Winning back abandoned carts: a complete guide from causes to automated reminders

When a visitor adds a product to the cart, they’ve told you a lot: they found the product, saw the price and seriously considered buying it. Then they closed the tab. It’s one of the most common moments in e-⁠commerce, and one of the most worth working on.

According to the Baymard Institute, which compiles studies on the subject, around 70 percent of online shopping carts are abandoned without a purchase. You can’t bring that rate down to zero; but preventing the preventable part and recalling the rest at the right moment is one of the most direct ways to increase sales without buying new traffic.

Why are carts abandoned?

Not all abandonment is the same. Some of it is “just looking”, and however much you improve checkout, that visitor isn’t buying today. What you should really focus on is the customer who intended to buy and hit an obstacle.

The most common preventable causes:

• Surprise costs: shipping, taxes or fees appear at checkout.
• Forced account creation: the customer just wants to buy one product but must create an account.
• Long, complicated forms: unnecessary fields and address forms that are hard to fill in on mobile.
• Lack of trust: hesitating to enter payment details in an unfamiliar store.
• Missing payment method: the customer can’t find the method they’re used to.
• Unclear delivery: no indication of when the product will arrive.

Prevent first: simplify checkout

Reminder messages work, but never letting the cart be abandoned is always cheaper. A few changes at checkout have a direct effect on abandonment.

Show the total cost early. State the shipping cost or the free-shipping threshold on the cart page. A progress bar such as “$15 away from free shipping” both prevents surprises and can increase basket value.

Allow guest checkout. Offer an account as a perk after the purchase, not a barrier before it: “Your order is complete. Would you like to set a password for next time?”

Shorten the form. Ask for the address once if billing and delivery are the same, autofill the city from the postcode, and open the right keyboard type on mobile.

Catch them on the way out: smart popups

A message shown when a visitor with items in the cart is about to leave (when the cursor heads for the browser tabs, or after a long pause on mobile) is a last chance. But it must not be annoying.

• Remind them of the cart: “The items in your cart are waiting for you”, with an image of the product.
• Remove an obstacle: the free-shipping threshold, easy returns or delivery time.
• Ask for contact details: an option like “Email me my cart” is the way to reach a guest visitor later.
• Limit frequency: don’t show the same popup to the same visitor on every page.

Bring them back: the reminder sequence

If the customer has left and you have their contact details, you can come back to them with a short sequence of messages. Two things matter most here: timing and tone.

Make the first message fast and simple. A short message sent while the customer still remembers the product brings the highest return. The product image, its name and a one-click link back to the cart are enough.

Let the second message answer questions. An abandoning customer usually has a question in mind: how long is delivery? Can I return it? Will the size fit? A message that answers these in advance is more convincing than sales talk.

Use discounts last and selectively. Sending a discount to every abandoner lowers your margin and teaches customers to wait for discounts.

Which channel?

• Email: the most common and lowest-cost channel; suited to visual, detailed messages.
• SMS: short and read quickly; it can work well for the first reminder, but keep the frequency low.
• Messaging apps: a personal and fast channel where the customer has given permission.

Measure: which numbers to watch

Instead of setting up cart recovery once and forgetting it, measure it regularly:

1. Cart abandonment rate: what share of sessions with a cart don’t end in an order?
2. Checkout abandonment rate: the share of people who reach checkout but don’t complete it. If it’s high, the problem is the form or the cost.
3. Reminder conversion: orders and recovered revenue coming from reminder messages.
4. Contribution per step: which message in the sequence brings the most orders. Change or remove the ineffective step.

Example scenario: an accessories store’s first month

Consider a hypothetical example: a store selling bags and wallets notices high cart abandonment and takes these steps over a month.

1. Diagnosis: the checkout is filled in end to end on a phone. Shipping only appears at the last step, an account is mandatory and the postcode field fails on mobile.
2. Prevention: the shipping cost and free-shipping threshold move to the cart page, guest checkout is enabled and the form is simplified.
3. Catching: an exit-intent popup with the product image and an “email me my cart” option goes live for visitors with items in the cart.
4. Recall: a three-step email sequence is set up: a same-day reminder, returns and delivery information the next day, and on the third day a small offer only for first-time customers.
5. Measurement: every week the checkout abandonment rate and orders from each step of the sequence are reviewed; the subject line of the weaker third email is changed.

The order in this scenario is deliberate: prevent first, then catch, and recall last. In a store with a broken checkout, even the best reminder sequence sends the customer back to the same obstacle.

Cart recovery with Shopiyz

In Shopiyz, Smart Popups catch visitors with items in their cart as they leave, and Workflows let you build email, SMS and WhatsApp reminders triggered by “cart abandoned” with drag and drop. The sequence stops by itself when an order is placed, and you track the result of every step in the dashboard.