The short answer
- Shopify recovers abandoned checkouts with an automated email from Shopify Messaging: Apps, then Messaging, then Automations. These emails are never charged, whatever your volume.
- Shopify counts a checkout as abandoned when it stays incomplete for 10 minutes after the shopper enters an email address.
- By default the email goes only to marketing subscribers. Change the recipient to All customers to reach everyone who left an address.
- Baymard Institute puts the average cart abandonment rate at 70.22%. Email reaches shoppers who typed an address; retargeting ads on Meta and Google reach the rest.
Most carts are abandoned, and most of that is not a problem you can fix with an email. The useful work is separating the abandonment you can recover from the abandonment you can only prevent, then running both plays. This guide covers Shopify's built-in settings, the timing that works, the ads that catch shoppers email cannot, and what a realistic recovery number looks like.
Abandoned cart vs abandoned checkout vs browse
Shopify Messaging treats these as three separate automations, and they reach different people.
| Automation | Who it targets | Needs an email from the session? | Charged? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recover abandoned checkout | Started checkout, did not pay | No, the shopper typed it at checkout | Email never charged; SMS and WhatsApp charged per message |
| Recover abandoned cart | Added to cart, never started checkout | Yes, must be a known subscriber | Counts toward the 10,000 monthly emails |
| Convert abandoned product browse | Viewed a product, added nothing | Yes, must be a known subscriber | Counts toward the 10,000 monthly emails |
Abandoned checkout is the strongest of the three because the shopper got furthest and left an address. Cart and browse automations only fire for shoppers Shopify can already identify, usually subscribers who clicked through from an earlier email.
How to turn on abandoned checkout emails in Shopify
Shopify is moving stores from the legacy abandoned checkout email to a new automation in Shopify Messaging. Both live in the same place. Per Shopify's help center:
- Open Shopify Messaging automations. From your Shopify admin, go to Apps, then Messaging, then Automations.
- Pick the abandoned checkout automation. On the legacy setup, open "Abandoned checkout emails by Shopify" and click Edit settings. On the new setup, click View templates and choose the Abandoned checkout template.
- Choose who receives it. Set the Send to field, or the To field in the new editor. The default is subscribers only; switch to All customers to email everyone who left an address.
- Set the delay. Choose how long after abandonment the email sends. On the new automation, change the wait time in Shopify Flow.
- Customize and turn it on. Add your logo, a product image block and an optional discount, then save and turn the automation on.
Two details from the help center are worth knowing before you switch. Moving to the new automation is permanent; you cannot go back to the legacy email. And if you create a second abandoned checkout automation, it defaults to a 10 hour wait and subscribers only, so check both settings.
When Shopify will not send the email
Shopify skips the recovery email when the shopper completes the order before it sends, when a payment processing error occurred, when you do not ship to their address, when they gave a phone number instead of an email, when nothing in the checkout is still available, when everything in the checkout is free, and when Shopify Payments blocked the attempt as high risk. Abandoned checkouts older than three months are deleted from the admin automatically.
Recovery only covers the Online Store and Buy Button channels. Checkouts on Shopify POS or third-party sales channels get no email.
Flow timing that works
Shopify's single email is a start. A three-message flow recovers more, because shoppers abandon for different reasons and a reminder an hour later only catches the distracted ones.
| Message | Send after | Job | Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 hour | Catch the interrupted | The cart with images, one button back to checkout. No discount. |
| 2 | 24 hours | Answer the doubt | Shipping cost and speed, returns policy, two or three reviews of the product in the cart. |
| 3 | 48 to 72 hours | Give a reason to act | A modest incentive if your margin allows it, or free shipping, with a stated expiry. |
Hold the discount until the last message. Discounting in the first email trains repeat shoppers to abandon on purpose and gives margin away to people who would have bought anyway.
If you run email and SMS, send SMS once at most and early. Klaviyo's 2026 benchmarks put abandoned cart text messages at a 10.3% average click rate, against 6% for email, but text is more intrusive and costs per message.
Why shoppers abandon, and which reasons email can fix
Baymard Institute's survey finds 42% of US online shoppers have abandoned a cart because they were just browsing. Excluding that group, the reasons are:
| Reason (Baymard, US shoppers) | Share | Fix it with |
|---|---|---|
| Extra costs too high (shipping, tax, fees) | 40% | Show shipping early; free shipping threshold |
| Delivery was too slow | 20% | State delivery dates on the product page |
| Did not trust the site with card details | 19% | Shop Pay, PayPal, reviews, a real contact page |
| Site wanted me to create an account | 18% | Guest checkout |
| Checkout too long or complicated | 17% | Fewer fields, express checkout buttons |
| Website had errors or crashed | 17% | Test checkout on mobile after every app install |
| Returns policy not satisfactory | 13% | Clear returns policy linked from the cart |
| Could not see total cost up front | 12% | Shipping estimator in the cart |
| Card declined | 10% | More payment methods |
| Not enough payment methods | 9% | Wallets and buy now, pay later |
Most of these are fixed on the site, not in the inbox. Baymard also finds the average US checkout shows 23.48 form elements against an ideal of 12 to 14. The site-side fixes are in Shopify conversion rate optimization.
