How do abandoned checkout emails work in Shopify?
A shopper enters an email at checkout and leaves without paying. Shopify records an abandoned checkout and can email that person a link back to the checkout with their items still in it.
Most carts never become orders. Baymard Institute puts the average online cart abandonment rate at 70.22%, across 50 studies (Baymard, 2025). Some of those people were only browsing. Some got stuck on cost or delivery time. A short, well-timed email brings a share of them back.
Cart or checkout: the difference matters
An abandoned cart is a cart with items and no checkout. The store often does not know who the shopper is.
An abandoned checkout is a checkout where the shopper gave an email address and did not pay. Shopify counts a checkout as abandoned when it stays incomplete for more than ten minutes after the email was entered (Shopify Help). This is the one you can email, because you have the address.
Turn on Shopify’s own abandoned checkout email
Shopify sends this email for you, inside the Shopify Messaging app.
- In the Shopify admin, open Apps > Messaging.
- Click Automations and pick the Abandoned checkout template.
- Click Turn on automation, review the details, and click Continue.
- Check the To field. By default it sends only to customers subscribed to email marketing. You can change it to all customers.
- To change the wait time, edit the automation. Shopify opens it in Shopify Flow, where the wait is a step you can set.
Read this first: once you opt in to the new automation, you cannot go back to the legacy abandoned checkout emails (Shopify Help).
It costs nothing. Shopify Messaging is on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans and includes 10,000 free emails a month. Abandoned checkout automations are always free and do not count toward that limit (Shopify Help).
When to send
A common pattern is three emails:
| When | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | About 1 hour after abandonment | A reminder. The shopper still remembers the store. |
| 2 | About 24 hours after | Answer the doubt: shipping, returns, sizing, reviews. |
| 3 | About 72 hours after | Last call. If you use a discount at all, it goes here. |
Shopify’s automation starts as a single email. You can create a second abandoned checkout automation, and a new one defaults to a 10 hour wait. Treat any timing as a starting point and test it against your own store. Stop the series the moment the person orders.
What to write
Subject lines. Plain and specific beats clever:
- “You left something at checkout”
- “Your cart is saved, finish when you’re ready”
- “Questions about your order? Reply to this email”
Email 1. One line, the items, one button back to the checkout. No discount.
Hi Sam, you were almost done. Your items are still in your cart. [Return to checkout]
Email 2. Remove the reason people hesitate. Baymard’s survey puts extra costs first. Among US shoppers who abandoned an order, not counting those only browsing, 40% said shipping, tax and fees were too high. Slow delivery came second at 20%. Say what shipping costs, how long it takes, and how returns work.
Email 3. Short. Say the cart will not be held forever. If you offer a code, say when it expires.
Write all three from a real reply address. A shopper with a question should be able to answer the email and reach a person.
Discounts: use them late or not at all
A discount in the first email teaches shoppers to abandon on purpose and wait. Start without one. Add a modest code to the last email only, and compare the results against a period without it. Many stores find that clear shipping and returns information does more than a code.
What to measure
- Recovered orders and revenue. Orders placed from the email link. This is the number that matters.
- Click rate. Low clicks with good opens means the email does not answer the reason they left.
- Unsubscribes and complaints. A rising rate means too many emails or too much pressure.
For a reference point, Klaviyo’s 2025 Benchmark Report puts average email revenue per recipient at $3.07 for abandoned cart flows, against $0.10 for campaigns. Your numbers will differ by price point and industry.
Where Broadcast fits
Broadcast does not send abandoned checkout emails. It does not receive cart or checkout events from Shopify today. Keep Shopify’s free abandoned checkout email turned on.
Native Shopify event support is planned. Watch the roadmap for it.
What Broadcast does today is the rest of your email: newsletters to your whole list, and lifecycle sequences started by a tag. A paid order can tag a customer through the API, which can start a post-purchase or win-back sequence. See connecting Shopify to Broadcast and post-purchase and win-back flows.
Frequently asked questions
Is Shopify’s abandoned checkout email free?
Yes. Abandoned checkout automations in Shopify Messaging are always free and do not count toward the 10,000 free emails each month.
How long after abandonment should the first email go out?
About an hour is a common choice, while the shopper still remembers the store. Shopify’s default for a second automation is 10 hours. Test both against your own orders.
Should abandoned checkout emails include a discount?
Not in the first email. If you use one, put it in the last email of the series and measure whether it adds orders you would not have had anyway.
Can Broadcast send Shopify abandoned checkout emails?
No. Broadcast does not receive checkout events today. Native Shopify event support is planned. Use Shopify’s own automation for checkouts.
Comparing email tools for a Shopify store? See the Klaviyo alternative page and the e-commerce use case.
