Cart Abandonment
When a shopper adds items to their cart but leaves without completing checkout - recoverable with reminder emails or retargeting.
In practice
Common causes include unexpected shipping costs revealed late in checkout, a required account creation step, or simply a shopper comparison-shopping across tabs - recovery emails and retargeting ads exist specifically to bring these near-purchases back.
A shopper adds a jacket to their cart, sees a $15 shipping fee at checkout, and leaves - then returns two days later after receiving a "you left something behind" email with free shipping.
Why it matters
Recovering even a modest share of abandoned carts is usually cheaper than acquiring an entirely new customer, since the shopper already showed strong purchase intent.
Worth knowing
- Common triggers include surprise shipping costs, a forced account step, and slow checkout load speed.
- Abandonment emails sent within the first hour typically recover meaningfully more than a day later.
- Simplifying checkout to fewer steps is usually more effective long-term than recovery emails alone.
Start the conversation
Let's talk it through
Tell us where things stand with putting cart abandonment into practice and we'll respond with next steps, no forms, no waiting in a queue.
- A specialist replies directly, not a support queue
- Whichever channel is fastest for you, call, WhatsApp or email
- No long-term contract to start the conversation
