built-in setting for this feature. Instead of adding custom code, you can use the theme editor to configure the cart and control how customers interact with it. The available settings may vary depending on the theme and the cart layout you choose.

Theme Studio offers two premium Shopify themes, Gravity and Soft, that include Shopify Cart Notes settings. Both themes allow merchants to enable cart notes through the theme editor. The following steps explain how to configure this feature in each theme and test it before making it available to customers.

How to Enable Shopify Cart Notes in the Gravity Theme

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Gravity Shopify theme includes dedicated settings for the cart and cart drawer, allowing merchants to manage the shopping cart experience from one place. You can choose how the cart appears, enable Shopify Cart Notes, and adjust other cart options. For merchants looking for a Shopify fashion template, these customization options can help create a convenient shopping experience that suits their clothing brand. The theme also lets you control what customers see when their cart is empty. Follow these steps to enable Shopify Cart Notes in Gravity.

Step 1. Open the Cart and Cart Drawer Settings

After opening the Gravity theme editor, click the Settings icon to access the available theme settings. Locate the Cart and Cart Drawer section and expand it to view the configuration options. This section contains settings related to cart display, customer-facing information, and additional shopping features. Review the available options before making changes so that the cart experience matches your store's requirements.

Step 2. Configure the Cart Type.

Gravity lets you choose how the shopping cart appears when customers interact with it. Select the option that works best for your storefront.

Drawer: Displays the cart in a panel that opens over the current page, allowing customers to review their selections without navigating away.
Page: Opens a dedicated cart page where customers can review their selected products and available cart options.

The right choice depends on your store navigation preferences and the shopping experience you want to provide. A drawer can keep product browsing convenient, while a dedicated page offers more room for cart information.

Step 3. Enable Shopify Cart Notes

Locate the Show cart note option in the Gravity cart settings. Enable this setting to display the cart notes field in the supported cart interface. Once enabled, customers can use the field to enter instructions or requests related to their orders. For example, a customer purchasing a gift may want to provide a message, while another shopper may need to communicate a packaging preference. Before moving forward, check that the setting is enabled and that the selected cart layout displays the notes field as expected.

Step 4. Configure Additional Cart Settings

Gravity includes other options that help you customize the cart experience. These settings are separate from cart notes, but you can configure them to provide customers with useful information while reviewing their purchases.

Show tax information: Controls whether tax-related information is displayed in the cart.
Show discount input: Lets customers access the discount code field in the cart interface.
Heading: Allows you to configure the heading used in the empty cart drawer.
Visible in empty cart: Controls whether the relevant empty-cart content is displayed.
Select collections: Lets you select collections for the supported empty-cartexperience.
Show dynamic product recommendations: Controls whether product recommendations appear when the cart is empty.

Choose the options that suit your store needs. For example, product recommendations may help shoppers discover additional products when they have not added anything to their cart. Keep the empty-cart experience relevant to your product catalog rather than displaying unnecessary content.

Step 5. Save Your Changes

After configuring the options, click Save in the theme editor. Open your storefront preview and check the cart to confirm that Shopify Cart Notes appear in the expected location. If you selected the drawer layout, test the cart drawer. If you selected the page layout, open the cart page and check the notes field there. This final check helps ensure that the configuration works with your chosen cart type.

How to Enable Shopify Cart Notes in the Soft Theme

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Soft Shopify theme includes built-in Shopify Cart Notes settings, allowing merchants to enable the feature without editing theme code. Its Cart settings let you display notes, manage cart drawer behavior, and adjust other parts of the shopping experience. For merchants looking for a Shopify toy theme, these customization options can help create a store that suits their products and makes shopping easier for customers. Follow the steps below to enable cart notes in Soft.

Step 1. Open the Cart Settings

Open the Soft theme editor from your Shopify admin and click the Settings icon. Find the section named Cart and open it to view the available configuration options.

Unlike Gravity, where the relevant options are grouped under Cart and Cart Drawer, Soft provides a section named Cart. You can manage the cart notes field and other related settings from this section.

Step 2. Choose the Cart Type

Locate the Cart type setting and select the layout you want to use.

Drawer: Displays the cart in a slide-out panel.
Page: Displays the cart on a dedicated page.

Consider how customers move between product pages, collections, and the cart before selecting an option. Your chosen layout should make it easy for shoppers to review their products and find the cart notes field.

Step 3. Enable the Show Cart Note Option

Find the Show cart note setting and enable it. This allows customers to enter order-related instructions through the supported cart interface. Soft also provides a Hide cart note on drawer option. Review this setting carefully because it controls the visibility of cart notes in the drawer experience.

If you want customers to enter notes while using the cart drawer, make sure the configuration does not hide the field in that layout. After changing the settings, preview the cart to confirm the result.

Step 4. Configure Additional Cart Options

Soft provides several other settings that can be configured alongside Shopify Cart Notes. These options control the cart's appearance and supporting shopping features.

Cart Drawer color scheme: Select the color scheme used for the cart drawer.
Edit scheme: Customize the colors associated with the selected scheme.
Show tax info: Controls the display of tax-related information.
Show discount option: Controls the availability of the discount entry option.
Show free shipping bar: Enables or disables the free shipping progress indicator.
Free shipping threshold: Set the order value used to determine when the free shipping threshold is reached.
Shipping reached celebration: Configure the celebration effect shown when customers reach the threshold.
Shipping background: Set the background color used for the relevant shipping indicator.
Shipping text: Choose the text color.
Shipping bar: Configure the color of the progress bar.
Shipping bar background: Set the background color behind the progress indicator.

For the free shipping threshold, enter an amount that reflects your store's shipping policy. For example, if your store offers free shipping on eligible orders above a particular value, configure the threshold accordingly. Confirm that the currency and threshold match your store's pricing and shipping rules. You can also adjust the cart drawer's color scheme to maintain visual consistency with the rest of your storefront. Ensure that text, backgrounds, and progress indicators remain easy to read.

Step 5. Save and Preview the Soft Theme

After completing the configuration, click Save in the theme editor. Open the storefront preview and add a product to the cart to check the selected layout. Confirm that the cart notes field appears where expected and that the additional cart options work correctly. If you have enabled the free shipping bar, check that it displays appropriately for different cart values.

Conclusion

Shopify Cart Notes provide a simple way for customers to share special instructions before completing their purchases. By enabling this feature, merchants can collect gift messages, packaging preferences, and other order-related requests directly through the shopping cart. Theme Studio's premium Shopify themes, Gravity and Soft, make it easy to configure cart notes through the theme editor without requiring custom code.

Merchants can also adjust cart layouts and related settings to make shopping more convenient. Choosing customizable Shopify 2.0 themes can provide access to useful storefront features and design options. After enabling cart notes, test the cart on desktop and mobile devices to confirm that everything works as expected. This helps merchants manage customer requests and keep order communication clear.