Recovering abandoned shopping carts in an online store.

On average, 70% of customers add items to their cart and leave without making a purchase – data from the Baymard Institute has confirmed for years that cart abandonment is one of the biggest e-commerce problems. For online stores, this translates into a significant loss: a product was selected, the customer was close to completing the order, and the transaction was never completed.

This article explains why customers abandon carts and how to recover abandoned carts without breaking the bank. Here, you’ll find proven methods for recovering lost sales – from a well-crafted email, through optimizing the checkout process, to marketing automation and personalization. Recovering abandoned carts is one of the most cost-effective ways to increase revenue because you’re working with customers who have already demonstrated purchase intent. If you run an online store, every recovered cart represents revenue you almost already had.

Cart abandonment is a situation in which a customer adds items to their cart but doesn’t complete the transaction. The user demonstrated clear purchasing intent – ​​they completed several steps of the shopping journey – yet didn’t complete the order. This distinguishes cart abandonment from simply browsing. The scale of the phenomenon is impressive. The cart abandonment rate in e-commerce remains at around 70%, meaning that seven out of ten customers with products in their carts leave without making a purchase.

The good news is that a customer who has added products to their cart is much closer to making a purchase than a casual visitor. Recovering abandoned carts therefore requires working with people with high purchase intent, which yields significantly better results than acquiring completely new traffic.

The most common cause of shopping cart abandonment is unexpected costs that appear at the end of the shopping journey. Customers only see shipping costs, taxes, and additional fees at checkout, are surprised, and abandon the cart. Transparent information about shipping costs at an early stage significantly reduces cart abandonment rates.

The second group of causes is a complicated shopping process. An overly long form, forced account creation, the lack of a preferred payment method, or a poorly functioning mobile checkout – each of these factors increases cart abandonment. The more clicks a user has to make to complete a purchase, the greater the risk of abandonment.

It’s important to remember that some abandonment is natural. Customers compare prices, postpone their decision, or test the value of their cart with a view to a future purchase. Therefore, the goal is not to reduce the rate to zero, but to win back those customers who can still be encouraged to complete the transaction.

We calculate the cart abandonment rate by dividing the number of completed transactions by the number of carts created, and subtracting the result from 1. If 30 purchases were made out of 100 carts, the rate is 70%. This is the fundamental metric from which every online store sales optimization begins.

It’s worth using Google Analytics to measure this, as it allows you to track where customers most often abandon their carts along the shopping journey. Often, it turns out that the problem isn’t with the cart itself, but with a specific step of the checkout process—for example, the shipping information form or the payment method selection.

Industry reports such as “50 Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics” or “Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics 2026” provide a good benchmark. They allow you to compare your results with the average for a given category and assess whether the cart abandonment rate in your store is a real problem or falls within the market norm.

Yes – and it’s one of the most effective ways to recover lost sales. Emails reminding about abandoned products reach customers who have already demonstrated purchase intent, so conversion from such emails is significantly higher than from traditional newsletters.

Sending time is crucial. It’s best to send the first abandoned cart reminder email about an hour after abandoning the cart, while the customer is still aware of the product. A second email after about a day and possibly a third after a few days creates a sequence that gradually encourages the customer to return, without being pushy.

The prerequisite for this to work is, of course, having the customer’s email address. Therefore, it’s worth designing the shopping process so that the address appears as early as possible – for example, as the first step in the checkout process. Without this, you won’t be able to build an effective email-based cart recovery campaign.

An effective abandoned cart email starts with a clear message and shows the specific products the customer abandoned. An image, name, and price provide an immediate reminder of the intended purchase, and a clear CTA leads directly to completing the transaction. The fewer clicks between the customer and their cart, the better.

The content should be short and to the point. A simple reminder works better than an extensive marketing message. Social proof works well – information that the product is popular or that there’s only a few left – and a subtle hint that the cart is only available for a limited time.

