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Abandoned Cart Flow

The Abandoned Cart Flow generates revenue by recovering sales of customers who didn’t complete the checkout process. By targeting high-intent visitors with timely reminders & incentives to drive urgency, this flow reduces your cart abandonment rate on your e-commerce store.

Abandoned Cart Flow

What’s An Abandoned Cart Flow?

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The Abandoned Cart Flow is a series of emails sent to shoppers who started the checkout process but didn't complete it. These shoppers not only added products to cart, but actually clicked the “Checkout” button on your site & may have started entering their shipping & billing info.

Some of these shoppers may be new to your brand while others may be returning customers exploring new items or thinking about repurchasing products they’ve already tried. This is one of the most important & highest ROI flows you can build for your DTC e-commerce store because these shoppers were so close to converting!

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# Of Emails: 4

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Flow Length: 3 days

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What’s the goal of an Abandoned Cart Flow?

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To get these shoppers who started checkout to complete their order which:

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  1. Reduces your abandoned cart rate & increases your website conversion rate
  2. Can increase your average order value (through recommending other products & using incentives)
  3. Gets potential customers to make their first purchase faster (i2. the amount of time it takes someone to go from being aware of the brand to becoming a customer)

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Abandoned Cart Flow Emails

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Email #1: Reminder Email

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A reminder of the products in their cart & additional information to remove buyer hesitation which can include:

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  1. Dynamic “Cart Contents” Block: This is the section of the email that dynamically shows the customer the names, images & price of the products they added to cart.
  2. “Complete Checkout” CTA in the header & below the dynamic “cart contents” block: Having a call-to-action (CTA) button here improves click rates to get shoppers back to the website.
  3. Key Brand USPs: Icons to remind customers of what makes your brand unique & why they should buy from you
  4. Reminders of free shipping, warranties or free returns: This helps reduce buyer friction

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Email #2: Reminder & Objection Email

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A reminder of the products in their cart along with some urgency & trust building content to remove buyer hesitation which can include: 

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  1. Dynamic “Cart Contents” Block: This is the section of the email that dynamically shows the customer the names, images & price of the products they added to cart.
  2. “Complete Checkout” CTA in the header & below the dynamic “cart contents” block: Having a call-to-action (CTA) button here improves click rates to get shoppers back to the website.
  3. Social Proof Reminders: This can include the # of 5-star reviews you’ve received, testimonials, before & after images, and user-generated content
  4. Recommendations for other products: This gives them other products they might like more
  5. FAQs to address common objections: This directly addresses common reasons they might be hesitant to purchase

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Email #3: Abandoned Cart Offer Announcement

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An email driving urgency with the announcement of an offer and/or through building credibility/trust. This can be:

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  1. A simple one-page email announcing the offer
  2. A simple email announcing the offer in the header with a dynamic “cart contents” block showing the products they started checkout on
  3. An FAQ-style email to address specific objections 
  4. A social proof focused email showing testimonials or UGC 
  5. An authority email showing product quality (eg. where the product/brand has been featured, key influencers that have endorsed it, PR coverage) 
  6. A product/brand education email on what makes the products/brand unique or how it’ll help them

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Email #4: Abandoned Cart Offer Last Chance

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An email driving urgency with the announcement that the offer is expiring soon and/or through social proof that your products work & are high quality. This can include:

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  1. A simple one-page email announcing the offer
  2. A simple email announcing the offer in the header with a dynamic “cart contents” block showing the products they started checkout on
  3. Social proof reminders (eg. “X” 5-star reviews, Testimonials, before/after images, UGC images) 
  4. 2-3 recommended products or collections 
  5. Reminders to remove buyer friction (eg.satisfaction guarantee, warranty reminders, free shipping, free returns) 
  6. Short icons or bullet points of key brand USPs (eg. gluten-free, vegan, sustainably made, ethically made)

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Emails in this sequence

💡 Expert Tip

Something I've seen amazing results with when working with brands that require more customer education is reaching out with a direct CTA to chat with customer service. Example: An email or SMS from the brand's director of CS offering to help with any questions the subscriber may have. The CTA links directly to a reply email, or SMS CTA is to reply with any questions instead of to the FAQ/contact page of site which is what most brands that offer CS in flows will do.

Elliot Kovac,

Retention Marketer

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