Abandoned carts in your online store: 9 ways to win them back

In short: an abandoned cart is a cart with products that the shopper leaves without placing an order. On average 70.22% of online carts end that way (Baymard Institute, 50 studies). Four fixes do the most: show the shipping cost in the cart, allow guest checkout, offer a payment method the shopper trusts, and send an email with a link to the same cart about an hour after they leave.

Written by the CloudCart team, the Bulgarian ecommerce platform, for stores selling in or from Bulgaria and across the EU. CloudCart has a built-in abandoned cart reminder, separate metrics in Analytics and automated campaigns for follow-up reminders. CloudCart facts come from the platform documentation and the Abandoned carts, Campaigns and Pricing pages.

What an abandoned cart is in an online store

An abandoned cart is a cart where the shopper added at least one product, then stopped and placed no order. In CloudCart a cart counts as abandoned once it has been inactive longer than the interval you choose: 30 to 180 minutes, 60 by default. Any added or removed product, changed quantity or entered code restarts the clock.

Store owners call this abandoned carts, abandoned orders or incomplete orders. In practice there are two different losses, fixed in different ways:

• Abandoned cart. The shopper added products but never opened checkout. Something in or before the cart stopped them: shipping cost, the total, doubt about the product.
• Abandoned checkout (incomplete order). The shopper started filling in checkout and stopped. The cause is almost always the checkout: a forced account, too many fields, a surprise fee, a missing payment method, a declined card.

The second loss costs more, because the shopper had already decided to buy. Track the two separately.

What share of carts is abandoned, and why

The most quoted figure comes from Baymard Institute: on average 70.22% of online carts are abandoned, across 50 studies. Of 10 people who put something in the cart, about 7 do not order. Many cannot be saved: 42% of US shoppers in Baymard's survey left a cart because they were "just browsing". For the rest, the reasons are mostly in the store's hands:

Reason (Baymard, excluding "just browsing")	Share	What fixes it
Extra costs too high (shipping, fees)	40%	Shipping cost in the cart, a free shipping threshold
Delivery too slow	20%	Delivery time shown, courier offices and parcel lockers
Didn't trust the site with card details	19%	Card form on the checkout page, Apple Pay, Google Pay, cash on delivery
Had to create an account	18%	Guest checkout
Checkout too long or complicated	17%	Fewer fields, a one-click order button
Website errors or crashes	17%	A test order on a phone after every change
Returns policy not good enough	13%	Clear terms, linked from the cart
Couldn't see the total up front	12%	Total with shipping before payment
Card declined	10%	A second payment method, wallets
Not enough payment methods	9%	Card, wallets, cash on delivery, installments

According to Baymard, a better checkout alone can lift a large store's conversion rate by 35.26%. These reasons come from US shoppers. In Bulgaria many people still pay cash on delivery (COD), where the courier collects the money at the door, so checkout needs both COD and card payment. Your own rate, and how it moves month to month, matters more than any global average.

How to measure abandoned carts: two formulas

The overall rate does not show where to work. These two metrics show whether you lose the shopper in the cart or at checkout. In CloudCart both are ready in Analytics, on separate cards.

Metric	Formula	Example	If it is high, check
Abandoned carts	100 − (carts that reached checkout ÷ all carts × 100)	200 carts, 125 reach checkout: 37.5%	Shipping cost in the cart, checkout button, phone speed
Abandoned checkouts	(checkouts started − orders) ÷ checkouts started × 100	125 checkouts, 80 orders: 36%	Account requirement, fields, last-step fees, payment methods

• Look at a week or a month, not an hour. Each period is counted on its own, so hourly values come out higher.
• Compare mobile with desktop. A big gap almost always means checkout is awkward on a phone.
• Check the statuses. Abandoned checkouts count orders by the statuses selected in the Analytics settings. Excluding "Pending" inflates the rate.

The Conversion funnel card shows cart → checkout started → order, with unique customers at each step, for mobile and desktop. The biggest drop shows where to start. The carts themselves, with products, total and last change, are in Orders → Abandoned.

9 ways to reduce abandoned carts and recover the order

Fixes 1 to 6 reduce abandonment, fixes 7 to 9 bring back those who still left. If abandoned checkouts are higher than abandoned carts, start with 2 to 5. If it is the other way round, start with 1 and 6.

