Set up abandoned cart recovery
This is usually the highest-revenue automation in the platform and the one most likely to embarrass you if the exit condition is wrong. Build it carefully once and it runs for years.
Prerequisites
- WooCommerce connected — cart events come from the WordPress plugin.
- Sending domain authenticated under Settings → Email.
- At least one email template you are happy to send.
Build it
- Go to Automations and create a new automation.
- Set the trigger to the cart abandonment event.
- Add the first email with a short delay — around an hour is a common starting point.
- Add a delay, then a second email addressing the usual objection: delivery cost, returns, or sizing.
- Add a longer delay and a third email as a last call. Put any incentive here, if you use one.
- Set the exit condition on the purchase event so buyers stop receiving the sequence.
- Save as draft.
Test the exit before you enable it
Abandon a cart with a test address, confirm email one arrives, then complete the order and confirm email two never does. Sending a discount to someone who already paid full price is worse than sending nothing at all.
Timing
| Delay | Content | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ~1 hour | Neutral reminder, no discount |
| 2 | ~24 hours | Handle the objection, invite a reply into chat |
| 3 | ~72 hours | Last call, incentive if you use one |
These intervals are a common industry pattern, not a measured optimum for your store. Treat them as a baseline to test against.
Measure it properly
- Hold out a small control group that receives nothing, so you can see incremental rather than attributed revenue.
- Watch unsubscribes on email three — a spike means the sequence is too aggressive for your cycle.
- If you are migrating, run against the old platform's numbers for a full cycle before switching it off.
Compliance
Cart recovery is marketing email. It requires consent, a working unsubscribe link and accurate sender identification under the Australian Spam Act and equivalent regimes elsewhere. An address typed into a checkout field that was never submitted is not automatically a lawful basis to market to.
Frequently asked questions
- What if I do not have the customer's email?
- No email, no send. Capturing it earlier — through chat, a signup, or an earlier checkout step — is what makes the automation work at all.
- Should the first email include a discount?
- Generally no. Discounting immediately teaches customers to abandon deliberately, and it costs margin on carts that would have converted anyway.
- Can the sequence link into chat?
- Yes — and it should. Abandonment is usually an unanswered question. The operator who picks up the reply sees the cart contents on the contact record.
- How do I know it is working?
- Incremental revenue per recipient against a holdout group. Recovery rate on its own overstates the effect, because some of those people would have returned regardless.
Keep reading
Last updated 10 August 2026.