A discount or rebate should be treated as the last argument, not the first. If you offer a code right away, you’re teaching customers to abandon their carts in anticipation of the sale. It’s better to remind them first and help them complete their purchase, and only then, if there’s no response, consider an additional incentive in a subsequent message.

The cheapest way to win back sales is to prevent abandonment. Checkout optimization and good user experience remove the friction that pushes users off the shopping journey. A shortened form, a checkout without creating an account, and a clear checkout button directly reduce cart abandonment rates.

Mobile devices require special attention. An increasing number of transactions begin on a phone, and a poorly designed cart on a small screen can undermine all marketing efforts. Large form fields, fast payment methods, and a minimal number of steps are now standard, not a luxury.

It’s also important to limit surprises. Displaying shipping and tax costs early, clear information about the shipping date, and a visible cart value build trust. A customer who knows how much they’ll pay from the start is much less likely to abandon their cart at the final step.

Marketing automation is a communication automation that automatically triggers a sequence of emails when a customer abandons their cart. You don’t have to manually monitor every instance – the system detects abandonment and sends the appropriate message at the right time. This allows you to rescue abandoned carts on a large scale.

Automation also allows for personalization. Email content can be tailored to specific products in the cart, customer history, or order value. Personalized messaging works better than mass email because it captures the true purchasing intent of a specific user.

A well-built marketing automation scenario combines multiple channels. Email is the foundation, but it can be supplemented with push notifications or in-app messages. This creates a cohesive process in which abandoned cart recovery works in the background and consistently increases conversions.

Not every customer leaves an email address, so remarketing complements email campaigns. Ads displayed on the Display Network and social media remind people who have added products to their carts but not provided contact information about their abandoned carts. This is a way to recover abandoned carts and customers outside the email inbox.

The power of remarketing lies in its precision. You can target messages only to users who have reached the cart and show them the exact products they viewed. This marketing message reaches people with high purchase intent, so the cost of recovering a single transaction can be low.

Remarketing works best when combined with email and automation. A customer who sees consistent reminders in multiple places is more likely to return to complete their order. It’s important to avoid overdoing it with frequency – overly intrusive ads can discourage customers rather than encourage them.

The most common mistake is communicating too late or too infrequently. If the first email about an abandoned cart goes out after a few days, the customer has already purchased from a competitor or lost interest. Lacking a sequence and relying on a single message wastes the potential of recovering abandoned carts.

The second mistake is ignoring the causes of abandonment. Sending emails makes sense, but if customers abandon their carts due to a complicated checkout process or hidden shipping costs, reminders alone aren’t enough. Optimization and UX must be worked on simultaneously; otherwise, you’re treating the symptoms, not the cause.

The third mistake is lack of measurement. Without tracking cart abandonment rates in Google Analytics and testing email content, you’re working in the dark. Good customer service, clear messaging, and regular CTA testing allow you to gradually improve results instead of guessing what’s working.

Is it worth offering a discount right away? Not necessarily. The first reminder should be based on the product itself and the convenience of completing the purchase. Save the discount for when a customer doesn’t respond to previous messages – otherwise, you’ll teach them to abandon their carts for the discount.

How many emails should you send? A sequence of two or three messages usually works: a quick reminder an hour after the cart abandonment, a second message 24 hours later, and possibly a third with an additional incentive. More than three emails tend to tire the recipient and reduce effectiveness.

Is it possible to win back a customer without their email address? Yes, that’s exactly what remarketing on display and social media is for. It’s a good complement when a user hasn’t left their contact information and you still want to remind them about abandoned products.

Do you want to implement effective abandoned cart recovery in your store? At redPin, we help small and medium-sized businesses increase e-commerce sales – from email sequence configuration and marketing automation, through remarketing on display and social media, to checkout and UX optimization. As partners with Google and Shopify, we combine SEO, social media, and e-commerce activities into one cohesive process that truly improves conversions. Contact us and see how much revenue you can recover.