How it works
A shopper browses your store, adds a product to their cart and then leaves: they close the tab, get distracted or decide to think about it. The cart is "abandoned". Across online stores, roughly 70% of carts end this way, so it is normal to see a lot of them.
Abandoned cart vs abandoned checkout
The two terms are often used as if they mean the same thing, but there is a useful difference:
- Abandoned cart: the shopper added a product but never started checkout. You usually do not have their email.
- Abandoned checkout: the shopper started checkout and entered their email, then left. In Shopify, a checkout counts as abandoned after ten minutes. Because you have their email, you can send a reminder.
A quick example
Someone adds a $39 pet bed to their cart, goes to checkout, enters their email, sees $9 shipping and leaves. That is an abandoned checkout. An hour later, Shopify sends them a reminder email with a link back to their order.
Common causes
- Shipping costs or taxes that only appear at checkout
- Delivery times that are longer than expected
- Not trusting a new store yet
- Just browsing, or waiting until payday
- A missing payment method
Why it matters for a new store
Shoppers who abandon are your warmest leads: they already picked a product. Showing shipping cost and delivery time early stops many of them leaving, and a short reminder email brings back some of the rest. See our step-by-step guide to recovering abandoned checkouts on Shopify.