Retargeting ads for shoppers email cannot reach
A shopper who added to cart and left without typing an email is invisible to every email tool. Only ads reach them. Two setups cover most Shopify stores.
Meta
- Build a website custom audience from the Meta pixel: people who fired AddToCart or InitiateCheckout in the last 7 to 14 days, excluding anyone who fired Purchase.
- Run it as its own ad set with a small budget, so prospecting spend and retargeting spend can be read separately.
- Show the product they left, with a catalog ad, plus the objection-answering lines from email message 2: shipping, returns, reviews.
- This only works if the pixel and Conversions API fire correctly. See Shopify Meta pixel setup.
- Performance Max with your Merchant Center feed retargets past visitors automatically across YouTube, Display and Gmail.
- Google's dynamic remarketing for retail shows the exact products a visitor viewed, from the same feed.
- Keep the window short for cheap products and longer for considered ones. A $30 impulse buy rarely comes back after a week; a $900 sofa might come back after a month.
More on the audience mechanics in the retargeting glossary entry.
What recovery rate to expect
No large published study gives a reliable recovery rate for Shopify stores specifically, so measure your own. Shopify shows it per checkout: in Orders, then Abandoned checkouts, the Email status column shows whether the email sent and Recovery status shows whether the order completed.
For a benchmark in money rather than percentages, use revenue per recipient. Klaviyo's 2026 abandoned cart benchmarks, from more than 110,000 customers, put the average email flow at $6.77 per recipient and the top 10% at $13.70. Home and garden stores averaged about $15.
Worked example
A store gets 1,000 abandoned checkouts a month, and 800 of them leave an email the store can contact. At Klaviyo's average of $6.77 per recipient, the flow should bring in about $5,400 a month. At the top 10% rate it would be about $11,000. If your Shopify reports show $1,500, the gap is worth a week of work on timing, subject lines and product images before you spend more on traffic.
Count recovered revenue honestly. Some of those shoppers would have come back anyway, so compare a month with the flow against a short holdout period, or against the same weeks last year, before crediting all of it.
Where Sprites fits
Sprites handles the ads half of recovery. It builds Meta website custom audiences from your pixel, such as checkout starters who did not buy, sets up the retargeting ad sets and creative, and checks that the pixel and Conversions API are actually delivering purchase events. Every change is proposed as an approval card first. It does not send email. See Sprites for Meta ads and pricing.
For the email side, the flows in Shopify email marketing pair with this setup.
FAQ
How do I turn on abandoned cart emails in Shopify?
From your Shopify admin, go to Apps, then Messaging, then Automations, and open the abandoned checkout automation. Choose who receives it, set the delay, customize the email and turn it on. Abandoned checkout emails sent this way are never charged.
Are Shopify abandoned checkout emails free?
Yes. Abandoned checkout emails sent through Shopify Messaging are always free and do not count toward the 10,000 emails a month included with your plan. Abandoned checkout SMS and WhatsApp messages are charged per message.
When does Shopify consider a checkout abandoned?
Shopify marks a checkout as abandoned when it stays incomplete for more than 10 minutes after the customer enters an email address. Items in the cart at that moment are not saved, and abandoned checkouts older than three months are deleted.
What is the average cart abandonment rate?
Baymard Institute's average across 50 published studies is 70.22%, with individual studies ranging from 55% to 84%. Excluding shoppers who were just browsing, the top reason is extra costs such as shipping, tax and fees, cited by 40% of US shoppers.
What is a good abandoned cart email recovery result?
Klaviyo's 2026 benchmarks put the average abandoned cart email flow at $6.77 revenue per recipient and the top 10% of brands at $13.70. Track your own recovery rate in Shopify under Orders, then Abandoned checkouts, using the Recovery status column.
Why did Shopify not send an abandoned checkout email?
Shopify skips the email when the order was completed first, a payment error occurred, you do not ship to the address, the shopper gave a phone number instead of an email, the items are unavailable, everything was free, or Shopify Payments blocked the checkout as high risk.