How To Setup Abandoned Cart In Shopify
Learn how to set up abandoned cart recovery in Shopify to increase sales and recover lost customers. Step-by-step guide to enable automated email reminders, customize recovery settings, and boost your store conversion rate with Shopify’s built-in marketing tools.
Did you know that out of every 10 people who visit an online store, 7 of them leave without finishing their purchase? That is a massive 70% of your potential revenue walking out the door!
If you aren’t actively trying to win those shoppers back, you are leaving serious money on the table. Luckily, you can fix this automatically by setting up an abandoned cart email campaign right inside Shopify.
If you tried looking for this setting recently, you might have noticed it’s completely gone from its old spot under Marketing Automations. Shopify changed things up, but don’t worry. In this quick guide, we’ll show you exactly where the new setting is hiding and how to get it running in just a few clicks.
The New Way to Find Abandoned Cart Settings in Shopify
Previously, setting up these recovery campaigns meant navigating to the “Marketing” tab. However, in the latest Shopify updates, that option is no longer there.
Here is how to find the new setup:
1. Log into your Shopify admin dashboard.
2. Click on the Search bar at the top of your screen.
3. Type in “Messaging” and click on the Messaging app.
This native messaging app comes automatically installed on all new Shopify stores. It handles your automation workflows without forcing you to pay for expensive third-party tools.
Step-by-Step: Turning on Abandoned Cart Automations
Once you are inside the Messaging app, launching your campaign takes less than a minute.
Step 1: Choose a Template Click on the Create Automation button. You will see a list of ready-to-use marketing templates, including options for browsing history, welcoming new subscribers, and recovering checkouts. Select Recover Abandoned Cart.
Step 2: Turn It On On the next screen, simply click Turn on Automation. Your campaign is now officially active!
Look Under the Hood: How the Workflow Operates
If you want to see exactly how this automation behaves, you can click on Edit Workflow. This opens up the visual backend step-by-step path managed by Shopify’s built-in automation system:
The Trigger:
- The workflow starts the moment a customer leaves your online store without purchasing the items they added to their cart.
The Wait Time:
- The system safely waits for 4 hours of total inactivity. This ensures you don’t annoy someone who is still actively browsing or thinking it over.
The Safety Checks:
- Before hitting send, Shopify automatically checks to make sure the customer hasn’t placed an order within those 4 hours or received any other marketing emails recently.
The Delivery:
- If all conditions are met, the dynamic recovery email is automatically delivered straight to their inbox.
Customizing Your Recovery Emails (Drag-and-Drop)
You don’t want to send a boring, generic email to your customers. By clicking the Edit Email option inside the last step of your workflow, you can easily tweak the design.
The editor is completely drag-and-drop. You can easily change text alignment, adjust background colors, and add clean borders to match your store’s branding.
The best part? The product section is completely dynamic. You don’t have to manually guess what they liked; Shopify automatically pulls the exact product images and details that the specific customer left behind, making the email highly personalized and much more likely to convert.
Don’t Forget Abandoned Checkouts!
While you are fixing your cart abandonment, make sure to also turn on the Recover Abandoned Checkout automation.
What is the difference?
- Abandoned Cart: A shopper added items to the cart but left before typing in any shipping or payment info.
- Abandoned Checkout: A shopper went all the way to the checkout page, typed in their details, but closed their browser right before hitting the final “Pay Now” button.
The abandoned checkout automation waits for 10 hours before sending a tailored reminder email asking them to finish their incomplete order. Having both of these workflows active covers all your bases and secures maximum revenue protection.
Final Thoughts
Setting up these basic safety nets is one of the easiest ways to scale your store’s conversions. Yet, shockingly, only about 10% to 15% of active merchants actually have these configured properly. Taking five minutes today to turn these on puts you way ahead of the competition.