Abandoned cart emails for Shopify: a 3-email flow that works

About 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned before checkout, according to Baymard Institute’s running average of 50 studies. For most Shopify brands, those carts are the largest pool of revenue that is one email away.

This is the abandoned cart flow we build for brands at Think Massive: who it reaches, what each email says, when it goes out, and how to tell if it’s working.

Abandoned cart and abandoned checkout are two different audiences

• Abandoned checkout: the shopper started checkout and typed in their email, then left. Shopify can email these people on its own.
• Abandoned cart: the shopper added something to the cart and left before checkout. You can only reach them if they’re already on your list, through an email platform that tracks site activity, such as Klaviyo, Braze or HubSpot.
• Browse abandonment: a known subscriber looked at a product and didn’t add it. A lighter version of the same flow covers them.

Many stores only run the first one. Adding the second and third reaches people earlier, while they still remember what they wanted.

Where Shopify’s built-in email stops

Shopify’s built-in abandoned checkout email sends one message, with limited options for timing, testing and segmentation. It’s a good start for a new store. Once a store passes about $30K a month, a dedicated flow in Klaviyo, Braze or HubSpot usually pays for itself, because it can send more than one email, test subject lines, skip recent buyers and change the message based on what’s in the cart.

The three emails

• Email 1, about 1 hour after they leave: the reminder. Show the product, the price and one button back to the cart. No discount. Many shoppers simply got interrupted.
• Email 2, about 24 hours later: answer the hesitation. Cover what usually stops people at checkout: shipping cost and timing, returns, sizing, and a few short reviews.
• Email 3, 48 to 72 hours later: the last call. Let them know the item may sell out. Add an offer here only if your margins allow it, and consider limiting it to first-time buyers so regulars don’t learn to wait.

Rules that keep the flow clean

• Stop the flow the moment they buy. Nobody should get a “you forgot something” email after their order confirmation.
• Skip anyone who bought in the last few days and anyone already in another flow, so the inbox doesn’t fill with your emails.
• Show the exact items they left, pulled from the cart, with images.
• Add a text message only for subscribers who opted in to SMS, and space it apart from the emails.

What to measure

• Placed order rate for each email: the share of recipients who went on to buy.
• Revenue per recipient: total flow revenue divided by the number of people who received it. This is the easiest number to compare across flows.
• Unsubscribe and spam complaint rates. If these rise on email 3, the tone or the offer needs work.
• The attribution window your platform uses. Check it before comparing numbers across tools, since each one credits sales a little differently.

What an abandoned cart flow is worth

Results from brands we’ve worked with:

• $33,944 in one month from a single abandoned cart email at a supplement brand, converting at 16%.
• $8,562 in recovered sales over 12 months at a luxury resale store, from its abandoned checkout and abandoned cart flows together.
• $68K in 11 weeks from abandoned cart emails on one artist’s merch store.

The size of the result depends on traffic and average order value. A store that already collects emails and gets steady traffic will usually see this flow pay back in its first month.

Start with one free flow

We build one email flow free for a few Shopify brands each month, usually abandoned cart or welcome. It’s written in your brand voice, built in your Klaviyo, Braze or HubSpot account, and live within 7 days of access. It stays yours either way, and two to three weeks later we walk through the revenue it brought in.

It’s a fit if you’re on Shopify, doing $30K or more a month, and already collecting emails. We take four brands a month. See if your brand qualifies.