Do you realize abandoned carts are the most significant revenue leaks of your WooCommerce store? Yes, online stores have their own pros and cons. On one side, you can reach a vast number of audiences, and on the other side, you have to deal with customers virtually.
According to Baymard Institute, the average online shopping cart abandonment rate is reported to be 70.22%. So, a large portion of the profit is lost in abandoned carts.
You may think about how to check the abandoned cart in WooCommerce. Recovery of the abandoned cart can be a ‘secret sauce’ of your WooCommerce growth.
In this guide, you’ll learn about the detailed process of recovering abandoned carts in WooCommerce using a plugin.
Understanding The Abandoned Cart in WooCommerce
Before diving into the details, first, you need to have a clear idea about the actual meaning of abandoned cart.
Suppose a customer visits your store. He adds an item to the cart and proceeds to checkout. Somehow, before completing the order, the customer gets distracted for some reason and couldn’t complete the order. This action will create an abandoned cart or leftover cart.
You need to fully understand the abandoned cart because it directly affects your sales rate. This will help you track down the lost revenue and find improvement areas of your checkout process.
Top Reasons for WooCommerce Abandoned Cart
There are multiple reasons why customers abandoned their carts. Most of them occur due to some predictable reason and can be fixed. Here are some of the top reasons-
Unexpected Extra Charges
This is the #1 killer of your online sales. Often, customers place the order based on the product price. But when they see the extra charges on the checkout page, they get demotivated and leave the cart unfinished.
How to fix: You need to be transparent in the pricing process. You can clearly break down the extra charges and offer a free shipping option. To have a positive impact, you can offer ‘Free Shipping on orders over $80’.
Mandatory Account Creation
First-time customers often hesitate to create an account before trying out your products. Also, they want convenience and don’t want to go through the hassle of creating an account.
How to Fix: You can enable Guest Checkout in your WooCommerce store. This will be perfect for one-time or mobile purchases. After completing the purchase, you can invite them to create an account.
Lengthy & Complex Checkout Process
Customers will lose patience if your checkout process has multiple pages with complicated fields. This will frustrate the buyers, and you will ultimately lose the sales.
How to Fix: You can implement one page checkout or a multistep checkout process with a progress bar. Remove unwanted fields from the checkout and keep it simple and interactive.
Security Concerns on Payment Processing
Most of the shoppers may leave your checkout page because they don’t feel safe providing their card information on your site. Absence of SSL certificates and poorly designed interfaces lacks professionalism.
How to Fix: Include SSL on your website, display trust badges (Norton, McAfee, etc.), and add logos of your accepted payment methods (Visa, PayPal, Stripe, etc.)
Limited Payment Option
Not every customer wants to use their cards. Some prefer using Apple Pay, Google Pay, or PayPal. If they couldn’t find multiple payment options, they would prefer to leave the checkout process.
How to Fix: You can use modern gateway payments like Stripe and WooPayments to give your customers an ultimate shopping experience.
Recovering Abandoned Cart in WooCommerce Using a Plugin
WooCommerce doesn’t have a built-in abandoned cart recovery system. So, you need to utilize a third-party plugin to implement this feature on your WooCommerce store.
You’ll find lots of abandoned cart plugin options in the WordPress marketplace. But you need to look for some specific criteria that will be beneficial for you to recover the abandoned carts.
– Accurate tracking of the abandoned carts.
– Seamlessly schedule and automate the cart recovery email sequence.
– Customization of the email templates to get the best results.
– Support automatic coupon generation for the cart recovery emails.
– Detailed analytics and reports of the abandoned cart emails and performance.
– Compatibility with WooCommerce themes and page builders.
– Coupon expiry and usage restriction controls.
Now, you’ve got a proper idea of what to look for in a plugin to check abandoned carts for your WooCommerce store.
To ease your searching process, we’ll suggest that you use the ShopBuilder Plugin. This is a top-tier WooCommerce store builder and smoothly integrates with Elementor.
ShopBuilder comes with both free and pro versions. However, the free version will give you different customization freedom for your WooCommerce store. You’ll get the Cart Recovery module in the free version.
