Cart Abandonment Email Best Practices Illustrated with 21 Examples

In this complete guide on cart abandonment emails, we cover everything marketers need to learn about this high engaging email sequence.

It’s frustrating when you watch your customer filling up their online shopping cart only to see them disappear without finishing the purchase process, leaving you with plenty of questions. What happened? And what can you about it?

Spoiler alert: send cart abandonment emails. 

What is cart abandonment?

Cart abandonment is an e-commerce term describing the event that happens when a customer visits your website, starts placing items into their online shopping baskets but eventually doesn’t buy anything.

According to Statista, 69.5% of online customers abandon their shopping carts.

This number is even higher in industries with higher risks related to purchases. The higher the risk, the more information the customer wants to gather before making a decision tree.

Source: SaleCycle

Data by Blue Core shows that nearly 40.32% of cart abandonment emails were opened and 10.09% of these emails received clicks. 2.05% of these emails resulted in conversions. Clearly, cart recovery emails help increase revenue.

You need to convince customers that their decision is right. So they won’t call it a quit when obstacles arise. Answer all the questions that might arise and make sure you decrease the number of unseen expenses. Nothing is more annoying than finding out about the extra fees at the checkout.

Why do people abandon their shopping carts?

Before making any decisions, our subconscious mind already knows what we want. It knows if we really want to buy something for instance. On the other hand, if you aren’t 100% convinced, we start to rationalize our decision and look for excuses.

The psychology beyond cart abandonment

When the customer is in the middle of shopping, they start to ask several questions to themselves:

• Do I really need this item?
• What if this shirt doesn’t fit me? Can I ask for a refund and send it back free of charge?
• How much does shipping cost?
• What if the product breaks?

Besides questioning their purchase, there may be other factors that prevent the customer from completing their purchase.

People leave your website without purchasing for several reasons.

• The process is frustrating
• The website is broken
• The payment link is broken
• Additional cost comes up (shipping fee)
• Purchase is postponed
• The customer was just browsing
• Payment processing wasn’t successful
• The voucher wasn’t valid

Regardless of the reason why one thing you need to understand is that cart abandonment is inevitable.

Some customers will always abandon their shopping baskets. Accept it and find ways to counter it:

• Help customers make the decision.
• Make shipping cheap or free.
• If the customer has to fill out a form, make it short and sweet.
• Allow autofill (e.g. email address, address lookup).
• Your check-out process must be optimized as well.

But most importantly, don’t forget to send a great cart abandonment email.

What to include in your cart abandonment email?

Here are the main elements you must include in your cart abandonment emails:

1. A clever headline: use a creative sentence to remind the customer of the abandoned product.
2. The photo of the product(s) left. behind: make sure you also include the name of the product and brand, the size, and the color.
3. CTA for each item: insert a “Buy now” button to help the customers navigate to their selected products easily.
4. Return to the website button/navigation bar: offer the opportunity of navigating to the webshop rather than one specific landing page.
5. Contact information: allow recipients to get in touch with you if they need help.

Cart abandonment email subject lines

• Check out today. Your order is waiting for you.
• Don’t let it get away!
• You forgot your FREE [Product] coupon!
• Did You Forget Something?
• Regarding the items you liked
• You’ve left something in your cart…
• Forgetting something?
• Your cart has been successfully saved
• You’ve really earned it! Complete your order of the items in your cart
• Abandoned Cart | Forget something?
• We saved your shopping cart for you
• Don’t forget this!
• You left something stylish in your cart!
• Last chance to save on your cart

Best cart abandonment email examples

The success of recovering abandoned shopping baskets depends on the data and on well-designed email.

The following 21 examples of cart abandonment emails show you some of the best practices of how you can use your personality and craft a great, targeted email in the most creative way.

You Forgot Some Unfinished Business! – MAC

This first template is the perfect cart abandonment email example. It has all the elements of an engaging email:

• An animated GIF that grabs the attention of the subscriber right away
• A bold and imposing headline that tells the customer in just a few words what the email is about
• A short description followed by a contrasting call to action leading to the abandoned cart
• A picture of the abandoned product + the name of the product + price + CTA that takes the customer straight to the product
• A series of blocks that enrich the email and give the customer even more information and sales arguments to convince them to go ahead with the purchase (free shipping, advanced shipping rules, curbside pickup, etc.)

See anything you liked? – Whistlefish

I love this email by Whistlefish. It’s a little piece of art. If you have a designer at hand, do ask them to design some great stuff.

Whistlefish wanted to kill hesitation by explaining why shopping with them is a great decision.

