CartMotion
A character catches what your shoppers add
Live on the Shopify App Store
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The product's own photo lifts off the page, a character you choose catches it in mid-air and throws it into your cart icon — and the season spills out after it. On the theme you already use, with no code. There are six characters today — a cat, a Halloween pumpkin, a boy, a robot, a cyberpunk girl and a skeleton — and one plays at a time, the cat by default. One checkbox turns the character off, leaving the plain flight. CartMotion never performs the add itself and never alters what the theme sends: it waits for a successful add, then animates. A failed or sold-out add shows nothing.
- Six characters
- Pick one in the theme editor; one plays at a time
- Seasonal effects
- Leaves, Halloween, snow and hearts, by date
- Plain flight too
- One checkbox turns the character off
- One plan
- $2.99 a month, 7-day free trial
- 01
Install and switch it on
One toggle in the theme editor. App embeds are off until a merchant turns them on, and the app's home screen opens the theme editor on the right panel.
- 02
A shopper adds a product
The theme does the adding, exactly as before — CartMotion never performs the add itself.
- 03
CartMotion reacts
The product's photo lifts off the page, your character catches it and throws it into the cart icon, the season spills out, the icon nudges, the button confirms and a short message appears.
Illustration
Six characters. Pick the one that suits your store
A cat that hops up, hugs the product and dances. A Halloween pumpkin that leaps for it. A boy who juggles it, a robot that sways like a machine, a cyberpunk girl who blows a kiss, and a skeleton that loses its arm and falls to bits. Pick one in the theme editor and switch whenever you like. More characters will follow. Prefer it plain? One checkbox turns the character off and the photo flies to the cart on its own, with the same cart nudge, button confirmation, message and season. The picture is an illustration — a store shows one character at a time.
Dressed for the season, all by itself
As the product lands, the season spills out of the cart: autumn leaves, Halloween bats and sweets, snow for the holidays, hearts for Valentine's Day. It changes on the dates you set — or keep one season, or none. Want more? Let it drift gently across your whole store. Automatic by date: autumn leaves from September 15, Halloween from October 15, snow from December 1, hearts from February 1. Every date is yours to change.
Watch every character and season before you switch
The app's home screen plays each character and each season on a small preview store, with the same engine and artwork your shoppers get. It marks what your store uses now, lists your season dates, and tells you exactly which settings to change in the theme editor.
Confirmed on the cart, on the button, and in words
The character throws the product in and the cart icon nudges as it lands. The Add to cart button marks itself done. A short message offers the cart, for anyone who missed the movement.
Product pages, collection grids, quick add
CartMotion watches for a successful add wherever it happens, so quick add on a collection page gets the same character as the product page. It never performs the add itself — your theme keeps doing that, unchanged.
Built for the thumb
The same character, season and confirmation on a phone — sized down so it never covers the product it is carrying. When the product photo has scrolled out of view, the flight starts from the button the shopper tapped, still carrying that product's picture.
One toggle, no code
CartMotion ships as a theme app extension. Switch on the app embed and it works — nothing is pasted into your theme, and nothing is left behind when you remove it. The app's home screen reads your published theme back and tells you whether the embed is actually on.
Tune it in the theme editor
The character: which of the six, or none, small, medium or large, speed from half to one and a half, and whether its hand passes in front of the product. The season: Automatic by date, one season, or off; the dates of each season; and whether it also drifts across the whole store. The flight: classic arc, direct, or a soft pop, duration from 350 ms to 1200 ms, image size, arc height, fade. Cart icon effect: bounce, pulse or shake. The confirmation message, its position, its accent colour, and the text on the button. Every one of them sits next to the app embed toggle.
It respects the store it runs in
About 18 KB gzipped, with overlay-only CSS, so it adds no layout shift. The character's artwork — from half a megabyte to just under one, depending on the character — is fetched only for the chosen one, and only once a shopper presses Add to cart. The seasons are a separate 6 KB, fetched only while a season is on. If a shopper asks their system for less movement, nothing moves. It runs entirely in the shopper's browser and loads only its own files from Shopify.
Standard
$2.99 / mo
No usage limits
7-day trial
One plan, no usage limits, billed by Shopify. Every character and every season is included. Change or cancel it from the app at any time.
Which characters are there?
Six today: a cat (the default), a Halloween pumpkin, a boy, a robot, a cyberpunk girl and a skeleton. You pick one in the theme editor; the app's home screen plays each of them first. More characters will follow — no date is promised.
What are the seasonal effects?
As the product lands in the cart, a handful of seasonal pieces spill out of the cart icon: autumn leaves, Halloween bats and sweets, snowflakes, or hearts. They can also drift gently across the whole store if you switch that on.
Do the seasons change by themselves?
Yes. On Automatic, the default, they follow the shopper's date: autumn leaves from September 15, Halloween for the last two weeks of October, snow from December 1 to January 15, hearts from February 1 to 14. You can change any of those dates, skip a season, keep one season all the time, or turn seasons off.
My store is in the southern hemisphere. Will it show leaves in April?
Only if you let it. The default dates are northern-hemisphere; set your own in the theme editor, or pick a season by hand.
Can I change the character later, or just for Halloween?
Yes. Choose another in the app embed settings and press Save; switch back the same way. Shoppers see the new one on the next page they open.
Can I turn the character off?
Yes, with one checkbox in the app embed settings. The product photo then flies straight into your cart icon, with the same cart nudge, button confirmation, message and season. Size, speed, and whether the character's hand passes in front of the product are set in the same panel.
Will it slow my store down?
The storefront runtime is about 18 KB gzipped and is served by Shopify's CDN as part of the theme app extension. Its CSS is overlay-only, so it never moves the page. The character's artwork — from half a megabyte to just under one, depending on the character — is fetched only for the chosen one and only once a shopper presses Add to cart; the seasons are a separate 6 KB, fetched only while a season is on. Browsing costs nothing for either.
Do I have to edit my theme?
No. CartMotion is a theme app extension — you turn on an app embed in the theme editor. No code is pasted in, and removing the app leaves nothing behind.
Why does the first add sometimes show no character?
The character's artwork is only fetched once a shopper presses Add to cart, so a storefront that is browsed and not bought from never downloads it. If it has not arrived by the time that first add succeeds, that one add gets the plain flight and the next one gets the character.
Which themes does it work with?
It works automatically with most Shopify themes, and custom selectors are available when a heavily customised theme needs them. It has been tested on Dawn, Horizon, Refresh, Craft and Sense.
My theme already animates add to cart. What happens?
Shopify's newer themes — Horizon, Ritual, Atelier and Tinker — ship their own fly-to-cart, switched on by default. CartMotion detects it and shows neither a character nor a second flying image; you still get the cart nudge, the season, the button confirmation and the message. Turn off “Add to cart animation” in theme settings to use CartMotion's own animation.
What happens if the add fails, or the product is sold out?
Nothing animates. CartMotion only reacts to an add that actually succeeded.
Does it collect anything about my shoppers?
No. The animation runs in the shopper's browser and calls no API of its own — no analytics, no identifiers, no cookies. It loads only its own files from Shopify's CDN. The app requests a single permission, read_themes, used only to see whether the app embed is on and which character and season settings it uses.
Is it accessible?
The character, the flying image and the seasonal pieces are decorative and hidden from screen readers; the confirmation is announced in text. If a shopper's system asks for reduced motion, nothing moves.
Can I turn it off temporarily?
Yes — switch the app embed off in the theme editor. It is per theme, so a new or duplicated theme needs it switched on again.
Questions about CartMotion? Reach out through the Shopify App Store listing.