The abandoned cart flow is a handy little automation to set up.
It runs in the background, reclaiming “almost-there” lost sales and raising your revenue without much work.
However, many brands treat the abandoned cart flow as a mere “reminder” flow… and it’s costing them a LOT of easy revenue.
One “you left something behind” email isn’t enough. Especially when tons of brands do just that. Giving your abandoned cart some love can set you apart and plug that “revenue leak.”
This article explains why most abandoned cart flows fail, then dives into 7 fixes to recover more sales and create more happy customers.
| Table of Contents |
| Why Abandoned Cart Flows Fail The 7 Fixes Your Abandoned Cart (and Checkout) Flow Needs Recover More Sales With Your Abandoned Cart What To Do Next |
Why Abandoned Cart Flows Fail
Many brands just use their email service provider’s (ESP) default templated sequence. Others may throw together 2-3 emails saying “Hey, you forgot this.”
They set that up and rarely, if ever, touch it again.
Fair. It is one of the most crucial sequences given the “low-hanging fruit” it addresses. So it seems anything will do.
Yet such a copy +pasted attempt at this flow is typically at least one (and often more) of these:
- Too short
- Too boring
- Lacking in education/persuasion
That quick, templated flow is certainly better than nothing. But it’s missing a WHOLE lot of sales…
And possibly training your audience to ignore other email follow-ups.
Giving your abandoned cart (and checkout) flows a bit of extra love could cause a nice uptick in automated sales.
The 7 Fixes Your Abandoned Cart (and Checkout) Flow Needs
Broken or low-performing abandoned carts aren’t that hard to fix. You just have to know where the leaks are and what fills them.
Here are six mistakes and their relevant fixes — showing you how to turn more of those “almost-customers” into buyers.
Stop Sending Instantly
Some brands set their abandoned carts/checkouts to fire IMMEDIATELY after the triggering event — adding to cart or reaching checkout.
This hampers your efforts because it pulls customers off the site while they’re still shopping. They don’t NEED a reminder email.
It also feels spammy and desperate to some. Like you’re throwing everything at them to make a sale instead of creating a seamless customer experience.
Oh, and it’ll artificially prop up email revenues.
Customers who never intended to abandon may click the email and then buy. Your software might credit the email with the sale even if the email didn’t actually help (it might’ve slowed the sale and caused hesitation).
So you’ll have bad data — and I’ve heard some not-so-reputable copywriters and marketers do this to make themselves look good (so look out).
The fix:
In general, have the flow fire after 1-2 hours of the triggering event. It’s enough time to let them shop and abandon… but not so long that they forget.
Some brands may be better off with something as short as 30 minutes. That’s usually simpler, lower-priced products that don’t require as much consideration.
Exclude and Filter Properly
Setting and forgetting an abandoned cart flow without proper filtering and other logic can lead to a messy customer experience.
For example, customers might receive your broadcast emails alongside the abandoned cart emails. Now they’re getting excessive and irrelevant emails.
Or perhaps they’re getting your welcome and abandoned cart flows simultaneously. Same problem.
These also make it harder to tell what’s actually driving the sale. A broadcast might get credit for something the abandoned cart did the heavy lifting for… meaning you have less accurate data.
The fix:
First, add a flow filter that excludes customers who have been in your abandoned cart flow in the past 30 days.
This ensures they don’t get hit with the same emails (and possibly get another discount opportunity) if they abandon their cart again soon after.
Next, set up flow filters that remove people who have:
- Reached checkout (for abandoned carts, since you’d want to trigger abandoned checkout next)
- Completed their order
This ensures they stop receiving the flow when it’s no longer relevant.
Finally, create a “flow exclusions” segment for your broadcast list. This segment should entail anyone who is in your abandonment flows, welcome flow, etc.
You’ll then “exclude” this segment from your broadcast sends.
Add More Emails
A lot of abandoned carts stop after 1-2 lonely little reminders. If the customer doesn’t buy after those, it’s over.
Look, customers can abandon for many reasons:
- Price uncertainty
- Comparison shopping
- Being unsure if this is the product they need
- Distractions (someone rang the doorbell, for example)
Two emails might not be enough. Customers might click through on both and be closer, but still not ready.
Oh, and customers might miss a couple of your emails. And so they may not even see your entire abandonment flow!
The fix:
I recommend 3-4 emails at a BARE minimum. It’s enough to catch most customers who may otherwise miss the emails or not be ready yet.
That said, anything beyond low-cost impulse buys deserves 5-6 emails. You’ll need more ammo to overcome the uncertainties, distractions, and so on.
