This article is about how to build an automation that starts when customers have left items in their shopping cart.
An effective way to avoid lost revenue, and consequently increase the conversion, is to remind the customers of the forgotten items a few hours or days after abandoning the cart. This strategy has been proven successful by many retailers—statistics show that these email reminders typically have an open rate of 50%, and usually 10% of customers come back to complete the purchase.
Before you get started
Entry criteria
For the automated communication to be relevant, you need to ensure that the right contacts are included in the automation. Thus, setting the entry criteria is an important aspect of building the automation.
Labels
Labels facilitate tracking the contacts and assigning them different communication. With labels you can segment on contacts that are in specific automation.
Trigger splits and time delays
A trigger split is useful when you want to make sure that activities within a workflow are triggered by certain actions such as a purchase. If the action isn’t performed, you can wait until a certain time has passed, for example seven days, before sending the customer forward in the automation.
This can be compared to a time delay, which simply postpones the next action with your chosen time regardless of the customers’ actions.
How it works
This automation is triggered when a customer leaves items in their shopping cart for a set period. The contact enters the flow, is labeled for tracking, and receives an email reminding them of the products they’ve forgotten. A trigger split then checks whether the customer completes the purchase within a selected time window. Customers who convert can receive a thank-you message and have their label removed, while those who don’t should receive a reminder and, if you want, a personal offer to encourage conversion. By combining behavioral triggers, time-based follow-ups, and optional incentives, the automation helps recover potentially lost revenue and gives you clear visibility into how many abandoned carts are successfully converted.
Setting it up
Flowchart
Trigger: Abandoned cart
Entry condition: Cart unchanged for a set time (for example 30–60 minutes)
Track: Set label such as Abandoned cart – 30–60 minutes
Message 1: Send abandoned cart email with product reminder
Check: Did the customer make a purchase within the selected window (for example 24 hours)?
- If yes: Send thank-you email and remove label
- If no: Assign promotion (optional) and send reminder email
Check again (optional): Did the customer purchase after the reminder?
End: Remove label
Step-by-step
1. Click Automation in the left-hand menu, hit New automation and select the trigger Abandoned cart.
2. Configure the entry criteria as desired by hovering on the trigger and clicking Edit (the pencil icon). Set:
- For how long the cart should have been unchanged, such as 30–60 minutes
- How the automation should manage products that were purchased after the cart was abandoned
- If the automation should be triggered based on a specific language
You could also set other criteria for which customers should enter the automation by toggling Other criteria.
3. Click the plus sign below the trigger, choose Activity, and select Set label. This facilitates tracking the contacts that have entered the flow. It could, for example, be Abandoned cart – 30-60 minutes.
4. Add an email by clicking the plus sign, select Activity and then Send email sendout. Either choose a ready-made email from the drop-down or click Create. Make sure that an Abandoned cart module is added to the email.
5. After the email is sent, click the plus sign and choose Trigger under Splits. Configure the trigger to check whether the customers make a purchase within a selected time window, for example 24 hours.
6. Customers who purchase can receive a thank-you email and have the label removed. Click the plus sign, Activity and Remove label. Customers who don’t purchase should receive a reminder, and perhaps a personal promotion to encourage conversion. Then add the promotion before the email reminder by clicking the plus sign, Activity, and Assign multichannel promotion.
7. If you want, you can add another trigger split to follow up on whether the customers purchase after the first reminder.
Remember to Save and Activate the automation to get it going.
Common mistakes to avoid
Forgetting to include an abandoned cart module in the email
Make sure your email contains an Abandoned cart module, otherwise the customer won’t see the products they left in their cart.
Setting the cart inactivity time too short
If the trigger is set to activate too quickly, customers who are still browsing may receive an unnecessary reminder. The recommended starting point is 30–60 minutes after the cart has been abandoned.
Not adding a purchase check after the reminder
Without a trigger split checking for purchases, customers who already completed their purchase may still receive reminder emails.
Forgetting to remove the label
If the label isn’t removed at the end of the flow, contacts may remain tagged as abandoned cart customers even after completing their purchase.
Article last reviewed