How to Recover Abandoned Carts on Shopify

Abandoned carts are frustrating because the customer has already shown interest in buying. They've found something they like and added it to their order, only to leave before the purchase is complete.

Shopify gives you a way to follow up with those shoppers and help them return. A useful recovery email can remind someone about their selection, answer a question or save them the effort of finding everything again.

This guide walks through setting up those emails, making sure they reach the right customers and troubleshooting the common reasons a reminder doesn't send.

How do you recover abandoned carts on Shopify?

You can use Shopify Messaging to send automatic reminders after a shopper leaves without buying. It includes separate templates for abandoned carts and abandoned checkouts, which you can customize with your branding, product information and a link back to the order.

If you already use Klaviyo or another tool for recovery emails, you may have this covered. Check your existing flows before adding another, so customers don't receive duplicate reminders from two platforms.

Choose the right recovery template

The right template depends on how far the shopper got. Someone who added a product but never opened checkout needs a different trigger from someone who entered their details and reached payment.

Shopify separates these behaviors into three templates:

You can review abandoned checkouts under Orders > Abandoned checkouts. Shopify creates these records when the customer has provided an email address and the checkout remains incomplete for more than ten minutes. This view therefore covers a later stage of the journey than people simply leaving products in their cart. Source: Shopify.

Set up the recovery email in Shopify Messaging

Once you've chosen the behavior to follow up on, you can create the email from Shopify Messaging. You'll need a Basic plan or higher, the relevant staff permissions and Shopify Flow for full automation functionality. Use desktop when editing the workflow. Shopify's requirements explain the account setup.

To create the email:

1. Go to Apps > Messaging > Automations.
2. Select Create automation.
3. Choose Recover abandoned checkout or Recover abandoned cart.
4. Select Email.
5. Open Edit email, customize the message and use Send test.
6. Save without activation if you still need to review the flow, or select Turn on when it's ready.

Shopify's setup guide covers these options in more detail.

As you edit, think about what would help the customer finish deciding. A clothing brand might offer sizing help, while a furniture brand could make delivery information easy to find. Include the products they selected and a clear way to return to the order.

Your sender name should also be recognizable. The email needs to feel like a helpful follow-up from the store they visited.

If you're using the legacy checkout email

Stores still using the older checkout email can move to the new automation through Shopify's migration process. Review the timing and audience as you switch, because moving to the new version is permanent and the legacy version can't be restored afterward. Shopify's migration guide explains the transition.

Check who receives the emails

A recovery flow needs to recognize the shopper and have a suitable way to contact them. Adding a product to a cart alone doesn't give your store an email address.

The abandoned-checkout email targets email subscribers by default. Shopify also offers an All customers setting, which should be used according to your messaging permissions. Source: Shopify.

Before activating the flow, review:

• The event that starts it.
• The delay before the first message.
• The purchase conditions that stop further reminders.
• The audience and channel permissions.
• Rules that limit how often a customer is contacted.

Those frequency rules can explain why some shoppers don't receive another reminder. For example, Shopify's Recover abandoned cart Flow template excludes customers who received a cart, checkout or browse-abandonment email in the previous 14 days.

Test the full return journey

Sending yourself a preview is useful for checking the design, but it's also worth going through the shopping journey with a test customer. This lets you see whether the flow starts correctly and whether the customer can get back to the right order.

Add a product, follow the path your template covers and leave without buying. After the configured delay, check that the email arrives and its link restores the correct items and variants.

Then try completing a purchase before the reminder is due. The customer should stop receiving recovery messages once the order has been recorded.

Open the link on a phone and while logged out as well. Check the total, delivery options and availability, and avoid promising that stock is reserved unless your store has a reservation system.

Why aren't recovery emails sending?

Sometimes a message doesn't send because the customer no longer qualifies. They may have completed the purchase, received another recent reminder or left a cart containing products that are now unavailable.

Work through the flow conditions before assuming there's a delivery problem:

Shopify explains how to inspect automation activity and delivery exclusions in its troubleshooting documentation. For payment problems, open the abandoned-checkout record and review the Timeline, where payment events can help explain what failed. Source: Shopify.

If the same issue keeps appearing, improving that part of your checkout will help more than repeatedly inviting customers back to a broken purchase flow.

Using Klaviyo, SMS or another recovery tool

You may want more control over message sequences, customer groups or the channels you use. If another platform handles that work, make sure it fits with the automations already running in Shopify.

For a Klaviyo recovery flow, turn off the equivalent Shopify emails once the replacement is ready. Include the purchase filter so customers stop receiving reminders after ordering. Klaviyo's flow guide explains both parts of the setup.

Shopify Messaging also offers SMS versions of its recovery templates. Check availability and account requirements before adding the channel, then coordinate it with your emails so the customer receives a sensible sequence.

For more help deciding what to send and when, our cart recovery guide covers message content, timing and incentives.

Measuring your recovery flow's results

Once the flow is running, watch how many eligible checkouts receive a message and how many turn into orders. Compare those results with the discounts, shipping subsidies and messaging costs involved so you can see what the recovered purchases contribute.

One detail matters when reading Shopify's report: a checkout can be marked recovered after an email is sent even if the customer returns independently. A holdout group can help you estimate how many additional purchases the emails generate. Source: Shopify.

You can also track the checkout abandonment rate itself:

Checkout abandonment rate = (1 − completed checkouts ÷ started checkouts) × 100

If 75 of 100 started checkouts become orders, the abandonment rate is 25%.

As the flow runs, pay attention to replies and support questions. If customers repeatedly ask about the same product detail or delivery term, answering that question earlier in the shopping journey can help more of them buy on their first visit.

Final thoughts

Shopify gives you the tools to follow up with shoppers who leave before buying. Choosing the right trigger, writing a useful reminder and testing the return journey turns that automation into a helpful part of your store.

The setup is working well when a customer can recognize the message, return to the right order and finish buying without starting again. From there, refining the timing and content will help the flow fit the way your customers shop.