Follow the steps below to check abandoned carts for your WooCommerce store.
Step1: Install & Activate ShopBuilder
From the WordPress Admin Panel, move to Plugins > Add Plugins.
1. In the top right corner, type ‘ShopBuilder’ and search for the plugin.
2. After locating the plugin, you need to install and activate the plugin.
Step 2: Enable Cart Recovery Module
1. Navigate to ShopBuilder > Settings.
2. Then, move to the ‘Module’ section.
3. Locate the ‘Cart Recovery’ module and activate it.
The good news is that you’ll find the cart recovery module in the free version of ShopBuilder.
After clicking on the module, you’ll see a pop-up of the module settings with Enable Abandoned Cart Recovery? You can activate the module from here.
Step 3: Customize Cart Recovery Module
1. Time to Mark Cart Abandoned (minutes): You can determine when a cart should be considered abandoned by specifying the inactivity duration.
The plugin will automatically track the cart activity. If there is no activity observed within the defined time table, the cart will be categorized as abandoned.
2. Exclude User Roles from Tracking: You can choose user roles that will be excluded from the abandoned cart tracking. When these selected users create a cart, their activity won’t be monitored, and they will not receive any reminder emails.
1. Notify Recovery To Admin: As a site administrator, if you want to get automatic notification whenever a cart is recovered then enable this option. You can easily track the cart and conversion success.
2. Recovery Email Subject: You can enter the subject line for the recovery cart email. In this way, the admin can instantly identify the recovered cart alert in the inbox.
3. Admin Email Address: To receive abandoned cart recovery emails, you can enter the email addresses according to your choice. The plus point is that you can enter multiple email addresses separated by commas.
Example: support@yourstore.com, thesupport2@yourstore.com
4. Unsubscribe Page: You can allow users to unsubscribe from the Unsubscribe Page. For this, you need to select a particular page where the users will be redirected when they click on the unsubscribe link in recovery emails.
This feature ensures a smooth and user-friendly unsubscribe experience.
Step 4: Email & Coupon Settings
1. Email Setting: You can insert the name that will appear as the sender in the email. Also, insert the email address from which recovery emails will be sent. If any customer wishes to reply to the recovery cart mail, you can include the “Reply-To” email address.
2. Coupon Setting: You can activate the option for Auto-Delete expired coupons. This feature will automatically remove expired or used coupons once per week via a scheduled task.
Step 5: Customize the Email Templates
1. In the Cart Recovery module, move to the Email Templates section.
2. You’ll view 4 different email templates. The most amazing part, you’ll get full freedom to customize each of the templates.
3. If you wish to generate a new email template, then click on the ‘Add Email Template’ button.
Customize Email Template: When you select any preferred template, you need to activate it first. When disabled, the template can not be used at all. Enter the template name to be displayed. Moreover, you can customize the email subject freely.
Email Body Setup: Write the body of the email according to your preference. You can use different dynamic variables –
{{cart.total}}, {{cart.item_count}}, {{cart.checkout_url}}, {{cart.unsubscribe}}, {{customer.first_name}}, {{customer.last_name}}, {{customer.full_name}}, {{customer.email}}, {{store.name}}, {{store.url}}, {{admin.firstname}}, {{cart.coupon_code}}, {{cart.abandoned_date}}.
Frequency & Frequency Unit: You can select the delay time. So, when an abandoned cart is detected, an email will be sent after the specified time. You need to combine this with the Frequency Unit to determine the exact timing.
You can select from Days, Hours, or Minutes for the email frequency. For example, if you input 6 in the frequency and Days in the frequency unit, the abandoned cart email will be sent 6 days after the cart is abandoned.
Step 6: Auto Create Special Coupon For Abandoned Cart Email:
1. Create Coupon Code? Activate this option to instantly generate a special discount for abandoned carts. This coupon will be exclusively applied to the recovery cart.
2. Discount Type: You can determine the discount type that will be applicable for the special discount coupon.
3. Amount/Discount: Enter the value of the discount. For percentage discounts, specify the percentage amount. For fixed discounts, input the cart discount value.
