The checkout abandonment flow, and why it goes before the cart flow
They reached the payment page and left an address on the way. That's the closest anybody gets to buying without buying.
Started Checkout, three sends, and the check that ends it
Every delay and every check, in the order we run them.
Started Checkout, not Added to Cart
Klaviyo fires this one the moment somebody reaches the checkout, and on Shopify you usually have their address by then. They picked the items. They saw the total with postage on it, and stopped.
When both flows could fire, this one takes it
Almost everybody who starts a checkout added to cart first, so both flows want the same person. This one keeps them, and the cart flow carries a filter excluding anybody who's since started a checkout. Skip that and one basket turns into two conversations.
Has an order been placed in the last thirty minutes?
The basket comes back, and nothing else does
Subject line · Your order is still waiting at the checkout
The line items, the total, and one button that reopens the checkout with everything still in it. No offer, no argument. Plenty of these people were interrupted, not put off.
Has an order been placed since email one?
The four questions that stopped them
Subject line · Delivery, returns and the questions we get asked most
What postage costs, how long it takes, how returns work, and which payment methods you take. You already hold all four. It's also the send most accounts never build.
Has an order been placed since email two?
Where a code either earns its place or doesn't
Subject line · Last one about this order
If a code shows up at all it shows up here, once, with a date on it, and never on a basket from somebody who orders every month. Put one on every send and it stops recovering orders. It starts setting your prices.
The order check is what ends it
Every step asks whether the order has landed, and the flow filter asks again before each send. Pay, and you hear nothing more from it. That's the difference between recovering an order and pestering somebody who already bought.
These timings are where we start. They move with your orders inside the first month. We won't set them against an industry abandonment rate: the ones in circulation come from panels that look nothing like your store.
What a checkout abandoner is actually stuck on
None of this looks like a problem in a campaign report.
The checkout treated as a cart
One flow covering both moments sends the payment-page shopper an email written for somebody two steps further back. Wrong person, wrong send.
Four answers nobody sends
Boring, we know. Postage, timings, returns and payment methods settle more checkouts than clever copy does, and most sequences spend all three emails on urgency instead.
A code on every send, forever
Discount every abandoner every time and the people who were buying anyway work it out. Abandoning becomes the cheapest way to shop with you.
What we test, and in which order
Three tests, one at a time: how long that first delay runs, whether the answers send lands before the deadline, then whether a code on send three earns more than it costs. All of them settled on placed orders, not opens.
What checkout recovery returned on a home fragrance account
One client, one year, this flow on its own.
Village Wax Melts, full year 2025, their checkout abandonment flow. Read the case study.
FAQs
What is a checkout abandonment flow?
A checkout abandonment flow is an automated email sequence that fires when somebody starts a checkout and doesn't pay for it. In Klaviyo the trigger is Started Checkout, not Added to Cart, so it reaches people who got as far as the payment step and left an address on the way. Ours runs three sends across three days, with an order check before each one.
What is the difference between a checkout abandonment flow and an abandoned cart flow?
The trigger, and how much it tells you. A cart flow fires on Added to Cart, which anybody can do without saying who they are. A checkout flow fires on Started Checkout, so they reached the payment page and, on Shopify, usually gave you an address getting there. Shorter distance to the order. So the sequence moves quicker.
Which flow should send if a shopper triggers both?
The checkout one, because it knows more. Nearly everybody who starts a checkout added to cart first, so both would fire and one basket would end up with two sequences chasing it. We give the cart flow a filter excluding anybody who's started a checkout since. The checkout flow keeps the contact.
How soon should the first checkout abandonment email go out?
Sooner than a cart email. The intent is higher and the session is fresher. We open at thirty minutes: long enough for somebody still paying to finish on their own, short enough that the decision is still in the room. The second lands the next day at a different hour, the third two days after that, and all three move once your orders say which timing converts.
Should a checkout abandonment email include a discount?
Not in the first two. Send one carries the basket, send two answers the friction, and between them they recover everybody who only needed a reminder or an answer. A code can earn its place on the last send, once, with an end date on it. Put one on every send and you're teaching your best customers to abandon on purpose.
Is a checkout abandonment email allowed under UK GDPR and PECR?
Usually yes. They gave you the address during a purchase attempt for similar goods, which is what the soft opt-in in PECR covers, as long as the checkout said what the address was for and let them say no there. Consent from a signup covers it too. Every send carries a one-click unsubscribe, and where the basis isn't clean the profile doesn't get the flow.
The core ten the playbook does draw
The eCommerce Email Automation Playbook
Twelve pages of decision trees: ten evergreen automations, each with its trigger, delays, splits and exits drawn out. Checkout abandonment is not one of them.
The fourteen flows that run either side of this one
The real trigger, the real delays and the real checks, one flow at a time.
- WelcomeThe first sequence after signup
- Site searchSearched, then went no further
- Category browseBrowsed a category, opened nothing
- Browse abandonmentViewed a product, then left
- Back in stockThe moment the stock lands
- Price dropOnly the people already watching
- Abandoned cartBasic and advanced, on one page
- BirthdayOne date, given on purpose
- Post purchaseThe first order welcome
- ReplenishmentTimed to the reorder window
- Cross sellThe second product, not the same one
- VIPYour best customers, kept close
- WinbackThe dormant shopper, before sunset
- SunsetThe profiles that stopped reading
- The flow libraryAll fourteen, in one place
The flow that catches the same shopper a step earlier is abandoned cart, the channel they all run in is email marketing, and the map deciding which flow owns which moment is lifecycle strategy.
The work that meets this flow halfway
Shall we read what fires on your checkout today?
Bring your Klaviyo login to the first call. We'll look at what a started checkout triggers on your account, and whether the cart flow is talking over it. No hard feelings if you go and fix it yourself.
Book a call with our founder.
We're all about relationships built on trust, mutual respect and a shared vision for success. If that sounds like your vibe, let's make some waves together 🌊
