9 Abandoned Cart Strategies to Recover Lost Sales

A shopper finds something they want, adds it to their cart, and gets all the way to checkout. Then they leave.

For an online business owner, few things are more frustrating. You have already done much of the hard work. The customer found your store, looked at your product and showed enough interest to put it in the shopping cart. But the sale never happened.

And it is far from unusual. Research compiled by the Baymard Institute puts the average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate at roughly 70%. In other words, a large share of online shopping carts never become completed orders.

The good news is that an abandoned cart does not always mean a lost customer. Sometimes shoppers are comparing prices, checking delivery costs or simply browsing. In other cases, something about the checkout process causes unnecessary friction.

That means there are two opportunities: make checkout easier so fewer shoppers leave in the first place, and create a sensible recovery process for customers who do leave.

Here are nine practical abandoned cart strategies that can help.

Why Do Shoppers Abandon Their Carts?

Before trying to recover abandoned carts, it helps to understand why shoppers leave.

There is no single reason. Some visitors never intended to buy immediately. They may use the cart to save products, compare prices or calculate the likely cost of an order.

Other shoppers are interested in purchasing but encounter a problem during checkout.

Common sources of checkout friction include:

• unexpected shipping charges, taxes or other fees;
• delivery taking longer than expected;
• being required to create an account;
• a checkout process that feels unnecessarily long or complicated;
• concerns about payment security or trust;
• limited payment or delivery options; and
• technical problems during checkout.

The important point is that not every abandoned cart can or should be recovered. Your goal is to identify the barriers you can control and make it easier for customers who genuinely want to purchase to finish what they started.

1. Make Your Checkout Process Simpler

Every unnecessary step between the shopping cart and the confirmation page gives a customer another opportunity to reconsider the purchase.

Review your checkout as if you were visiting your store for the first time. Are you asking customers for information you do not really need? Are there confusing buttons? Does the customer have to move through several screens before seeing the final price?

A simpler checkout usually means asking only for information necessary to process the order, making the next step obvious and showing customers where they are in the checkout process.

Do not forget mobile shoppers. A checkout form that feels manageable on a desktop computer can become frustrating when someone is trying to complete it on a phone.

If you want to improve online sales more broadly, our guide to selling online successfully looks at the wider customer experience beyond checkout.

2. Offer Guest Checkout

Creating an account may be useful for repeat customers, but forcing every first-time shopper to register before buying can create an unnecessary obstacle.

Imagine finding a product you want and being ready to pay, only to discover that you must first create a username, choose a password and complete additional fields. Some customers will do it. Others will decide the purchase is no longer worth the effort.

When possible, offer a guest checkout option and invite the customer to create an account after the order has been completed.

You can still explain the benefits of registering, such as easier order tracking or faster future purchases. The difference is that the customer has a choice.

3. Show the Real Cost Before the Final Step

A product may look affordable on the product page and suddenly feel much less attractive when shipping, handling or other charges appear during checkout.

That surprise can be enough to stop a purchase.

Be as transparent as possible about costs before customers reach the final payment screen. If shipping varies by destination, provide a shipping calculator or clear explanation of how the charge is determined.

If you offer free shipping above a certain order value, make that threshold easy to find. If there are unavoidable fees, disclose them clearly instead of allowing customers to discover them at the last possible moment.

Transparency may not eliminate cart abandonment, but it helps ensure customers are making purchasing decisions with realistic expectations.

4. Send Helpful Abandoned Cart Emails

Sometimes a shopper genuinely intends to buy but gets distracted. The phone rings. A child needs attention. The customer wants to check something before paying and then forgets to return.

An abandoned cart email can provide a convenient route back.

Many ecommerce platforms and email marketing systems can automatically send a reminder when an identifiable shopper leaves items in a cart without completing checkout.

A useful recovery email does not need to be complicated. It can remind the customer what was left behind, provide a clear button or link back to the cart and make it easy to contact you if something prevented the purchase.

Depending on your business and the customer’s permission to receive marketing communications, you might use a short sequence rather than relying on a single reminder.

Keep the tone helpful rather than desperate. The purpose is to make returning easy, not to bombard someone who has decided not to buy.

5. Keep the Customer’s Cart Available

A recovery message is much less useful if the shopper clicks back to your store and discovers that the cart is empty.

Where your ecommerce system allows it, preserve cart contents long enough for returning customers to continue their purchase without starting again.

This is especially useful when customers shop across several sessions or devices. Someone may browse during a lunch break and return later that evening when they have more time to complete the order.

The easier it is to resume the purchase, the less work you are asking the customer to repeat.

6. Offer Help at the Point of Hesitation

Sometimes the problem is not price or checkout design. The shopper simply has a question.

Will the product fit? When will it arrive? Can it be returned? Does the company ship to a particular location?