You can also run a survey and find out what your customers’ biggest concerns are. Include it in your email as FAQ and help the recipients overcome their fears.

Distracted? Confused? – Bonobos

Bonobos used humor to catch the recipients’ attention. The yellow color naturally grabs the attention, not to mention a giant chicken in the middle of the office.

Distraction is one of the leading reasons why customers leave their shopping carts behind without checking out. They might just need a hand. Asked them if they could help with anything.

Going, going… – Warehouse

Warehouse played the FOMO (fear of missing out) card. The second “going” word was bolded to emphasize the fact that the chosen product was drifting away.

The personalization of the content was an important element of this abandoned shopping cart email. They greeted the recipient by name and said they noticed that she was on Warehouse’s website on Tuesday.

The email was divided into 3 parts. The dividers made it easy to digest the content itself. The first part was about catching the attention with the model’s image and the warning to act quickly, the second part included the forgotten product and the third part recommended additional clothes.

Don’t miss out – Pandora

Pandora chose a friendly reminder approach in their shopping cart abandonment email design. Although they also used FOMO to trigger emotions, instead of saying that the customer won’t be able to buy the product later, they said they had saved the item for them.

Pandora used four buttons leading to their website: Charms, Bracelets, Return to the homepage, and Continue shopping. This method helps your customer navigate to the right landing page easily. In fact, the seamless process increases the possibility of conversion.

Pandora noted that “Stock not reserved until payment has been received“. Communicating this term helps avoid disappointment and complaints later on.

Below the Shopping Bag, there are two other CTAs.

At the bottom of the email, the recipients can find another menu. If you build a community, you can also use this space to encourage customers to join.

Forget something? – J.Crew

Customers forget about their shopping carts very often. That’s why this question asked by J.Crew is totally valid.

“Go to your bag now” was recommended immediately. If the customer indeed just forgot about their shopping cart they would go and check it out.

At the bottom of the email, three CTAs were used: Shop New Arrivals, See What’s in Fall Sale, and Shop looks we love. How could you not benefit from using this tactic?

Even if the customer doesn’t buy anything, you can find out a lot about them. If they are price sensitive they check out sales, if they follow the latest fashion they will click the new arrivals. This information can be important when it comes to personalization and well-targeted emails.

These look good in your bag… but they would look even better on you. – Madewell

Madewell sprinkled some compliment that was a great way of building an instant trust. They encourage the recipient to “Go for it” just as a friend would do in the fitting room. Personalization in the email subject line “You’ve got great taste, Alyssa“ made the shopping cart abandoned email even more friendly.

Each item has its own “Shop now” button to prevent the struggle of browsing around.

Encouraging customers to use wishlist was also a clever move. People return to the website and you get precious data. You can send better-targeted promotions, recommend items and activate the inactive users at the same time.

I want you to want me – Nasty Gal

Source: Pinterest

Not being wanted makes anyone devastated, even if you are a pair of shoes. Nasty Gal just nailed it with this sentence in their follow up email for completing the order.

This shopping basket recovery email design example wasn’t over complicated nor contained too much information. Yet, it has a clean design and it’s straight to the point.

Nasty Gal actively calls recipients to hang out on social. Using an active verb to encourage the customers to connect is always a good idea.

Hey, where did you go? – Puma

In this shopping cart email example, Puma used catchy subject line: “Reminder: There’s something in your Shopping Cart“.

When I saw this reminder shopping cart email at the first time, I associated the girl with a shop assistant looking for me. The intention of using this image isn’t clear but it definitely worked for me.

Puma also offered free shipping but they gave a deadline to trigger a sense of urgency.

Still thinking about it? – Asics

Asics assumed the customer couldn’t decide that’s why they didn’t buy the items. We’ve all been there, it isn’t easy. How about checking out the bestsellers?

Use data and help make the purchase decision easier. Asics didn’t leave it to luck but mentioned free shipping twice in their email.

The customer could either continue shopping or proceed to checkout. Fast and easy.

Is it me you’re looking for? – Debenhams

Source: Pinterest

This email by Debenhams is minimalistic in terms of colors. Only black and pink colors were used which obviously refer to their target audience.

Debenhams also emphasized the Free Standard Delivery, Free Click and Collect and Next day delivery order by 2pm. Convincing your customer is the key.

It’s in the bag – Levi’s

Source: Pinterest

Levi’s decided to give 25% off to the recipient. But this offer was valid for 48 hours only. It’s a great example of triggering a sense of urgency.