1. Show the shipping cost before the last step

Extra costs, usually shipping, are the top reason. In CloudCart the couriers Econt, Speedy (DPD Bulgaria) and BOX NOW are built in: Econt and Speedy are the main Bulgarian courier networks, and BOX NOW runs parcel lockers. The shopper picks an address, an office or a locker and sees the shipping cost at checkout before paying. Econt and DPD calculate it by weight and address, or the shopper sees your own rates. The BumpCart app shows "€X more for free shipping" in the cart and suggests a product to get there. How to set that threshold against your real parcel costs is in the article on the free shipping threshold.

2. Allow guest checkout

18% of shoppers who abandoned a cart name a forced account. In Settings → Cart and checkout, in the customer accounts block, allow orders from both guests and registered customers. You can also turn on guest-to-customer conversion: after the order the guest gets an account by email.

3. Remove the fields you don't need

Baymard's data shows a good checkout has 7 to 8 form fields, while the average US checkout shows 14.88. If a field does not go on the shipping label, the invoice or the delivery message, drop it. In Settings → Cart and checkout each field is required, optional or hidden. If you sell mostly to consumers, make company fields optional (company name, VAT number, UIC, the Bulgarian company ID).

4. Offer a payment method the shopper trusts

19% did not trust the site with their card, 10% had a card declined and 9% missed their payment method. The answer is a card form on the checkout page itself, with no redirect, next to Apple Pay, Google Pay and cash on delivery. If a card is declined, a second method on the same page keeps the shopper.

You turn it on in Settings → Payment methods → CloudCart Pay. Fees and refused parcels are covered in cash on delivery vs card payments.

5. Add a one-click order button or "Buy now"

If most orders contain one product, skip the cart. The Fast Order app (Apps → Fast Order) adds a button on the product page with a short form: email, plus phone and name if you want them. The order comes in as cash on delivery, with no account and no checkout, so there is nothing to abandon. Alternatively, set the product button to go straight to checkout, or use the CloudCart Pay Apple Pay or Google Pay button, which creates a paid order from the product page with the address taken from the phone.

6. Answer the question before the shopper leaves

Behind "I'll think about it" is a specific question: will it fit, when will it arrive, is there another colour. Aura Chat, the CloudCart AI assistant in the store chat, speaks first by your rules, for example after 40 seconds on a product page. With the catalog skills on, it answers from your store data (price, stock, delivery) and leads the shopper to "Add to cart". The "page type" condition also needs the Datalayer app. More on the AURA page.

7. Turn on the automatic email with a link that restores the cart

This fix brings back shoppers you already lost. The email shows the products and a button that opens the same cart, on any device and without signing in. If the shopper started another cart on their phone, the two merge. The email goes only to a known address: a registered customer or a subscriber. So the more subscribers you collect, the more carts you can bring back.

Recovered orders record their source. In Orders you filter by recovery source, and the link carries the UTM campaign abandoned_restore_link for the marketing report (UTM tracking is on CC Pro and CC Master). Setup is in how to turn it on in CloudCart.

8. Add a second and third reminder on another channel

The built-in email goes out once per cart. Follow-ups are an automated campaign in Marketing → Campaigns: pick the ready-made abandoned cart template, add steps with a wait and a channel, and put {$cart_url}, the personal cart link, in the text. The exit on order is already set, so nobody gets a reminder after buying.

Shoppers without an email you reach with ads. The XML Feed → FaceBook app sends your catalog to Meta and adds the Facebook Pixel, which records the AddToCart and InitiateCheckout events (Meta Pixel reference). From them you build a website custom audience, "added to cart, no purchase in 7 days". Start it after the first email, so you do not pay for shoppers who would have come back anyway.

9. Give the discount last, and sparingly

A code in the first email teaches customers to leave carts on purpose. Keep it for the last reminder, with a short deadline. In CloudCart the code can sit in the recovery link and applies by itself. For low-margin stores, free shipping above a set amount works better, because it does not cut the product price. If your store is connected to an AI assistant such as Claude Code, you create the codes with one sentence: "Create 200 one-time codes for 10% off".