If customers cannot quickly find an answer, leaving the site becomes an easy option.

A clear FAQ, visible contact information, live chat or a well-configured chatbot can help answer common questions before uncertainty turns into abandonment.

Automation can be useful, but do not make customers fight with a bot when they need genuine assistance. Give people a clear path to human support when appropriate.

7. Use Exit-Intent Messages Carefully

An exit-intent message appears when a website detects behavior suggesting that a visitor may be preparing to leave a page.

Used carefully, it can give a hesitant shopper one final piece of useful information. You might remind customers about free shipping, point them toward your returns policy, offer help or invite them to save their cart.

What you should not do is automatically train every shopper to expect a discount whenever they move toward the exit.

Discounts can occasionally make sense, particularly when used strategically, but they should not become the only reason customers complete an order. Test different messages and pay attention to whether they improve completed purchases rather than merely generating clicks.

8. Build Trust Around the Checkout

Customers are being asked to hand over personal and payment information. If anything about the checkout feels questionable, leaving is a perfectly reasonable response.

Make sure shoppers can easily find essential information such as:

• your returns and refund policy;
• shipping and delivery information;
• ways to contact the business;
• accepted payment methods;
• clear product and pricing information; and
• appropriate security protections for checkout.

Trust is built throughout the customer journey, not simply beside the payment button. Consistent branding, clear communication and accurate product information all contribute to whether a shopper feels comfortable buying from you.

If your brand itself needs strengthening, see our guide to building a stronger and more consistent business brand.

9. Measure Where Customers Are Leaving

Do not assume you know why customers abandon their carts. Look at what your own store data tells you.

Your ecommerce platform and analytics tools may help you identify where customers leave the purchasing process. If a large percentage disappear at the same step, investigate that part of checkout first.

You can also test changes one at a time. For example, simplify a form, clarify shipping information or change the wording of a recovery email and then compare the results.

Useful numbers to monitor include:

• cart abandonment rate;
• checkout completion rate;
• revenue recovered through abandoned-cart emails;
• conversion rate by device;
• the checkout step where customers leave; and
• reasons customers give when they contact support.

The objective is not to achieve zero abandoned carts. That is unrealistic because many people use online stores to browse and compare. The goal is to remove avoidable obstacles and recover purchases where there is genuine buying intent.

Abandoned Cart Recovery Strategies at a Glance

A Quick Abandoned Cart Recovery Checklist

If you are not sure where to begin, work through this list:

• Complete a test purchase on your own website using both desktop and mobile.
• Count how many fields and steps customers must complete.
• Check whether guest checkout is available.
• Make sure shipping costs and other charges are explained clearly.
• Confirm that abandoned carts can be restored when shoppers return.
• Set up or review your abandoned-cart email automation.
• Check that customers can easily find shipping, returns and contact information.
• Review your checkout on a mobile phone.
• Test any pop-ups or chat tools to make sure they help rather than interrupt.
• Monitor checkout data before and after making changes.

You do not have to change everything at once. Start with the biggest source of friction you can identify, measure the result and continue improving from there.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an abandoned cart?

An abandoned cart occurs when a shopper adds one or more products to an online shopping cart but leaves before completing the purchase. Some shoppers return later on their own, while others may respond to a reminder or improvements to the checkout experience.

Why do customers abandon shopping carts?

Customers abandon carts for many reasons. Some are simply browsing or comparing products. Others encounter unexpected costs, delivery concerns, forced account creation, a complicated checkout, trust concerns or technical problems.

Do abandoned cart emails work?

They can recover some purchases by reminding interested shoppers what they left behind and giving them an easy way to return to checkout. Results vary by store, audience, timing and message, so recovery emails should be measured and improved rather than treated as a guaranteed solution.

Should I offer a discount in every abandoned cart email?

Not necessarily. Some customers only need a reminder, clearer information or help with a question. Automatically offering discounts can reduce your margin and may teach repeat shoppers to wait for an offer. Consider testing reminders without discounts first.

What is a good cart abandonment rate?

There is no single ideal rate for every ecommerce business. Cart abandonment varies according to product type, price, device, traffic source and customer behavior. Industry benchmarks can provide context, but your most useful comparison is often your own store’s performance over time.

Turn More Shopping Carts Into Completed Orders

Cart abandonment is part of ecommerce. Some visitors will browse, compare products and leave regardless of how good your checkout process is.

But preventable abandonment is different.

If customers are leaving because checkout is confusing, costs appear unexpectedly, questions go unanswered or returning to a saved cart is difficult, those are problems a business can work on.

Start by completing your own checkout from beginning to end. Look for unnecessary friction. Then review your abandonment data, introduce improvements one at a time and measure what happens.

You may never recover every abandoned cart — and you do not need to. Making checkout easier for customers who already want to buy can turn more of the interest you are already generating into completed sales.