Create and Automate Your Abandoned Cart Emails

Potential customers often add products or services to their online shopping cart, then leave a website without checking out. This is known as an "abandoned cart" or "abandoned checkout." Research shows that consumers abandon 84% of carts on mobile devices and 72% on computers. 

You can potentially recover some of these lost sales by sending cart recovery emails. This is a follow-up email that sends automatically to your customers within 24 hours of them abandoning their cart. This way, you can stay in touch while your store and the abandoned items are still fresh in shoppers’ minds.

What are the benefits of abandoned cart emails?

There are several benefits to sending automated abandoned checkout emails. Not only can they help boost your conversion rate (the number of customers who ultimately buy from your ecommerce store), they save you time as a business owner. 

• It’s an effective way to increase your revenue. The average amount of revenue earned per email recipient is over $6.00. 

• It will save time and allow you to focus on other aspects of your business.

• It’s an opportunity for you to upsell, cross-sell, or offer limited-time purchase incentives. Incentives could include discount codes, free shipping, or bonus products.

• It’s a great way to show your customers you care and promote customer loyalty.  

Follow these four steps to create and automate your abandoned checkout emails on Squarespace.

1. Write your email copy

There are several reasons a customer might abandon their cart, according to Baymard Institute. It might be because of high shipping or tax rates, wanting to compare other options, or simply getting distracted. Whatever the reason, it’s helpful to keep the various explanations in mind as you write your email. 

Lead with a strong subject line

Start by catching your customer’s attention with your email subject line. A good way to do this is to personalize it and make it as specific and enticing as possible. Here are a few examples:

• Did you see something you liked?

• [Customer name], still interested in the [name of product]?

• Don’t lose these deals—last chance to complete your purchase!

• [Customer name], still thinking it over?

Personalized emails, especially if they’re customized to the customer’s cart, can help increase the open rate for your messages. They not only create a sense of urgency but can make a potential customer feel like you value their business.

Be friendly and persuasive

It’s always a good idea to start the body of your email with a friendly greeting or eye-catching sentence. The tone should be on brand for your online store, and the message should be easy to understand and to the point. Sometimes humor can be effective if it fits your brand's voice. 

You could also include a few of these items:

• A testimonial/review: These act as social proof—proof that an actual person got value out of a product. This can also create a fear of missing out (FOMO) on popular items. 

• FAQs: If there are common questions or hesitations about a specific product or type of product, address those in the email.

• Coupon codes: Customers could be more likely to convert if you offer a one-time discount along with your cart reminder, especially if they abandoned due to shipping costs.

• Product highlights: Like reviews, highlighting the value of a product can activate some FOMO.

• Return policy: Reassure potential customers that even if they don’t love what they order, returns to your ecommerce store are simple and painless.  

• Customer support contact: Include this contact information in case specific questions are keeping someone from making a purchase.

Abandoned cart email examples

Here are some abandoned checkout email examples to help you get started.

1. Thanks for visiting our store! We noticed that you didn’t complete your order, and wanted to offer some help. Revisit your shopping cart by clicking the button below. If you have any questions about our company or products, email us at [email protected]. 

2. Hey [customer’s name], we know life can be hectic. There’s a lot going on, and it’s easy to forget about your shopping cart, even when it’s full of great items. We’ve saved the [product name], just click the link below to complete your order. If you have any questions, email us at [email protected].  

Note: The examples above are not legal advice or templates. Your abandoned cart email strategy is up to you as the business owner, but these tips are a useful starting point.

2. Customize the abandoned cart email

It’s also important to think of your abandoned cart emails as part of your marketing strategy. Customize the abandoned cart email design to match the tone and style of your site. Include:

• Header and footer with similar fonts and colors to your website 

• Product image matching one or all of the abandoned items

• Your business logo

• Noticeable call-to-action (CTA) button, such as an Add to cart button, that links to their cart so they can complete the checkout process

In Squarespace Commerce, you’ll need to customize your email before turning on the abandoned checkout recovery feature.

1. Open the Cart & checkout panel 

2. Under Abandoned checkout recovery, click Customize email.

3. Click Edit email to start customizing your abandoned checkout email. 

In the top-right corner of the screen, there are two tabs. Click on the Email tab to add the subject of your email and the email preview text. Click on the Style tab to access Global Email Styles and edit things like colors, font, padding, and more.  

While editing the abandoned checkout email, click in a text box to enter your copy. You can edit the text in the header, body, and footer of the email. 

The product details and image populate automatically and can't be edited. However, you can style the product details and the CTA button in the Global Email Styles panel. 

3. Send a test email

To ensure your abandoned checkout recovery emails look great in a real inbox, send yourself a test email. To do that on Squarespace, click Send Test in the bottom-right corner of the screen while on the Email tab.  

View it across multiple devices, and check for readability, typos, and properly working links. Make sure any visuals appear as you’d want them to. Finally, try to put yourself in the shoes of a customer and think about whether your email would get you to revisit your shopping cart.

4. Turn on abandoned checkout recovery

Abandoned cart emails are automated so that they go out in a timely manner. After you finalize your abandoned checkout recovery email, turn on the abandoned cart email feature. Here’s how to do that on Squarespace:

1. Open the Cart & checkout panel

2. Switch the toggle on beside Abandoned checkout recovery

Now customers logged into their customer account will automatically receive an abandoned checkout notification if they abandon a cart with at least one product in stock. Other customers will receive an automated email if all of these are true:

• They enter an email address in the first checkout field

• At least one product in their cart is in stock

• They close the checkout page without completing the purchase

The email is sent within 24 hours of the customer abandoning their cart. Customers can unsubscribe from abandoned checkout emails by clicking Opt out at the bottom of the email. This link and text can’t be removed or customized.

Some business owners send more than one abandoned cart email to customers. It’s up to you whether you want to set up a full email sequence for abandoned shopping carts. You can also test sending more than one email and scale back if it doesn’t boost your sales.

Check out more email automation tips