Abandoned Cart Emails: Best Practices With Examples
Learn how to use abandoned cart emails to encourage your customers to follow through with their purchases and recover lost sales.
Abandoned Cart Email
Also known as: Cart Abandonment Email, Cart Recovery Email
An automated email that goes out when someone adds items to their cart but leaves without buying. These emails show what they left behind and usually include a direct link back to their cart. Most businesses send a series of 2-3 reminders over a few days, sometimes sweetening the deal with a discount or free shipping offer.
Why They Work
About 70% of online shopping carts get abandoned. That's a lot of almost-sales just sitting there. Cart abandonment emails can recover 10-30% of those lost sales. People abandon carts for all sorts of reasons - got distracted, had second thoughts about the price, wanted to compare options. A friendly reminder often gets them back.
Best Practices
- Send the first email within 1-3 hours while the purchase intent is still fresh
- Include clear product images of what they left behind
- Make the "complete purchase" button obvious and easy to click
- Address common objections like shipping costs or return policies
- Consider a series: reminder, urgency ("items selling fast"), then incentive
- Keep the tone helpful, not pushy
The key is timing and relevance. Strike while the iron is hot, but don't be annoying about it.
Related Terms
Browse Abandonment(Browse Abandonment Email)
Browse abandonment is when someone views products on your site but leaves without adding anything to their cart or buying. A browse abandonment email is an automated follow up that reminds them what they saw and invites them back.
Learn more →Triggered Email
A triggered email is a message your system sends automatically when someone does something specific, like signing up, leaving items in a cart, or reaching a milestone. It goes to one person based on their action instead of going to your whole list at a fixed time.
Learn more →Email Sequence(Email Series)
An email sequence is a planned set of emails that send automatically after someone takes a specific action, like signing up or buying. It helps you guide subscribers through a simple journey without sending every email by hand.
Learn more →Transactional Email(Transaction Email)
Transactional emails are automatic messages sent when someone does something on your site or app, like placing an order or resetting a password. They share the key details about what just happened so people are not left guessing.
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