Cart abandonment: why baskets get left, and which ones are worth chasing
Somebody picks the items, sees the total and leaves. Every shop gets it. Some of it's fixable on the site, some by email, and some was never a sale.
- 014Cart Abandonment
- When customers add items to their shopping cart but leave the site without completing the purchase.
- Measured as
- Baskets that never became orders, divided by all baskets started
- Not the same as
- Checkout abandonment, a step later, once they've reached payment
- Fixed on site by
- Delivery costs shown early, guest checkout, the payment methods people expect
- Followed up by
- An abandoned cart flow, for shoppers Klaviyo can identify
Working out your abandonment rate, and why it'll look alarming
Take the baskets that never became an order, divide by every basket started, and multiply by a hundred. It'll look alarming. It's meant to: plenty of people use a basket as a wishlist, a price check or a way to find out the postage.
So don't steer by the rate on its own. Watch it move. A jump after a site change, a new delivery charge or a payment option that's stopped working tells you far more than the number ever will.
Why shoppers leave a basket, and which reasons email can move
Ask what changed between adding to basket and leaving. Usually they found something out.
- The delivery cost, seen for the first time at the end
- An account to create before they're allowed to pay
- The payment method they use isn't there
- A delivery date later than they needed
- A question the product page never answered, like sizing
- Nothing at all. The kettle boiled and the tab got shut
A reminder fixes the last one. An email that answers delivery and returns can help with a couple more. The rest are site problems, and emailing people back to the same obstacle won't move them. That's conversion rate optimisation work, and it comes first.
Which abandoned baskets you can actually follow up
You can only email a basket if you know whose it is. Klaviyo records an added basket for shoppers it already recognises, from a signup, an order or a click through from one of your emails, and Added to Cart needs its onsite tracking installed. A first-time visitor who never typed an address leaves nothing to follow.
So get the address earlier. A pop-up worth answering, and a checkout that asks for the email first, grow every recovery flow at once. Then build two flows, not one: checkout abandonment for people who reached payment, and the abandoned cart flow for people who stopped a step earlier.
Related terms
FAQs
Is cart abandonment the same as checkout abandonment?
No, it's a step earlier. Cart abandonment is adding to the basket and leaving. Checkout abandonment is starting the checkout, usually giving an email address on the way, and stopping before paying. The second is the stronger signal, so it gets its own flow, and that flow goes first when a shopper sets off both.
Should I give a discount to people who abandon their cart?
Not by default. Plenty of baskets get left through distraction, and a plain reminder brings those back for nothing. Offer money off to everybody and your regulars work out that leaving a basket is the cheapest way to shop with you. If you use an incentive, hold it for a later email and for baskets worth paying for.
What's a normal cart abandonment rate?
There isn't a useful one. Published averages mix every kind of shop and every way of counting a basket, so they describe the panel, not your shop. Track your own rate every week, worked out the same way each time, and treat a sudden move as the signal. An industry average only tells you how to feel about it.
Rather we explained it on your own account?
Bring your Klaviyo account to a growth consultation. We'll walk through what this means for your numbers, in plain English, and what we'd fix first.
Half an hour with Theo, 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 🌊
