Abandoned cart recovery

A shopper fills a basket, gets as far as giving you an email address, and then stops. Marketing → Abandoned Carts records those baskets, and can email the shopper a link that puts the basket back.

It is on Professional and Scale; see the pricing page.

What gets recorded

Only a basket with an email address on it. Somebody browsing anonymously is invisible to us: their basket lives in their own browser and never reaches us at all. Once a shopper signs in or gets through the contact step at checkout, their basket can be recorded.

A basket is recorded once it has sat untouched for longer than your inactivity window, and only if that shopper has not placed an order since. Each record is a snapshot: what was in the basket, what it was worth, and when they walked away.

Across the top: how many were abandoned, how many came back, how many of those came back from an email, and what it was all worth. Est. value is the basket's own total, before delivery and tax, because at that point neither has been worked out.

Each row shows the shopper, how many items, what it was worth, when it happened, and whether any reminders have gone out.

Turning it on

Settings → Checkout, under Abandoned cart tracking. Both switches start off.

1. Track abandoned carts starts recording. Nothing is emailed by this on its own.
2. Inactivity window is how long a basket sits untouched before it counts as abandoned, between 15 minutes and a day.
3. Send recovery emails is the one that actually sends. Every email carries a one-click unsubscribe.
4. Reminder schedule is when the first and second reminders go out, in minutes after the basket was abandoned. An hour and a day are the usual pair.
5. Only email marketing subscribers is off by default, because a reminder is about a basket the shopper started themselves rather than a campaign. Turn it on to send only to people who have opted into marketing.

Choose Save Changes.

The wait a shopper experiences is a little longer than the numbers you type: we look for abandoned baskets every few minutes, and send on the same rhythm.

What the shopper gets

An email from your store with what they left behind and a link back to it. Following the link:

• puts the items back in their basket at today's prices and today's stock, and quietly leaves out anything you have since stopped selling;
• takes them to checkout without asking for a password;
• lets them into checkout only. It is not a way into their account: order history, addresses and profile still need their password.

The link works for 30 days. After that the record stops being emailed at all, because a reminder carrying a dead link is worse than no reminder.

When a cart counts as recovered

Any order by that shopper closes their open baskets. If they had clicked the link in a reminder, it is counted as recovered by email; if they came back on their own, it is counted as organic. That is what the by email figure at the top is telling you: what the emails actually earned, as against what would have come back anyway.

If it does not work

• Nothing is being recorded: the plan carries it, but Track abandoned carts also has to be on, and only baskets with an email address are ever recorded.
• Records exist but no emails go out: Send recovery emails is a separate switch from tracking. Check it, and check the reminder times are not further away than you think.
• Still nothing: a storefront that has been taken offline by an unpaid subscription sends no reminders, because the link would land on a closed shop. See When a payment fails. If everything here looks right and reminders still do not arrive, email us.
• A shopper says the link no longer works: it is older than 30 days, or they have already used it and then emptied the basket.
• The recovered basket is a different price: it is re-priced at today's prices on purpose, so you never sell at a price you have since changed.
• Someone unsubscribed: that is per basket, not for ever. A new abandoned basket can be reminded again, unless they have also opted out of your marketing and you have Only email marketing subscribers on.

Email support@shoponent.com with your store name if anything here does not match what you see. We read and answer every message.