Which leads us to the next fix…
Educate and Address Objections (Don’t Just Remind)
“You left something behind!”
BORING.
Yet I’ve received this exact email from a dozen brands. I think it’s the default template Klaviyo offers.
3 of these, or even 5, is NOT going to drive as many sales you’d like. Remember, customers abandon for many reasons — not just forgetting to complete their order.
So there’s no reason for the customer to return unless they truly did just “forget” (and even then it’s not strong). You’re merely pointing at their cart and telling them it’s there.
The fix:
Educate, inform, and overcome objections with the abandoned cart.
Why do customers need your product now? How does it help them? What makes it better than competitors?
If it’s an abandoned checkout, they may have pricing or shipping hangups. Is there a guarantee? Why is my code not working? Is my payment info secure?
If you have only 1 real product, you can get specific about its benefits and why it beats the competition.
If you have many kinds, you can get more into what makes your brand — or, rather, products in general — better than others.
For example, I beefed up a meal kit company’s abandoned cart flow by adding some emails targeting common pain points and explaining the ordering process.
And then in the earlier emails, I fleshed out the benefits of the products and the service more.
The result?
2.5x the sales, around 2.2x the revenue.
Make Finishing Their Order Easy
Friction kills sales. The more work it takes to finish their order — no matter how small any given step is — the less likely they will do so.
So don’t send them to the home page or a generic product page. The only time you would do this is if you empty their cart as an urgency tactic (more on that in the next section) since, well, their cart is empty.
The fix:
Send them directly to their cart.
If you can prefill any relevant info (shipping, email address, etc.), you’ll reduce friction further and save them some time.
Make sure the cart loads super fast, too. If it takes even a few seconds, you’ll see a big drop-off.
And finally, make the actual ordering process at this stage as easy and clear as possible. We’re getting a bit into UI, but UI matters when it comes to selling. Some simple UI changes could recover plenty of extra carts.
Implement Legitimate Urgency
Legitimate urgency can shake some people off the fence and recover a few carts.
The keyword here is “legitimate.”
The obvious example is claiming “limited stock” for digital products. No, you don’t have a limited number of your online course!
But this also applies to physical products.
Don’t claim that your product is explicitly almost out of stock if it’s not. Don’t say that some deal is ending soon if that’s not true.
This might “work” in the short term if you can fool customers, but you’ll only hurt yourself and wreck their trust.
The fix:
Implement real urgency. Some of this depends on framing.
For instance, no need to lie and say “only 2 left!” If you have a popular product that goes out of stock sometimes, you can say “this sells out often, so please finish your order now.”
Another example would be to appeal to customer fairness. “We’re holding your items for you, but we have to empty your cart in 48 hours out of fairness to other customers.” This goes along with the “runs out of inventory” reason.
Same with discounts. If you use these in your flow, hit that urgency. Tell customers they only have X days to use it or it’s gone.
One more tactic could be shipping times. “Complete your order by midnight to get your products by XYZ day.”
Escalate the urgency across the flow so it’s not sudden. Start with a gentle reminder, and get more urgent as days pass.
Use Incentives Strategically
Some brands hand out discounts like candy in their abandonment flows. However, this just trains discount-seeking behavior, devalues your products, and eats into your margins.
Think about it:
Customers who get a discount offer almost immediately will just wait for the next discount. Now you have less margin per sale AND compromised cash flows.
Discounts are best used immediately in welcome flows when you have a discount lead magnet, and that first sale is crucial. Afterwards? You’ll have to think strategically…
The fix:
Try to recover the sale without a discount or other incentive first. Value, urgency, objection-busting, product education, etc.
This will help you recover some full-margin sales, resulting in more profits.
Only introduce the discount later in the flow (since you’ll ideally have 5-6 emails). At that point, if nothing else has worked, you’d rather
Recover More Sales With Your Abandoned Cart
Cart abandonment flows (and checkout abandonment flows) should NOT just be reminders. That leaves money on the table. Customers don’t feel a reason to buy, or they ignore your emails… or even miss them.
Done right, they educate, overcome objections, and entertain — all of which raise your chance of closing each sale.
Fixing yours doesn’t necessarily require a total rebuild, though. Apply these fixes and you’ll recover more carts…
Meaning more revenue on the daily.
What To Do Next
- Share this article with someone who might find it helpful (or entertaining).
- Get my free eBook using the form below to learn the 5 things stopping you from turning “one-and-done” customers into repeat buyers.
- Reach out to me if you have a sizable email list and make less than 20% of your revenue through email.