Abandoned cart email examples: timing, copy and how many to send

What counts as an abandoned cart email?#

An abandoned cart email is an automatic message sent to a shopper who added products to their cart, or started checkout, and left without paying. About 7 in 10 online carts are abandoned: the Baymard Institute puts the average at 70.22% across 50 studies.

There are two triggers, and the difference decides who you can reach:

In Shopify, a checkout counts as abandoned when it stays incomplete for more than ten minutes after the shopper gives their email. Klaviyo's pre-built flows use the checkout trigger. Run both triggers as separate flows, and add the filter "Started Checkout zero times since starting this flow" to the cart flow so nobody gets both.

Every flow also needs one exit rule: anyone who places an order leaves the flow. In Klaviyo that is the filter "Placed Order zero times since starting this flow." A shopper who has paid and still gets "you forgot something" stops trusting the store.

How many abandoned cart emails should you send?#

Send two or three. The first two do most of the work: a first email 2 to 4 hours after checkout starts and a second one 20 to 48 hours later. If the shopper ignores two or three emails, a third sales email is unlikely to help. Make the last message about related or best-selling products, or end the flow.

If you are starting from nothing, launch with two emails before Black Friday and add the third once the first two are sending cleanly.

When should each email go out?#

Klaviyo's pre-built flow waits 4 hours before the first message. If your store syncs data to Klaviyo slowly, keep the first delay at 1 hour 15 minutes or more. Then the email does not go out before an order has had time to register.

Shopify's own automation uses a 10 hour wait by default when you add a second abandoned checkout automation. That is slower than the window above, so check the wait time in your admin rather than trusting the default.

Abandoned cart email examples you can copy#

Each email below answers a reason shoppers give for leaving. The most common reason at checkout is extra costs such as shipping, tax and fees, at 40%. Slow delivery follows at 20%, then not trusting the site with card details at 19% and an unsatisfactory returns policy at 13%.

Email 1: the reminder

• Subject: Your cart is saved
• Preview text: The [product name] is still here when you are ready.
• Body: "You left something behind. Your cart is saved, and you can pick up where you stopped." Then a product block with the image, name, price and quantity, and one button: "Return to your cart."
• Keep it short, with no discount and no long brand story. The job is to make the way back one click.

Email 2: the objections

• Subject: Shipping, returns and anything else you wanted to check
• Preview text: The answers before you decide.
• Body: the product block again, then three short lines in your own terms: what shipping costs and when the order arrives, how returns work, and which payment options you take. Add one or two customer reviews of the product in the cart.
• If shipping is free over a threshold, say how far the cart is from it: "Add $12 more and shipping is free."

Email 3: the last call

• For shoppers who qualify for an offer: "We are holding your cart for 24 more hours, and here is free shipping on this order." Use a single-use code that expires.
• For everyone else: "Still deciding? Here is what other customers bought with [product name]," with three related products.
• Subject for either: Last chance to check out with your cart

Should an abandoned cart email include a discount?#

Usually not in the first email. A discount there goes to every shopper who would have come back on their own. Keep the reminder plain, and put any offer in the last message.

When you do offer one, limit it: first-time buyers only, carts above a set value, or shoppers who did not open the first two emails. Test free shipping before a percentage off, because extra costs are the top reason shoppers leave. A single-use code with an expiry date limits how far it spreads. For the wider holiday offer plan, see our Black Friday and Cyber Monday playbook.

What rules apply to abandoned cart emails?#

Treat every abandoned cart email as marketing. Under CAN-SPAM, an email that confirms or completes a purchase the customer agreed to is transactional. A message that tries to get someone to buy is commercial. A cart reminder asks for a sale that has not happened yet, so the FTC's CAN-SPAM rules apply in full:

• a subject line that matches the content of the email;
• a valid postal address;
• a clear way to unsubscribe, honored within 10 business days;
• an accurate "From" name and address.

Each email that breaks the law can cost up to $53,088. The consent setting in your store matters too. Shopify's automation sends only to customers subscribed to email marketing by default. You can switch the email's "To" field to all customers, which changes only who the store emails. Check the consent rules for the countries you sell to before you change it.

What results should you expect?#

Measure revenue per recipient, which is the revenue the flow brings in divided by the number of people who got it. Klaviyo's 2026 benchmarks, from more than 110,000 of its customers, give these figures for abandoned cart flows:

Hardware and home improvement stores in the top 10% reach $35.24 per email recipient. Your own baseline matters more than the average: record the flow's numbers for the first month, change one thing at a time, and compare month to month. If you want a team to build and run the flow, see our email marketing services.

Next step#

If your flow is not sending, or you are not sure the numbers are good, tell us about your store and we will look at the setup with you. For the December plan after Black Friday, read our holiday marketing ideas for e-commerce brands.