4. Coupon Prefix: Write the coupon prefix. This will be added before the auto-generated coupon. In this way, you can easily identify the recovery coupon in WooCommerce. This will improve the coupon management.
1. Coupon Expired After (Days): For the coupon validation, you can determine the coupon expiration date.
2. More Settings: For a better operational process, you can enable the option for ‘Free Shipping’, ‘Individual Use Only’, and ‘Auto Apply Coupon’.
Step 7: Abandoned Carts Follow-Up Dashboard
Good news, you can view an overall analytics of your car abandoned emails in a specific dashboard.
To view the dashboard, navigate to WooCommerce > Cart Abandonment.
In the overview section, you can see detailed analytics both in numbers and in chart form. You can also view the recent follow up reports from here.
The next part is ‘Email Template’. From here, you can view their Trigger Time, Sent Amount, Open Rate, Click Rate, Unsubscribe and Status option. This table is helpful to make a strategic decision for your abandoned carts.
The third part is the Follow-up section. You can see the Receiver Details, Cart Total, Order Status, and Date/Time. Moreover, you can perform different tasks from the ‘Action’ section.
Okay, now we’re on the edge of ending. We hope you have a clear idea on how to check abandoned carts in WooCommerce. By using this Cart Recovery module, you can gain your lost revenue by encouraging your customers to complete their purchase.
Bonus: Common Cart Recovery Mistakes to Avoid
A well-executed cart recovery strategy can work like magic on your WooCommerce. Hence, small mistakes can significantly hamper your Online Store’s effectiveness. When you avoid these common pitfalls, these can maximize the recovery rates and protect your store’s brand reputation.
Late Sending of Recovery Mails
Timing is very crucial in cart recovery. If you send recovery emails after a few days, customers may have forgotten about the cart or purchased it from another site. Within the first few hours of the abandoned cart, you can observe the highest conversions.
Pro Tip: You can send the first reminder within 30-60 minutes. Also, send the follow-up mails within the specified timetable.
Avoid Overusing The Discounts
Do not use the discounts heavily. Your customers may abandon the carts intentionally to get the coupons. This will reduce your profit margin and long-term customer view.
Pro Tip: First, you can send the reminder email only, and later on, add the discount in the follow-up emails.
Sending Too Many Emails
Too many recovery emails can overwhelm the customers. This may lead to spam complaints or unsubscribes.
Pro Tip: You can send 2-3 emails within a standard time frame. Each email should contain high-value content.
Poor Email Structure
Generic and straightforward messages, unclear CTAs, and non-mobile-friendly layouts minimize customer engagement and click-through rate.
Pro Tip: Always try to use a clear subject, uniform copy, strong Call-to-Actions, and mobile-optimized email structure.
Failing to Analyze Recovery Data
If you are unable to review reports of the recovered data, you can not perform long-term optimization. This can cause repeated mistakes.
Pro Tip: You need to observe the abandoned cart reports regularly. This will help you to understand the patterns, friction points, and high-abandonment products.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Unfortunately, no. WooCommerce doesn’t support a built-in abandoned cart recovery feature. You need to use a third-party plugin to obtain this functionality.
In a standard format, 15-30 minutes of cart inactivity is considered abandoned. But you can adjust the timing based on the user behavior.
Yes, most of the plugins support automatic coupon generation for cart recovery. In ShopBuilder, you can set discount type, expiry date, and usage restrictions for the coupons set up.
When you use a dedicated plugin for the car recovery, you can view abandoned and recovered cart analytics from a dedicated dashboard within WooCommerce.
Finishing Thoughts
That’s all the information on how to check abandoned carts in WooCommerce. A successful abandoned cart system requires careful strategy and optimization.
So, start with a solid plan: set clear goals, choose the right plugin, and ensure your strategy remains profitable. By following the steps shared in this article and avoiding common mistakes, you can recover your abandoned carts and gain the lost revenue.
Our best wishes will be with you on your journey to recover the abandoned carts and boost profit.
