Opt in to the new abandoned checkout automation

The abandoned checkout reengagement automation allows you to send automated emails to customers who added a product to their cart and started checking out, but left the checkout before completing their purchase.

The abandoned checkout automation settings are moving to the Marketing section in your Shopify admin. The new settings give you more design flexibility and control over when your abandoned checkouts are sent, and to whom. Navigate to this section to opt in to the new automation.

You can continue to use the existing abandoned checkout email within Settings > Checkout until it's removed, at which time you will need to transition to the new abandoned checkout in the Marketing section. Until its removal, you can refer to recovering abandoned checkouts to learn more.

Note

The abandoned checkout reengagement automation is available only for the Online Store sales channel, the Buy Button sales channel, and the Plus Wholesale Channel. Abandoned checkouts on Shopify POS, Shop, or third-party sales channels don't receive an abandoned checkout automation.

Switch to the new abandoned checkout automation

Caution

Activating the new abandoned checkout automation is a permanent change. You can't change back to the legacy abandoned checkout emails after opting in to the new automation.

Steps:

1. From the Shopify admin, click Marketing > Automations.
2. Click Create automation.
3. Select the Abandoned checkout automation template.
4. Optional: Click Edit to edit the email content or to make changes to the automation’s workflow.
5. Click Turn on automation.
6. Review the information and click Continue.

After the new automation is turned on, you can edit and manage the automation, including turning it off and on, from the automation’s summary page.

Edit an abandoned checkout email

Note

By default, the abandoned checkout automation is only sent to customers that are subscribed to email marketing. To send the email to all customers, you can edit the To: field of the email and select All customers.

You can change the customer list that the email is sent to, the subject line, the preview text, and the email address that the email is sent from.

You can also edit the content of your abandoned checkout email using the same email editing sections used in Shopify Email. You can add text and customize your design by adding a logo or changing the color scheme to reflect your store brand. You can also add a discount that your customer can use when they navigate back to their checkout. Learn more about customizing your email messages.

Tip

A great way to encourage customers to complete their checkout is to offer them a discount.

Steps:

1. From the Shopify admin, click Marketing > Automations.
2. Click Create automation.
3. Select the Abandoned checkout automation template.
4. Click Edit > Edit email.
5. Click Edit.
6. Review the considerations for editing the email, and then click Continue.
7. Optional: Edit any of the following:
   • Beside To:, you can select the customer group you want the email to send to.
   • Beside Subject:, you can change the default email subject line to one that you want your abandoned checkout email to have.
   • Beside Preview text:, you can summarize your email with text that displays after the subject line.
   • Beside From:, you can click Edit to open the sender email settings to change the email address that the email will be sent from.
8. Customize your email message using Shopify email's section editor.
9. Click Save.

Automatically email a customer a link to their abandoned checkout

To send abandoned checkout emails automatically, you need to create an automation. Each automation email contains a link to the customer's abandoned cart, allowing them to complete their checkout if they choose. If you don't want to send these emails automatically, then you can send them manually.

When you create the new abandoned checkout automation through the Marketing > Automations section, your settings are carried over from your previous abandoned checkout settings. If you create a second abandoned checkout automation, then the automation defaults to a 10 hour wait time before the email is sent to customers and sends to only customers subscribed to marketing.

You can use Shopify flow to edit the workflow for your new abandoned checkout automation, including the wait time.

Steps:

1. From the Shopify admin, click Marketing > Automations.
2. Click Create automation.
3. Select the Abandoned checkout automation.
4. Click Edit > Edit workflow.
5. Use Shopify flow to edit the workflow.
6. Click Turn on workflow when you're done editing.

Understanding undelivered abandoned checkouts

An abandoned checkout reengagement email is not sent for an abandoned checkout in the following circumstances:

• When the customer hasn't previously completed a purchase and subscribed to marketing.
• When a customer creates one or more abandoned checkouts and then completes a purchase before the abandoned checkout email is sent.
• When none of the items in the checkout are available for purchase.
• When all the items in the checkout are free, and the customer doesn't visit the shipping page to add a shipping fee, or the shipping fee is also free.
• When a checkout is abandoned from the Shop app's checkout. The automation only applies to the Online Store checkout.
• When a customer abandoned a more recent checkout, and the wait time from the latest abandoned checkout hasn't lapsed.

If you have configured your store to automatically send abandoned checkout emails, then the Automations page will contain performance data.

Note

After an email is sent, the checkout is considered recovered after the customer completes the order. A customer can either click the abandoned checkout link in the email or complete the checkout on their own.

Review automation workflow delivery details

On the Automations page, you can click into a specific automation to display detailed information for that automation, such as if an abandoned checkout email failed to deliver to a customer. Each email that is sent is referred to as a Run, and has a corresponding ID.

Steps:

1. From the Shopify admin, click Marketing > Automations.
2. Under Automations, click the automation that you want to review the results from.
3. In the Workflow section, click View recent activity.
4. Click the email sent, or Run ID, that you want to review the details for.

The details for the email, or Run ID, display under the Results section.

Manually send an abandoned checkout email

You can choose to manually send an abandoned checkout email to a customer. The email contains a link to the customer's abandoned cart, allowing them to complete their checkout. You might want to send the abandoned checkout email manually when you haven't set up the automation, or when your customer requests the abandoned checkout link.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, click Orders > Abandoned checkouts.
2. Click the number of the abandoned checkout that you want to recover.
3. Click the customer’s email under the customer information.

Your email client launches with the abandoned checkout link in the email body.

If the customer completes their order using that link, then the Recovery status on the Abandoned checkout page updates to display as recovered.

Review your abandoned checkouts

You can review your abandoned checkouts to find patterns that might suggest why your customers aren't completing orders.

Abandoned checkouts are saved in the Shopify admin for three months. Every Monday, abandoned checkouts that are older than three months are removed from your admin.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.

2. Click Abandoned checkouts.

Tip

You can export abandoned checkouts when you export your orders.

View payment events from an abandoned checkout

Each time a customer tries to pay for their order, a payment event is noted in the history of the abandoned checkout. You can expand payment events for more details.

Payment events can be helpful if a customer is trying to place an order and their payment fails. If a customer contacts you because their payment doesn't work at checkout, then you can view the details of the payment event, and use the information to help your customer place their order.

If your customer successfully paid at checkout, then instead go to the order's timeline to view payment events.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders > Abandoned checkouts.

2. Click an abandoned checkout.

3. In the History section, click a payment event.

Abandoned checkouts email report

The Abandoned checkouts emails report by Shopify helps you better understand how effective those emails are at bringing your customers back to finish a transaction. It's available in the Marketing section of Shopify.

The report tells you how many sessions and completed orders have resulted from the reminder emails. It also includes information such as conversion rate, total amount of sales, average order value, average number of products sold, and how many customers were first-time customers.

The report displays data only from November 18, 2019 onwards.