Ecommerce

Abandoned cart recovery: bring shoppers back with two or three well-timed messages, not a discount for everyone

By Babar Lal  ·   ·  9 min read

A shopper adds a jacket to the cart, types their email at checkout and then the doorbell rings. By the evening they have forgotten all about it. The jacket is still sitting in a checkout that nobody will ever finish.

That happens to most carts. The good news is that the shopper left you their email, and Shopify already knows which checkout they abandoned. A short, well-timed reminder brings some of them back. A badly timed one, or one stuffed with discounts, trains people to abandon on purpose.

The same 400 abandoned checkouts in a month, two ways. On the left, the store sends nothing, a few shoppers come back on their own, and a discount code nobody asked for goes out in a panic email at the end of the month. On the right, a reminder goes out a few hours after the checkout is left, a second one the next day, and the messages stop the moment the order is placed.

The short answer

Fix the checkout problems that make people leave, then send two or three reminders: a few hours after they leave, the next day, and a last one a couple of days later. Stop the moment they buy. Keep discounts for the last message, or leave them out.

QuestionShort answer
What it isAutomatic emails, texts or WhatsApp messages that link a shopper back to the checkout they left
What it is notA discount for everyone who leaves, or a way to fix a slow or confusing checkout
Who it suitsAny online store with real traffic, especially on Shopify, where the basic version is built in
Cost rangeShopify's abandoned checkout emails don't count towards your Shopify Messaging email sends; texts are charged; Klaviyo has a free tier and paid email plans from $20 a month
What to do firstTurn on Shopify's abandoned checkout automation and look at why people are leaving

How many carts get abandoned, and why

Baymard Institute, a usability research firm, keeps a running list of cart abandonment studies. Across 50 studies, the average documented abandonment rate is 70.22%. Roughly seven in ten carts never become orders.

Many of those were never going to buy. In Baymard's survey of US shoppers, 42% said they had abandoned a cart because they were just browsing or not ready to buy. No email fixes that.

The rest is more useful. 40% left because extra costs like shipping, tax and fees were too high. 20% said delivery was too slow. 19% didn't trust the site with their card details. 18% were asked to create an account, and 17% found the checkout too long or complicated.

So start with the checkout itself. Show shipping costs early, offer guest checkout and cut the form fields. Every shopper you keep in checkout is one you don't have to chase.

Two columns. Fix in your checkout first: show shipping and tax costs early, offer guest checkout, show delivery dates, add trust signals and payment methods, and cut form fields. Then chase with reminders: shoppers who were interrupted, comparing prices, waiting for payday, or unsure about size or fit. Source: Baymard Institute reasons for abandonment survey.

What Shopify already does for you

Shopify counts a checkout as abandoned when it sits incomplete for more than ten minutes after the shopper enters their email. Recovery messages only work on the Online Store and Buy Button sales channels.

In the Shopify Messaging app there are three separate recovery automations. Abandoned product browse is for people who viewed a product but didn't add it to the cart. Abandoned cart is for people who added something but never started checkout. Abandoned checkout is for people who started checkout and stopped. Each one can send email, SMS or WhatsApp.

Two details catch people out. First, these automations only send to customers subscribed to marketing by default. For the abandoned checkout email you can switch the audience to all customers, but not for texts or WhatsApp. Second, Shopify won't send a recovery email in some cases. These include a payment error, an address you don't ship to, a shopper who entered a phone number instead of an email, and items that are out of stock.

The Shopify Flow template for this sends one email 10 hours after the checkout is left. That is a sensible default, but one message is a cautious start. Most stores do better with a short sequence.

How to set it up, step by step

  1. Fix the obvious checkout leaks first: surprise shipping costs, forced accounts and long forms.
  2. Turn on the abandoned checkout automation in Shopify Messaging, or build the flow in Klaviyo or another email tool.
  3. Decide who gets it. Marketing subscribers by default, or all customers for the abandoned checkout email if you are comfortable that it counts as a reminder about their own checkout.
  4. Send the first reminder a few hours after they leave. Show the item, the price and a single button back to the checkout.
  5. Send a second message the next day. Answer the likely worry: shipping cost, delivery date, returns or sizing.
  6. Send a last message about two days later. If you offer a discount at all, this is where it goes.
  7. Stop the sequence the moment the order is placed, and never send it to people who just bought the same thing.
Six steps in an abandoned checkout sequence: the shopper leaves checkout after entering their email; the store waits a few hours; the first reminder shows the item and a link back; the next day a second message answers the shipping, delivery or returns question; about two days later a last message, the only place for a discount if any; and the sequence stops as soon as the order is placed. Never send a discount in the first message.

Klaviyo, an email and SMS vendor, suggests a very similar rhythm in its 2026 abandoned cart benchmark report: an email after 2 to 4 hours, a text at 24 hours and a final message after 48 hours. It says the right setup depends on your products and goals.

What the numbers say

Klaviyo's report, published in October 2026, looked at more than 110,000 of its customers. It found abandoned cart flows bring in more revenue per recipient than any other automated flow: $6.77 on average for email and $4.48 for text. Average click rates were 6% for email and 10.3% for text.

Two cautions. These are a vendor's numbers about its own customers, and the report doesn't say what period the data covers. And revenue per recipient depends heavily on your average order value. A store selling $20 items will see far less than a store selling $300 ones. Use them to check your flow is in a sensible range, not as a forecast.

The rules

This is a plain summary, not legal advice.

