Abandoned Cart Emails: What to Send and When to Send It

What an abandoned cart email is

An abandoned cart email is a reminder sent to a shopper who started to buy and did not finish. This guide covers why shoppers leave, what to send and when, and what to check about permission before you switch it on.

An abandoned cart email is a reminder sent to a shopper who added items to a basket or began checkout but did not pay. Send one to three emails, the first within hours, each showing the items and answering the doubt that may have stopped them. Only email shoppers whose address you hold lawfully, and check the consent rules that apply to you.

Abandoned cart emails are automatic messages sent to a shopper who left the store with items in the basket or part-way through checkout. Each one reminds the shopper what they chose and gives one link back to finish the order. They can only reach shoppers whose email address you already hold, either because they were logged in or because they typed it before leaving.

Cart abandonment is the behaviour, and the email is one response to it. Stores use the term for slightly different situations. A shopper who put items in the basket and left has abandoned a cart. A shopper who entered an address and stopped at payment has abandoned a checkout. A shopper who only looked at a product is a different case, because you rarely hold an address, and this guide does not cover it.

An abandoned cart email is also different from a transactional message. An order confirmation, a payment failure notice or a dispatch update responds to something the shopper did and expects. A reminder asks the shopper to come back and buy, so build it, and check the rules for it, as you would for a promotional message.

Why shoppers leave without buying

Some reasons for leaving can be eased by an email and some cannot. Find out which apply to your store before you write anything. The reasons below are common causes, not proven rules, and your own order data and customer messages will tell you more.

Read the last column first. A checkout that loses fewer shoppers is worth more than any email, because it helps every visitor. The ecommerce product page checklist covers the page, and the guide to starting an online store covers the order of work for payments, shipping and policies.

Check permission before you switch it on

A cart reminder needs a lawful reason to contact the shopper, and the rules differ by country and change. Some countries treat a reminder about a live basket as part of the sale. Others treat it as marketing that needs permission first. Some look at how and where you collected the address. This guide cannot tell you which applies to you. Check the law that covers your shoppers, read the regulator's official guidance and ask a lawyer before launch.

The guide to getting started with email marketing covers consent for lists in general, and the guide to website terms and privacy policies covers what to tell shoppers about their data. These habits hold up under most rules.

• Capture the email address early in checkout and tell the shopper what you will do with it. Agree the wording of a short note beside the field with your adviser.
• Keep marketing sign-up separate from the order. A newsletter box should be unticked and worded on its own.
• Put a working unsubscribe link in every message and act on requests quickly. Google's sender guidelines ask for easy unsubscribing in promotional email and treat it differently from transactional email, so read the current guidelines.
• Show who is sending: the business name and a way to reply.
• Record when and how each address was collected and what the form said at the time.
• Stop the sequence for anyone who buys, unsubscribes or asks you to stop.
• Never email addresses you did not collect yourself.

If you also send reminders by WhatsApp or SMS, those channels carry their own consent and message rules, set by the platform and the law. Check them separately before using them.

How many abandoned cart emails to send and when

Start with a short sequence you can defend: a reminder, a second email that answers doubts, and an optional last note. Then stop. A shopper who has not responded after a few reminders has usually decided, and more email mostly irritates.

These timings are starting points. A low-cost impulse item suits a quicker rhythm than furniture or another purchase people discuss at home. Adjust to how long your customers take to decide, which your order history shows, and change one thing at a time. Limit how many reminders any one shopper can receive in a given period, so that someone who abandons often is not flooded.

What an abandoned cart email should say

Keep it short, specific and useful. Each email has one purpose and one main link.

• Subject line: say what is inside, in plain words, such as "Your basket is saved". Avoid capital letters, pressure and trickery.
• Sender name: use the store name the shopper recognises, with a reply address that a person reads.
• The items: a picture, the name, the chosen size or colour, the quantity and the current price. If the price has changed or an item has sold out, say so.
• One button back to the basket, built so that the basket still holds the items. Word it as the next step, for example "Return to your basket". The guide to writing a call to action covers button wording.
• Reassurance that answers the likely doubt: the delivery area and time, a returns summary and the payment options, including cash on delivery if you offer it.
• A person: invite a reply with a question. Replies show what put shoppers off.
• A way to leave: an unsubscribe link and your business details in the footer.

A made-up first email could read: "Subject: Your basket is saved. Hello, you left these items in your basket: [picture, name, size, price]. Return to your basket. If something stopped you, such as a question about delivery or sizing, reply to this email and a person will answer. Delivery and returns details are below."

