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Abandoned cart recovery
You’re shopping online for a new product. You find the ideal item, add it to your cart, and then get distracted. Maybe you get a text. Perhaps it’s a phone call. Maybe you simply lose interest and move on. Either way, it’s doubtful you’ll return to that store. This scenario is too familiar for eCommerce store owners, who lose nearly three-quarters of all online transactions to abandoned carts. Abandoned cart recovery is a method for bringing these lost sales back. Learning about it and how to improve it will boost your bottom line and help you overcome the challenges of running an eCommerce business. This article will help you understand abandoned cart recovery and get you started. We'll cover what it is, how it works, and ways to improve your recovery rate.
Instant’s Shopify product page builder can help you recover lost sales by improving your product pages. Better product pages mean fewer distractions and higher conversions when shoppers return to complete their purchases.
Table of Contents
What is abandoned cart recovery?
Abandoned cart recovery re-engages online shoppers who leave items in their shopping carts without completing a purchase. Cart abandonment occurs when a customer begins checkout but doesn’t finalize the transaction. Abandoned cart recovery strategies focus on both prevention and intervention. Making the checkout process seamless can help minimize the chances of abandonment before it happens. At the same time, if customers leave without purchasing, targeted follow-ups such as:
Emails
Text messages
Personalized offers
Can encourage them to return and complete their order.
How to effectively recover abandoned carts
To effectively recover lost sales, businesses implement strategies at different stages of the checkout process. Before checkout, improving site navigation, offering multiple payment options, and being upfront about shipping costs helps prevent abandonment. During checkout, features like:
Autofill
Guest checkout
Progress indicators
Reduce friction and keep customers moving toward completion. If a customer still abandons their cart, post-abandonment strategies such as:
Reminder emails
exclusive discounts
Retargeting ads
It can help bring them back. Many eCommerce platforms provide automation tools that send timely abandoned cart messages and track checkout performance, making it easier to recover lost sales.
Why is abandoned cart recovery important?
Recovering abandoned carts is a priority for online businesses because it’s one of the most cost-effective ways to increase revenue. Customers who abandon their carts already show interest in the product. They’re far more likely to complete the purchase than someone who has never engaged with the brand. Re-engaging these potential buyers requires less effort and resources than acquiring new customers. Abandoned cart recovery is a highly efficient strategy for boosting conversions and maximizing profitability.
Why customers abandon their carts without checking out
Cart abandonment is a universal pain point for eCommerce stores. Almost all online retailers (about 90%) experience it, regardless of industry or size. Research shows that on average, 69.57% of online shoppers who add items to a digital cart leave without completing their purchase. Even if you reduce this number by sending targeted emails to recover lost sales, you’ll unlikely eliminate cart abandonment. Instead, you should aim to understand why it happens and reduce it as much as possible.
How to reduce the abandoned cart rate on your store
Unexpected costs are the top reason online shoppers abandon carts. To combat this, businesses should be upfront about pricing and offer free shipping or discounts when possible.
Speed Up the Checkout Process to Reduce Abandoned Carts
Optimizing the checkout experience is crucial in keeping customers engaged. A complicated or lengthy checkout process can frustrate shoppers and push them away. To streamline the process, businesses should minimize the required steps, enable autofill for returning customers, and include clear progress indicators. Mobile optimization is also essential, as many shoppers use their phones to browse and make purchases. Ensuring a seamless experience across all devices prevents unnecessary friction that could lead to abandonment. Trust signals, such as secure payment badges and clear return policies, also help reassure customers and boost confidence in their purchase decision.
Recover Abandoned Carts With Email Reminders and Retargeting Ads
If customers leave without completing their purchase, an effective abandoned cart recovery strategy can bring them back. Automated emails or SMS reminders with personalized messaging can encourage them to complete their order. Including limited-time discounts, free shipping offers, or showcasing product benefits can add an extra incentive. Retargeting ads on social media and search engines also keeps products at the top of people's minds, increasing the likelihood of conversion. By combining proactive checkout optimizations with strategic follow-ups, businesses can reduce cart abandonment and improve their overall sales performance.
Optimize your Shopify store for conversions without breaking the bank with Instant's Shopify product page builder
Instant is a user-friendly Shopify product page builder that allows eCommerce teams and agencies to create fully customizable and advanced pages without any coding knowledge. With its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, users can quickly design and publish high-converting:
Landing pages
Blog posts
Product pages
Sections
All while maintaining complete control over their store's design. Instant also offers seamless integration with Figma and other eCommerce tools, making it a versatile choice for enhancing online store performance and increasing conversions. Try Instant's Shopify product page builder today!