An abandoned cart journey reminds a shopper about something they were about to buy, and stops its future steps once your store reports the purchase. Three templates cover the stages of a purchase: Abandoned checkout, Abandoned cart and Browse abandonment. Use one, or all three as a ladder.
Who it’s for
Online shops, booking sites and anyone whose customers choose something before they pay. For example, Atlas & Oak, a fictional furniture maker in Melbourne, reminds shoppers about the table they priced, then the cart they filled, then the checkout they started.
What you need first
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Your website or app sends the shopping events on the contact who’s shopping, and your purchase event when an order is paid. See E-commerce events.
Template Events it reads Abandoned checkout Checkout Started, your purchase event Abandoned cart Product Added, Checkout Started, your purchase event Browse abandonment Product Viewed, Product Added, Checkout Started, your purchase event Your own events can come from your app or site on any plan, or a connected payment provider can send the purchase. See Connect an integration.
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The shopper is a contact with an email address and email consent. Reminders are marketing email, so they go only to people who agreed to it.
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A verified sending domain. See Set up a sending domain.
If your checkout or purchase event has its own name, set it in Key events first: the templates then use yours. A template card names any event you haven’t sent under Not sent yet.
1 Start from a template
Go to Journeys, choose New journey, then under Start from a template and Shopping, choose Abandoned checkout, Abandoned cart or Browse abandonment.
2 Check what the template creates
Abandoned checkout
| Part | As the template sets it |
|---|---|
| Trigger | An event happens: Checkout Started |
| Re-entry | Each time, with 7 days before they can enter again |
| Step 1 | Wait 4 hours |
| Step 2 | Send message: You left something behind, listing the items from the checkout event’s products (up to 10), each with its image, name, price and link |
| Step 3 | Wait 20 hours |
| Step 4 | Send message: Still thinking it over?, with the same items |
| Exit rules | Your purchase event: an order ends the journey at once, even during a wait |
Abandoned cart
| Part | As the template sets it |
|---|---|
| Trigger | An event happens: Product Added |
| Re-entry | Each time, with 7 days before they can enter again |
| Step 1 | Wait 4 hours |
| Step 2 | Send message: Still in your cart, showing the product from the event’s name, price, image_url and url |
| Exit rules | Checkout Started or your purchase event |
Browse abandonment
| Part | As the template sets it |
|---|---|
| Trigger | An event happens: Product Viewed |
| Re-entry | Each time, with 30 days before they can enter again, so a regular browser isn’t followed around |
| Step 1 | Wait 1 hour |
| Step 2 | Send message: Still thinking about it?, showing the product from the event’s name, price, image_url and url |
| Exit rules | Product Added, Checkout Started or your purchase event |
Run them together
The exit rules make the three work as a ladder. A browser who adds to the cart leaves Browse abandonment and enters Abandoned cart; once they start checkout they leave that and enter Abandoned checkout; their order ends that too. Each person gets the reminder for the furthest step they reached.
3 Change it for your business
- Timing. Four hours suits most shops. For a considered purchase, such as furniture or travel, try a day; for food delivery, an hour.
- Copy and links. Add your sender, rewrite the copy and give each button a link, such as your cart page. See Design an email. Product details come from the event, so send
name,price,image_urlandurlwith it. See Merge tags and personalisation. - An offer, if any. Keep the first reminder a plain reminder. If you add a discount, put it in the second checkout email, so people don’t learn to abandon carts to get one.
- Push. If your app has push notifications, change a reminder’s Channel to Push. To reach people without the app too, add an email step and choose it under If they can’t receive this, go to.
- Entry conditions. To remind only about larger orders, give Abandoned checkout an entry condition such as
totalis more than 50.
4 Measure it
- Clicks on each reminder, on the Performance tab under Email outcomes by step.
- Recovered orders and revenue: add a conversion goal on your purchase event, with Counts within set to 3 days, a Revenue property such as
totaland a Currency such asUSD. Available on Starter and above. See Conversion goals. - Lift: some shoppers come back without a reminder. Add a Random split after the first wait with one empty path as a holdout, then compare conversion rates. See Random split and holdout.
Many runs end early, through the exit rules, when people buy before the reminder. That’s the journey working: Exited early isn’t a failure count.
Common pitfalls
- Events on anonymous visitors. A reminder needs a contact with an email address. Make sure your site identifies shoppers, for example at sign-in or when they enter an email at checkout, before it sends the shopping events.
- No purchase event, no exit. Without your purchase event, people who bought still get the reminder. Check it arrives before you turn the journey on.
- The wrong product. Abandoned cart shows the product from the event that started the run. Someone who adds more within the next 7 days doesn’t start a new run.
- Marked as transactional. Don’t tick Transactional email on a reminder. It’s marketing, and it must respect consent and unsubscribes.
- Old events. Past events start nothing, so importing past carts sends no reminders.