Treat recovery emails as marketing. The FTC's CAN-SPAM compliance guide says the law covers any email whose primary purpose is to advertise or promote a product. It exempts most transactional messages, but only for a transaction the person has already agreed to. A shopper who left the checkout hasn't agreed to anything yet. So use an honest subject line and accurate sender details, and include a working unsubscribe link and your postal address.

Texts are stricter. CTIA, the US wireless industry group, says in its messaging principles that promotional texts need the customer's express written consent. That is why Shopify won't let you send recovery texts to people who haven't subscribed to SMS. Every text should also say how to opt out, using standard STOP wording.

Your options compared

Prices come from each provider's own page, checked in October 2026.

OptionTypical costGood atTrade-offs
Shopify MessagingAbandoned checkout emails don't count towards your email sends; SMS and WhatsApp are chargedBuilt in, with browse, cart and checkout recovery templatesSimple branching; texts only to SMS subscribers
Shopify FlowFree app on Basic, Grow, Advanced and PlusChanging the wait time, tagging customers, sending to other appsNeeds someone to build and test the workflow
KlaviyoFree up to 250 active profiles and 500 emails a month; paid email plans from $20 a monthMulti-step email and SMS flows, segmentation and testingBills by active profiles, so cost grows with your list
Custom buildSetup fee plus monthly fee; our builds start at $200Recovery that uses data from outside Shopify, like stock across channels or a quote from your CRMOnly worth it when the built-in tools can't see what you need

A sum you can redo with your own numbers

Here is the sum for a store with 400 abandoned checkouts a month. Two of the numbers are my assumptions. Measure your own in the abandoned checkouts report.

LineHow to get itExample
Abandoned checkouts with an emailOrders > Abandoned checkouts in Shopify400
Share you can messageSubscribed to marketing, or all customers for the email60% (assumed), so 240
Share who come back and buyRecovered checkouts divided by messages sent6% (assumed), so about 14
Average order valueYour analytics$70
Recovered sales a month14 x $70About $980
Abandoned checkout recovery on example numbers. 400 abandoned checkouts a month, times 60 percent you can message, times 6 percent who come back, is about 14 orders. 14 orders times a 70 dollar average order is about 980 dollars a month. The 60 percent and 6 percent are marked as assumed.

Recovered sales are not all profit. Some of those shoppers would have come back anyway. Look at the recovery report against a month without the automation before you credit it with everything.

When it backfires

A discount in the first email. Shoppers learn that leaving the cart earns a code. Before long, some of them abandon on purpose.

Too many messages. Four emails and two texts about one jacket turns a reminder into nagging, and people unsubscribe from everything.

Emails about things they already bought. If someone bought the item on another device or in your shop, a reminder looks careless. Stop the flow on any order from that customer.

Reminders for items that are out of stock. Shopify skips these for its own emails. A custom flow should check stock too, or you send people back to a sold-out page.

Ignoring the real reason. If 40% of shoppers are leaving over shipping costs, a cleverer email won't fix it. A clearer shipping message on the product page will.

What we build, and when we say no

If you sell on Shopify, turn on the built-in abandoned checkout automation, add a second and third message, and look at your checkout. You don't need us for that.

We build the next step for stores whose recovery needs data from outside Shopify. That might be stock across Amazon and your 3PL, a WhatsApp follow-up for high-value carts, or a person called in for big orders. Our ecommerce automation work covers the whole order flow, and our workflow automation service connects Shopify to the rest of your tools. If shoppers leave with a question, our post on AI website chat shows how to answer it before they go.

We say no when the built-in automation hasn't been tried yet, or when the checkout itself is the problem. New to all this? Our plain-English answers to 24 questions about AI automation is the place to start.

Questions people ask

How do I set up abandoned cart emails on Shopify? In your Shopify admin, open the Messaging app, go to Automations and turn on the abandoned checkout automation. You can edit the email, the audience and the wait time. For more than one message, add steps in Shopify Flow or use an email tool such as Klaviyo.

When should I send an abandoned cart email? A few hours after the shopper leaves is a good first send. Klaviyo's 2026 benchmark report suggests an email after 2 to 4 hours, a text at 24 hours and a final message after 48 hours. Shopify's Flow template waits 10 hours. Test your own timing.

Should I offer a discount in abandoned cart emails? Not in the first message. A discount there teaches shoppers to leave carts on purpose. If you use one at all, put it in the last message, and consider free shipping instead, since extra costs are the top reason people give for leaving.

What is a good cart abandonment rate? Baymard Institute averages 50 studies at a 70.22% abandonment rate, so most stores lose most carts. Compare your own rate month to month rather than against a benchmark, and look at the reasons people give before you worry about the number.

Can I send abandoned cart texts? Only to people who agreed to receive marketing texts. CTIA expects express written consent for promotional texts, and Shopify only sends recovery texts to SMS subscribers. Every text should say how to opt out. This is not legal advice.

What is the difference between abandoned cart and abandoned checkout? In Shopify, an abandoned cart means the shopper added items but never started checkout. An abandoned checkout means they started checkout and entered their email but didn't pay. Shopify has a separate automation for each, plus one for people who only browsed.

Find out what your abandoned checkouts are worth.

Bring last month's abandoned checkouts to the free audit. We look at why shoppers leave, check what your recovery messages send and when, and tell you whether Shopify's own tools, an app or a build is the right step. If the built-in automation will do, we say so.

Book the free audit →

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