An abandoned cart happens when a customer adds products to their online shopping cart but leaves your store without completing the purchase. On Shopify, a cart is considered abandoned when a customer reaches checkout, enters their email, but does not finish the transaction. The products sit in their cart, unpurchased.
Abandoned carts are the single biggest source of lost revenue for ecommerce stores.
Why It Matters
The average cart abandonment rate for ecommerce sits around 70%. That means for every 10 customers who add something to their cart, roughly 7 leave without buying. On a store generating $50,000/month in sales, that 70% abandonment rate means approximately $116,000 in potential revenue was left on the table.
You already paid to get these customers to your store. Recovering even a fraction of abandoned carts is pure profit.
The good news: abandoned carts are recoverable. Unlike visitors who never showed purchase intent, cart abandoners already chose a product and started the buying process. A well-timed email or incentive can bring them back to finish what they started.
Why Customers Abandon Carts
| Reason | Estimated Share |
|---|---|
| Unexpected shipping costs | 48% |
| Required account creation | 26% |
| Complicated checkout process | 22% |
| Could not see total cost upfront | 21% |
| Delivery too slow | 19% |
| Did not trust site with payment info | 18% |
| Just browsing / not ready to buy | 58% |
Most reasons are fixable. Showing shipping costs early, enabling guest checkout, and simplifying your checkout flow address the top three causes directly.
How Abandoned Cart Recovery Works on Shopify
Built-in abandoned checkout emails. Shopify automatically tracks abandoned checkouts and can send a single recovery email to customers who entered their email but did not complete the purchase. You can customize the email content and timing in Settings > Checkout.
Third-party recovery apps. For more sophisticated recovery sequences, merchants use apps that send multi-email sequences, SMS messages, or push notifications. A typical sequence looks like:
- Email 1 (1 hour after): Reminder with cart contents
- Email 2 (24 hours after): Social proof or product benefits
- Email 3 (72 hours after): Discount offer (5-10% off)
Exit-intent popups. Some stores use popups that trigger when a customer is about to leave the page, offering a discount or free shipping to prevent the abandonment before it happens.
Real Example
A Shopify store selling premium backpacks sees 2,400 abandoned checkouts per month. Their average order value is $89. They set up a three-email recovery sequence:
- Email 1 recovers 8% of abandoned carts (192 orders)
- Email 2 recovers 3% more (72 orders)
- Email 3 with 10% off recovers 2% more (48 orders)
Total recovered: 312 orders x $89 = $27,768/month from a $29/month email app. That is a 957x return on investment.
How to Reduce Cart Abandonment
Show all costs upfront. Surprise fees at checkout are the top abandonment trigger. Display shipping costs on the product page or offer a shipping calculator before checkout. Even better: offer free shipping above a threshold.
Enable guest checkout. Forcing account creation before purchase adds friction that kills conversions. Let customers buy first. Ask them to create an account on the thank-you page when they are already committed.
Speed up your checkout. Every extra field and step in checkout increases abandonment. Shopify Checkout is already optimized, but review your setup for unnecessary custom fields or steps.
Offer multiple payment methods. Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal let customers check out in seconds. The fewer details a customer has to type, the more likely they finish.
The best abandoned cart strategy is preventing abandonment in the first place. Fix your checkout experience before investing in recovery emails.
