Sometimes a customer adds products to their cart, proceeds to checkout, and disappears. While it's impossible to bring the abandoned checkout rate down to zero — one of e-commerce's most familiar challenges — the right setup can significantly reduce it. Here are 5 strategies you can implement right now in your Shopify store to lower your abandoned checkout rate.
1. Enable the Abandoned Checkout Automation in Shopify
Shopify records the event as an "abandoned checkout" when a customer enters their email address but doesn't complete the payment, and it can automatically send a recovery email. This feature only works on the Online Store and Buy Button channels.
Setup steps:
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Go to Shopify Admin > Marketing > Automations.
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Find the Abandoned checkout emails by Shopify automation, then click Show actions > Edit settings.
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Enable the Send abandoned checkout emails automatically option.
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Configure Send to (which visitor group to send to) and Send after (how many minutes/hours before triggering).
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Save.
This single step alone allows you to automatically recover a portion of customers who abandon their checkout in your Shopify store.
2. Strengthen Recovery Emails with a "Reminder + Incentive" Combination
Adding a discount to recovery emails is one of the most common and effective ways to increase return rates. You can do this in two ways in your Shopify store:
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If you're using the new automation experience: You can customize the email content through the automation and add a discount message directly.
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If you're using the legacy template: Go to Shopify Admin > Settings > Notifications > Abandoned checkout. By appending ?discount=CODE to the end of the checkout link, the discount code will be applied automatically.
Note: Even if you add a discount code, the message "a discount has been applied" is not automatically written to the customer — you need to add this text to the template yourself. Also, avoid special characters in the discount code; otherwise, it may not be appended to the URL correctly.
3. Regularly Review Abandoned Checkouts in Your Shopify Store to Find the "Why"
One of the fastest ways to reduce abandoned checkout rate in Shopify is to understand why customers aren't completing their orders. The Orders > Abandoned checkouts screen in Shopify Admin provides direct data on this.
Common root causes include payment errors, shipping not being available to the delivery address, and out-of-stock products. Regularly checking this screen to see which issues repeat and how often helps you prioritize what to fix first.
Note: Abandoned checkouts older than one month are automatically deleted from Shopify Admin. For this reason, it's important to develop a habit of reviewing the data at regular intervals.
4. Reduce "Email Not Sent" Scenarios
Cases where the recovery email is never sent actually inflate abandoned checkout metrics in practice — yet this situation is difficult to notice. Shopify does not send an email under certain conditions:
If the customer entered only a phone number instead of an email, if a transaction error occurred during checkout, if shipping is not supported to the selected address, or if the products in the cart are unavailable for purchase (for example, out of stock), the email will not be sent.
For this reason, regularly monitoring the notes in the Abandoned checkouts screen and keeping shipping zones and stock statuses up to date removes technical barriers that prevent emails from reaching customers. Catching early that the problem stems from infrastructure rather than the email itself makes a big difference.
5. Set Up Separate Recovery Flows for Cart and Checkout in Shopify
Visitors who add products to their cart but don't proceed to checkout are not the same audience as those who reach checkout but don't complete the order. Sending the same message to both groups means neither is being targeted well enough.
With Shopify Flow and automation tools, you can set up two separate flows:
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Recover abandoned cart: A marketing email for those who added products to their cart but never proceeded to the checkout page. This audience may not have finalized their purchase decision yet — a product reminder or social proof works well at this stage.
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Recover abandoned checkout: A reminder email sent after a set period of time for those who reached checkout but didn't complete the order at the final step. Since this audience is a much warmer segment, a direct incentive (such as a discount or free shipping) tends to be more effective.
Sending the right message at the right stage both increases conversion rate and reduces unnecessary discount costs.
Start Reducing Your Abandoned Checkout Rate in Shopify
Setting up Shopify's built-in tools correctly is the fastest way to significantly lower your abandoned checkout rate without purchasing any additional apps. At Byte, we support you in building your Shopify store's automation and conversion infrastructure end-to-end. Feel free to reach out for our Shopify development services.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need an additional app to send abandoned checkout emails?
No. Shopify provides the abandoned checkout email automation natively. You can activate it from the Marketing > Automations menu.
Does a recovery email have to include a discount code?
No, but adding a discount generally increases the return rate. An incentive aimed at warm audiences who didn't complete checkout typically pays for itself.
How long does Shopify store abandoned checkouts?
Records older than one month are automatically deleted from Shopify Admin. It's recommended that you review or export the data regularly.
What is the difference between cart abandonment rate and checkout abandonment rate?
Cart abandonment rate refers to visitors who add products to their cart but never proceed to checkout. Checkout abandonment rate refers to those who reach the checkout page but don't complete the order. Both point to different motivations and should be addressed with different messages.
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