Cart editing — letting customers change a design before checkout

A customer adds a design to the cart, then spots a typo. Without cart editing they'd remove the line and start again. With it, an Edit design pencil on the cart line reopens the customizer with their design exactly as they left it, and Save changes updates the same line.

Cart editing is on for every store and every plan. There's nothing to enable in the app — but it does need the cart preview installed in your theme.

What it needs from your theme#

The pencil is added by the same script that shows the design thumbnail in the cart:

• On the cart page: the Cart Design Preview block on your cart template.
• In drawer and mini carts, and for the pencil to appear straight after add-to-cart: the Cart Preview (Global) app embed under Theme settings → App embeds.

Both are set up in Installing Pixel Wrangler. If the thumbnail shows but the pencil doesn't, see troubleshooting.

What the customer does#

1. In the cart, they click the pencil (Edit design) on a customised line.
2. The product page opens with the customizer already in edit mode and their design loaded. Start Again is hidden in edit mode.
3. They change text, swap an image, move a sticker — anything the template allows.
4. They click Continue, tick the confirmation, and click Save changes.
5. The cart line updates in place. The customizer closes and the cart drawer opens (or the cart page, on themes without a drawer).

Leaving edit mode without saving asks "Exit edit mode?" — "Your cart item will keep its current design. Any unsaved changes will be discarded." Choosing Exit edit mode reloads the page.

What changes and what doesn't#

• The same line is updated, not a new one added. Quantity is preserved.
• Variant and quantity are fixed in edit mode. The size-and-quantity step is skipped; to change a size the customer removes the line and adds the design again.
• Sibling lines share the edit. If one add-to-cart created several sizes of the same design, saving updates all of them.
• Other apps' line properties survive — gift notes, delivery dates and similar are kept.
• The thumbnail, preview and artwork links on the line are replaced with the new design's.

When the pencil is disabled#

If the pencil shows faded with the tooltip "This design can no longer be edited", the saved design behind that line is no longer available — usually because the line is very old and its design data has expired. The line can still be bought as it is.

After the order#

Once the customer has checked out, cart editing no longer applies — but you can still correct a design from the order. See Editing a customer's design on an order.

Good to know#

• Analytics counts cart edits as Design revisions.
• Text in the review panel, the Save changes button and the exit dialog can't be reworded in Brand & language; the rest of the customizer's copy can.