How to Handle Abandoned Carts on Shopify: Effective Recovery Strategies

09 avril, 2025

One of the biggest challenges Shopify store owners deal with today is cart abandonment. Let's say a shopper browsing an online store, adding items to the cart—and left your site without finishing the order. It's a familiar situation—and sure, it can be annoying.

But here's the fix: with the right strategy, many of those lost sales can actually be recovered. Let's take a look at how:

Why Do Shoppers Abandon Their Carts?

Before jumping into recovery strategies, it's important to understand the reasons behind cart abandonment. Common causes include:

Unexpected shipping costs
Complicated checkout process
No guest checkout option
Slow website loading
Lack of trust or payment options
Distractions or second thoughts

After you know why it occurs, it's simpler to repair and recover lost sales.

Best Techniques to Recover Abandoned Carts in Shopify

1. Turn On Shopify's Abandoned Checkout Emails

Shopify has an integrated feature that allows sending automated emails to customers who abandon items in their carts. You can personalize these emails with:

A polite reminder
A cart abandonment list
A discount or reward (optional)
A powerful call-to-action

Tip: Time it right—send the first email within 1 to 3 hours of abandonment for the best chances of recovery.

2. Utilize Third-Party Recovery Apps

Recovery apps such as Klaviyo, Omnisend, or ReConvert enable advanced automation, personalization, and multi-channel recovery (emails, SMS, push notifications). With them, you can:

Design email flows
Insert dynamic product blocks
Trigger behavior-driven follow-ups

3. Include a Wishlist Feature

Sometimes consumers aren't quite ready to buy just yet—they're looking, comparing, or holding out for an even better bargain. That's where a wishlist is useful.

By enabling customers to save the items they like, you:

Provide them with a convenient means of coming back later
Understand which products are hot or most often saved
Make informed, targeted campaigns based on wishlist behavior
Construct customer loyalty and enhance lifetime value

Pro Tip: Leverage a wishlist app such as Wishlist Club that seamlessly integrates with Shopify and allows guest users, email reminders, and even back-in-stock or price drop alerts.

A wishlist functions as a "soft cart" and can be an incredibly effective component of your recovery strategy—particularly when combined with email or SMS follow-ups.

4. Retarget with Facebook & Instagram Ads

Use Shopify's native Meta integration or Facebook Pixel to re-target abandoned cart users and engage them with dynamic product ads on Facebook and Instagram.

Re-present them with the same products they abandoned and invite them to return.

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5. Provide a Time-Sensitive Offer

Create scarcity with an offer that is limited in time within your email or ad campaigns, e.g., Oops! You left something behind. Come back within 24 hours and get 10% off your order.

This tactic is perfect for encouraging hesitant buyers.

6. Streamline the Checkout Experience

Streamline the checkout process as much as possible:

Allow guest checkout
Provide multiple payment methods (Shop Pay, PayPal, etc.)
Autofill fields and minimize steps
Display shipping fees and delivery times clearly

Less friction = more completed purchases.

7. Leverage Web Push Notifications

Web push is a great way to re-engage visitors who didn’t leave their email addresses. Tools like PushOwl or Firepush can send timely cart reminders directly to their browsers—even if they’re not on your site.

8. Live Chat Support

Sometimes, customers abandon carts due to unanswered questions or doubts. Add a live chat tool like Chatty AI Chatbot & Live Chat or Willdesk to offer real-time assistance during the decision-making process.

9. Follow Up with SMS Messages

SMS boasts a high open rate and is ideal for time-critical recovery. Programs such as Postscript can be used to automate the following messages:

Hi, you left something behind! Finish your order now and get 15% off.

Make sure you have permission to send texts to avoid violating privacy legislation.

10. Get Emails Early

Use exit-intent popups or spin-the-wheel games to get email addresses at the beginning of the shopping process. That way, even when a user drops their cart, you have an opportunity to follow up.

11. Test and Optimize

Monitor your recovery rates and test various strategies:

A/B test email subject lines
Test different send times
Test incentives
Monitor open and click-through rates

Shopify and email marketing apps offer in-depth analytics to inform data-driven decisions.

Final Thoughts

Abandoned carts don't have to equal lost sales. Using the right blend of email, ads, pop-ups, and customer support, you can recapture a lot of those missed purchases. Begin by turning on Shopify's built-in recovery emails and build on that with additional sophisticated strategies as you scale.