When WooCommerce checkout redirects to cart, the store can look healthy while the purchase path quietly loops away from revenue. The customer reaches checkout, but a session, cache, login, shipping or gateway condition sends them back before an order can be created.
This symptom is not the same as a generic broken checkout. The useful question is whether the redirect happens because the cart became empty, the checkout endpoint is cached, a required login state is missing, the Store API loses cart state, or the gateway callback returns to the wrong place.
Evidence should separate the redirect cause:
- Does the cart become empty before checkout renders?
- Is a cache layer serving cart or checkout with the wrong cookies?
- Does the redirect target cart, account login, payment retry or a generic error page?
- Did shipping, coupon or country recalculation change the session?
- Is there any order ID, or only a loop back to the cart?
CashFlowCanary treats an unexpected checkout-to-cart redirect as a conversion incident when the controlled journey leaves the purchase path before a final state. The proof stays filtered and does not store customer identity, payment data or cart contents. Start with features, compare plans, or request a free audit.
This guide complements WooCommerce cart emptied, WooCommerce checkout stuck, WooCommerce checkout not working and WooCommerce order confirmation missing. Together they separate session loss, redirect loops, frozen checkout and missing confirmation.