Just for you, friend £5 – Joy

Source: Pinterest

Joy used a quote to build an instant friendship with the recipient. This email feels really personal and the recipient feels this offer is unique, tailored to them.

Joy gave one week to redeem the voucher. Enough time to think.

What I really like is that Joy asked their recipient for feedback. They encouraged engaging on Facebook as well.

“I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

Wait, you forgot something! – French Connection

Source: Pinterest

The image that French Connection used in this email is definitely eye-catching. I stared at this impossible pose for a couple seconds, to be honest.

After analyzing the image, the readers get to the point: SALE UP TO 50% OFF. Even if the abandoned product doesn’t attract the customer anymore, the 50% discount will.

Still interested? – PacSun

Source: Pinterest

This recovery email by PacSun listed the items that the customer left in the online shopping cart.

Instead of offering a 10% discount, they decided to list the products one by one with the old and new prices.

The recipient doesn’t need to count and can actually see how much they save. Rationalization at its best.

Just a reminder – Sephora

Source: Pinterest

Sephora’s email is vivid and full of actions. They offer 3 FREE SAMPLES with any order which is a really generous offer from them. Women love free samples.

Top reviews and weekly specials invite the recipient to join an exclusive club. They can learn about the best picks and get daily deals.

Wait a second! – Doggyloot

Source: Pinterest

Doggyloot used the image of a dog in their funny abandoned cart email design.

Their copy is really creative as it’s related to dogs. Using niche words can work if you use them in a creative way. “Fetch this deal” is a good example.

Don’t worry, we’ve got you – Jack Wills

Jack Wills used a sympathetic tone of voice in their e-commerce cart abandonment email when they said they understood that life could be hectic and Luke might forget about his shopping bag.

Under the “Order subtotal“, there is a message saying that Luke qualified for the free delivery.

Each item in the shopping cart has a “View item” CTA but at the bottom of the email, Luke could also return to his items.

At the bottom of the email, three different items were listed that the recipient might be interested in. You can pick products the reader most likely would pick based on data. For example, customers who chose the same items as Luke are interested in similar products.

Of course, the good, old “Sale up to 50%” offer is in the email as well to save the day.

Still thinking about it? – Whisky Loot

This email by Whisky Loot focused on decreasing the recipient’s anxiety. They listed a number of factors that would help the post-purchase evaluation.

Whisky Loot also answered frequently asked questions and encourage the reader to get in touch if they still have questions. The “Treat yourself” CTA is definitely a creative one.

Is your Wi-fi Okay? – Adidas

I love this email. The creator of this email exactly knew that the reasons for abandoning shopping carts could happen due to technical problems.

Adidas used this caring approach to ask if everything was okay. They also recommended checking out reviews that would convince the reader if they had second thoughts about the product.

This email has three different CTAs: “Shop now“, “Customize” and “Explore now“. The recipient can also navigate to the website by clicking the menu at the top of the email.

If you have a physical shop, make sure you also include a store finder in your email. Many people prefer shopping offline, make it easy for these people to find your shop.

You accidentally left some amazing wine in your cart. No biggie. – Winc

Source: Really Good Emails

Winc reminded the recipient that they accidentally made a mistake, in a funny way. They gave away $20 off to encourage completing the purchase.

Instead of using CTAs like Shop now, Wince decided to go with a more easy-going approach and said “Let’s do this” and “I’m ready for Wine“.

What’s different here is that Winc used its cart recovery email for their referral program as well. The recipient could invite their friends to Win and earn an additional 26 bucks.

At the bottom of the email, we find the boring but important bit. Include Terms and Conditions when you promote a special offer just to be on the safe side.

Free cart abandonment email templates

If you still haven’t found an example that you like and that you want to use in your campaigns, you can take a look at our email template collection from the app with professionally designed cart abandonment email templates.

You can use this template and add your images and text with the free email template designer, builder, and editor.

Takeaway

About 75% of online purchases aren’t completed. Customers have many reasons to leave your webshop without buying anything yet you still have the chance to direct them in the right direction.

By designing a great, automated cart recovery email follow-up sequence you can actually lead the visitors back to your website and get them to finish the purchase.

The success of recovering money depends on how you can leverage data and send the right message at the right time.

Designing the perfect cart abandonment email isn’t easy. Especially if you are using an ESP without a flexible drag and drop editor. It takes ages to design a good email, especially because you will need to do some A/B testing as well and it’s hard to move around the elements.

In order to create a good email design, we recommend you to use a professional email template designer because of it’s flexible drag’n’drop editor. You can craft a beautiful email within minutes. There are email template builders & designers that you can use for free.