Keep the tone plain and polite. Do not scold the shopper or pretend a person noticed them leave, and do not invent scarcity or deadlines. Misleading urgency can break consumer protection rules in some countries, and shoppers notice it. Never ask a shopper to reply with card or bank details. Send them to your own checkout, and make sure every link goes to your own domain, because an email that asks for payment details looks like phishing.

Should you offer a discount?

Not at first. A discount recovers some orders and costs margin on every order it touches, including orders that would have come back anyway. It can also teach regular customers to abandon a basket on purpose and wait for a code. Check what each order leaves you after product cost, shipping, payment fees and returns before you decide how much room there is. Step 1 of the online store guide shows how to work that out.

A reasonable order is the reminder first, answers to doubts second, and an incentive only in a later email and only for products that can afford it. Try non-price help before price: clearer delivery information, a simpler payment step or an offer to answer questions. If you do use a code, let it expire only if it really does, limit it to the products it covers and test that it applies when the shopper arrives from the email.

How to set it up and test it

Check what your store platform already offers. Many platforms can send recovery emails, and email tools can connect to a store, but features, limits and the way abandonment is detected differ and change. Read the current documentation for yours or ask your developer. Whichever route you use, decide these settings:

• When a basket counts as abandoned, meaning how long it must sit without activity.
• Who is left out: shoppers who bought in the meantime, who unsubscribed, who received a reminder recently, and items that are now out of stock.
• How the link restores the basket and any code.
• Which tags the links carry, so that analytics can show orders that came from the emails.
• Domain authentication, so that mailbox providers trust the sender. The email marketing guide explains SPF, DKIM and DMARC.

Then test it as a shopper would. Add a product to the basket on a phone, enter a test address you control, leave, and wait for the emails. Look at each one in more than one mailbox. Check that the button restores the right items, that prices are current, that the unsubscribe link works and that buying stops the sequence. Repeat the test after any change to the theme or checkout, since a changed checkout can quietly stop the trigger.

How to measure whether abandoned cart emails work

Count the orders placed after a shopper clicked a link in a reminder, and compare them with any discount given and the time spent. Count unsubscribes, spam complaints and replies for each email as well, because they show whether the sequence is welcome.

Some of those shoppers would have come back without a reminder, so recovered orders overstate what the email achieved. A fairer check is to hold the reminder back from a randomly chosen group for a period and compare how many of them returned with the group that received it. A small store may not have the volume for a clean test, so compare periods with care and treat the result as a hint. Platform reports and analytics reports may count differently, so use your own order records as the final check. Change one thing at a time and review the results monthly.

Mistakes to avoid

• Sending after the shopper has bought, or about items now out of stock.
• A link that opens an empty basket.
• The same message for a low-cost item and an expensive one.
• Polishing the email while checkout problems remain.

Writing the emails is the easy part. Detecting abandonment, restoring baskets, tagging links and handling exclusions depend on the store platform and may need a developer. The ecommerce solutions page describes the stores Liftup builds. Whoever sets it up, keep the email tool and the store accounts in your business's name.

Questions and answers

What is an abandoned cart email?

It is an automatic reminder sent to a shopper who put items in a basket or began checkout and left without paying. It shows the items and gives one link back to finish the order. It can only reach shoppers whose email address the store already holds.

Why do shoppers leave without buying?

Common causes are extra costs that appear late, unclear delivery, a missing or failed payment method, a forced account and a slow checkout on a phone. Some shoppers are only comparing or were interrupted. These are common causes, not rules, so check your own orders and customer messages.

How many abandoned cart emails should I send?

Start with a reminder, a second email that answers doubts and, if you wish, a short last note. Then stop. Space them to match how long your customers take to decide, and limit how many reminders one shopper can receive in a period.

What should an abandoned cart email say?

Show the items with a picture, name, option and current price, and give one clear button back to the basket. Add the delivery, returns and payment details that answer likely doubts, invite a reply, and include an unsubscribe link. Do not invent scarcity or deadlines.

Can I email a shopper who left items in their basket?

It depends on the country and on how you collected the address. Some rules treat a reminder as part of the sale and others as marketing that needs permission. Check the law that covers your shoppers, read the regulator's official guidance and ask a lawyer before you launch.

Should I offer a discount in an abandoned cart email?

Not at first. A discount costs margin on orders that might have come back anyway and can teach shoppers to wait for a code. Try a reminder and clear answers to doubts first, and use an incentive later only on products that can afford it.

How do I know if abandoned cart emails are working?

Count orders that follow a click on a reminder, and count unsubscribes, complaints and replies. Some shoppers would have returned anyway, so hold the reminder back from a random group for a period if you have the volume, and compare the two groups.