Abandonment flows are some of the highest-converting emails an ecommerce brand can send. The customer has already shown interest by browsing a product or adding it to their basket, and a well-timed reminder is often all it takes to bring them back.
But they're also easy to get wrong. Send too many, too soon, or to the wrong people, and they feel intrusive. Here's how to build cart and browse abandonment flows that recover sales without annoying customers.
Cart abandonment vs browse abandonment
- Cart abandonment targets customers who added items to their basket but didn't check out. Intent is high, so these flows typically convert best.
- Browse abandonment targets known customers who viewed products but didn't add anything to their basket. Intent is lower, so the tone should be lighter: more inspiration, less urgency.
Both need you to recognise the customer, either because they're logged in or because they've previously clicked an email, so these flows depend on good tracking between your website and email platform.
A simple three-email structure
A good starting point for both flows is three emails over around 48 hours:
- 0hBasket abandoned
- 1–4hEmail 1Friendly reminder
- ~24hEmail 2Reassurance and reviews
- ~48hEmail 3Final nudge
Exit immediately if they purchase
| Timing | Purpose | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1–4 hours after abandoning | A friendly reminder of what they left, with clear images, prices and a direct link back. |
| 2 | Around 24 hours | Reassurance: reviews, key benefits, delivery and returns information, answers to common questions. |
| 3 | Around 48 hours | A final nudge: low-stock alerts, related products, or an incentive if your strategy allows it. |
Treat these timings as a starting point to test, not a rule. A low-cost impulse purchase might suit a faster sequence; a high-value considered purchase might need more time and more reassurance.
What to include
- The products themselves: image, name, key options and price, pulled in dynamically.
- A clear call-to-action that takes them straight back to their basket or the product page.
- Reasons to buy: reviews, guarantees, delivery times and returns policy.
- Help: an easy way to contact support. Some abandonment happens because the customer has a question.
- Related products in later emails, in case the original item wasn't quite right.
Be careful with discounts
Offering a discount in every abandonment flow trains customers to abandon their basket and wait for a code. If you use incentives:
- Save them for the final email, not the first.
- Consider limiting them to first-time customers or higher-value baskets.
- Test the flow with and without the incentive to see whether it actually adds revenue, or just gives margin away to customers who would have bought anyway.
The exclusions that matter
Good abandonment flows are defined as much by who they don't email as by who they do:
- Stop when they buy. Every email should check whether the customer has purchased, and the flow should exit immediately if they have.
- Avoid overlap. Customers in a cart abandonment flow shouldn't also get a browse abandonment flow for the same products.
- Cap frequency. Limit how often one customer can enter each flow, for example once a week, so regular browsers aren't emailed every visit.
- Respect consent. Only email customers who have agreed to marketing emails, in line with the rules in each market you sell in.
- Exclude recent purchasers of the same product from browse abandonment.
Add other channels carefully
Abandonment is time-sensitive, which makes SMS and push notifications tempting. Used sparingly, such as one push or SMS in place of the first email for customers who've opted in, they can lift recovery rates. Used heavily, they feel invasive. See Email, push or in-app? for how to balance channels.
Measure what you actually recover
Abandonment flows are easy to over-credit, because some customers would have come back and bought anyway. Measure recovered revenue against a holdout group that doesn't receive the flow, and track conversion rate, revenue per recipient and unsubscribe rate for each email. The holdout tells you the flow's true value; the per-email metrics tell you where to improve. More in Proving lifecycle marketing works.
Abandonment flows are one of nine core flows in our guide to essential ecommerce lifecycle flows.