Carts people leave behind

Most carts are abandoned. Some of them you can do nothing about; a few you can.

Fix the causes first

Before sending a reminder, look at what the shopper met at checkout:

• A delivery price they only saw at the end.
• A payment method they do not use.
• An account they had to create.
• A total in a currency they did not expect.

A reminder about a cart someone left for one of those reasons just repeats the problem.

Reminders

One, a few hours later, is the one that works. A second, a day after, sometimes. A third is a complaint waiting to happen.

Say what is in the cart and link straight back to it. No pressure, no fake scarcity — if stock is genuinely low, say the number; if it is not, say nothing.

The rules

Contacting someone who did not complete an order means using their contact details for something they did not ask for. In many places that needs their consent, and always needs an easy way out.

Do not send a reminder to someone who has unsubscribed. Do not add them to a newsletter because they abandoned a cart.

What to check

• The reminder shows the right items and the link opens a cart with them in it.
• Unsubscribing works, first time.
• Nobody gets a reminder for an order they actually completed.