Switching to the MemberPress Cart

This document is for sites that installed MemberPress before the cart release. Updating the plugin changes one thing in the admin menu: Memberships becomes Products. The cart itself stays off, and your products keep selling as before.

This document explains what happens when you enable the cart on an existing site. It focuses on how your current products behave and the decisions you need to make for each of them.

The cart is currently a beta feature, labeled “Beta” in the settings. If you are new to the cart, read the MemberPress Cart Overview first. It explains what the cart adds and how to enable and disable it. If you have not yet decided on the change, check whether you should switch to the MemberPress cart.

What Changes When You Enable the Cart

Enabling the cart adds new store surfaces to your site. MemberPress activates a shop page, a cart page, and a cart checkout page.

Your existing products are not moved into the cart. Each product keeps its standalone registration page and its current URL. Existing member links, subscriptions, and payments continue to work.

Important: Enabling the cart becomes permanent once the first cart order exists. Test the cart on a staging site before enabling it in production.

Completing the Setup on an Existing Site

Enable the cart as described in the MemberPress Cart Overview. MemberPress creates the reserved Cart, Shop, and Checkout pages automatically when you enable the cart.

One check remains on an existing site:

1. Open the ReadyLaunch™ tab. Confirm the templates are enabled for the Shop Page, Cart Page, and Cart Checkout Page. On sites using the ReadyLaunch™ FSE templates, click Apply Template for the Shop, Cart, and Cart Checkout rows individually.

After these steps, the shop, cart, and checkout pages are live. The MemberPress ReadyLaunch™ templates control how these pages look.

Note: Sites that enabled the cart before updating keep it enabled. All existing cart settings remain intact after the update.

Existing Products After Enabling the Cart

Enabling the cart does not change how existing products sell. Each existing product keeps its Standalone registration page option checked.

Existing products also appear on the new shop page by default. However, their View Details buttons link to their registration pages, not to the cart.

Two options in each product’s Cart & Shop section control this behavior:

Standalone registration page	Shop Page Visibility	Result
Unchecked	Visible	The product sells through the cart.
Checked	Hidden	The product keeps its registration page and stays off the shop page.
Checked	Visible	The product appears on the shop page but links to its registration page.

Important: The third row is the default state for every existing product after enabling the cart. Review each product and decide how it should sell.

Moving an Existing Product Into the Cart

Follow these steps for each product you want to sell through the cart:

1. Navigate to Dashboard > MemberPress > Products, and open the product for editing.
2. Scroll to the Cart & Shop section.
3. Uncheck the Standalone registration page option.

4. Confirm Shop Page Visibility is set to “Visible”.
5. Click Update to save the product.

The product now sells through the cart. Its shop page card shows an Add To Cart button instead of View Details. Customers add it from the shop page and pay through the cart checkout.

Keeping a Product on Its Registration Page

Standalone registration pages are a permanent MemberPress feature, supported with the cart on or off. Keep the option checked for products that should sell through their own registration URL.

Set Shop Page Visibility to “Hidden” if the product should not appear on the shop page. Products sold this way support PayPal, Authorize.net, and Square, alongside Stripe and Offline Payment. Gateways are managed in the MemberPress payment settings.