How to turn on the abandoned cart reminder in CloudCart

1. Turn on the reminder in Settings → Cart and checkout, in the abandoned cart reminder block. The channel is email.
2. Choose the interval: 30, 45, 60, 90 or 180 minutes after the last change. CloudCart recommends 60. Carts are checked every 3 minutes.
3. Decide where the code goes. A code tied to the built-in email reaches everyone in the first reminder, so put it only in the last campaign step. Codes are created in Marketing → Discounts.
4. Check the carts in Orders → Abandoned, where you can also send the link by hand.
5. Build the follow-ups in Marketing → Campaigns from the ready-made abandoned cart campaign.
6. Track the result weekly in Analytics and by recovery source in Orders.

Important: according to the plan comparison, incomplete order notifications are 100 on Baby Pack, 500 on Starter Pack, 5,000 on CC Pro and 10,000 on CC Master per plan year. When the limit runs out, no new reminders go out. The count is in Orders → Abandoned, "Total messages sent". Carts are kept for 7 days after the last change.

What to write in an abandoned cart email

• A calm subject line with the product: "The Ethiopian coffee is still in your cart". No "LAST CHANCE" in the first email.
• Image, name and price of each product.
• One button: "Back to your cart".
• One sentence each on delivery, returns and payment, plus how to ask you a question.
• A code only in the last email, with its deadline.

Subject: The French press is still in your cart
Hello! We saved your products: Ethiopian coffee, 250 g (€12.90) and French press, 600 ml (€24.00). Delivery to an Econt office is tomorrow, and you can return anything within 14 days. [Back to your cart] Questions? Just reply to this email.

You edit the template in Marketing → Channels → Email notifications. It goes out as a marketing email with an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribed contacts never receive it. Where it fits among the other flows is in 7 automated emails for an online store.

When to send the reminder: a 3-message sequence

Step	When	Channel	What it says	In CloudCart
1	60 minutes	Email	Products, cart button, delivery and returns	Built in
2	24 hours	Viber or email	Your products are still waiting, cart link	Campaign, step 2
3	72 hours	Email	Code or free shipping, short deadline	Campaign, step 3
Exit	On order	-	Nothing more goes out	Exit condition

• Finish by day 7, when the cart is deleted.
• No more than three. If the second message is hardly opened, remove it.
• One channel per step. Viber (sent from a verified sender) and SMS are paid separately with credits. Web Push is unlimited on every plan but reaches only visitors who allowed it.

Does a discount code or free shipping help

It helps, but you also pay for it on orders that would have come anyway. Make it the last step, give it a short deadline and make it personal: the campaign variable {$dynamic_discount_code} creates a separate code for each recipient, so it does not end up on coupon sites. With thin margins, offer free shipping instead: it solves the top reason (extra costs, 40%) without cutting the price.

A worked example: what incomplete orders cost you

Step	Per month
Carts	1,000
Reach checkout	640 (abandoned carts 36%)
Orders	420 (abandoned checkouts 34%)
Incomplete checkouts × €48 average order	220 × €48 = €10,560
Recover 1 in 10	22 orders, about €1,056 a month

Replace the sample numbers with yours from Analytics. Cutting abandoned checkouts from 34% to 30% turns the same 640 checkouts into 448 orders instead of 420, with no reminder and no extra ad spend.

Checklist: abandoned carts in 30 minutes

• Both metrics written down for 4 weeks, mobile and desktop.
• A test order from a phone, fields counted.
• Shipping cost visible in the cart.
• Guest checkout allowed, unneeded fields hidden.
• Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and cash on delivery at checkout.
• Reminder on at 60 minutes, one button to the cart.
• Follow-up campaign that stops on order and ends by day 7.
• Discount only in the last reminder.

Mistakes that increase abandoned carts

• Shipping shown only at the last step.
• A discount in the first email.
• A popup or chat at checkout, interrupting someone who is paying.
• Several changes at once. Change one thing and watch for two weeks.
• Checkout changes in your busiest week. Test before Black Friday, then leave it alone. See the Black Friday preparation checklist.

If your platform has no built-in reminder, CloudCart has the reminder, campaigns and CloudCart Pay in the admin from day one, and migration from WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento or OpenCart moves products, customers and orders without stopping sales. Start with how to create an online store or an online store with AI.

Frequently asked questions

Questions about setting up the reminder and campaigns go to support@cloudcart.com.