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Abandoned Carts

Carts that were filled and left, and the sequence of emails that tries to bring them back, with the timing rules that stop it becoming a nuisance. 4 parts.

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Where to find it:WP Admin › EasyCart › Marketing › Abandoned Cart

What was left behind

Carts and the sequence

The carts themselves, and the steps that chase them.

The abandoned carts

Carts that were filled and left, and what happened to them

no stored settings

A cart becomes abandoned once it has sat untouched for a period you set, and it stays in the list until it is either recovered or forgotten. The tiles give the picture for the last 7, 30 or 90 days: Abandoned, Open, Recovery rate and Recovered revenue. Each row shows the customer, the cart, its value, how far they got, and where it is in the sequence. Columns chooses what the list shows.

The list is worth reading for its own sake before you send anything: patterns in what gets abandoned often point at a problem in the checkout rather than a failure of intent.

Carts abandoned after a payment failure are counted separately, because they are a different problem with a different answer. Somebody whose card was declined wanted to buy and could not; that is a more valuable message to send, and a more urgent one.

Carts are eventually forgotten, after a period you also set. Forgotten carts are kept for reporting and marked expired, so your historical numbers stay intact while the customer stops being chased.

Marketing › Abandoned Cart: the recovery tiles, the reminder status and the tracked carts.
Marketing › Abandoned Cart: the recovery tiles, the reminder status and the tracked carts.

The recovery sequence

Three steps, each with its own delay and wording

no stored settings

Recovery is a sequence of steps rather than a single email. Switch on Send automatic reminders and the enabled steps send in order; it stops the moment the customer buys, unsubscribes, or you mark the cart handled. Each step has its own Send after delay, Subject, Heading, Intro and Button wording, so the tone can change as the sequence goes on: a helpful reminder first, something more persuasive later.

A step can carry a Discount: pick a code-triggered offer and each cart gets its own single-use code tied to the customer’s email, applied automatically by the link. Discounting on the first message is usually a mistake, because you pay a margin to people who were going to return anyway. Holding the discount for a later step targets the ones who genuinely needed a push.

Send me a test on each step is the only sensible way to check wording and rendering before it reaches customers.

Every reminder is sent from the Account emails address on Settings › Email, and customer replies go to it; the screen names the address. Each send is recorded in the email log there, so you can see what went out and retry anything that failed.

This is distinct from the single daily reminder on the Checkout settings. That one is the simple version; turning on this sequence replaces it, so nothing sends twice.

For a step by step walkthrough, see How to Recover Abandoned Carts.

Abandoned cart recovery: the on switch, the sender line and the three steps with their wording and discount.
Abandoned cart recovery: the on switch, the sender line and the three steps with their wording and discount.

💡 Note: Set the Account emails address under Settings › Emails & Documents › Email before you switch the sequence on. Reminders are sent from it and replies land there.

Keeping it civil

Rules and privacy

The caps and windows that stop recovery becoming spam, and what is being captured.

Timing and rules

The guards that stop recovery becoming spam

no stored settings

Several limits work together, and they exist because recovery email is the easiest thing in a store to over-send.

A cart is abandoned after, in minutes idle, and Forget carts after, in days, bound the whole exercise. One sequence per customer every N days stops a regular shopper being chased constantly. Only send between keeps mail out of the middle of the night, using store time, with anything due waiting for the window to open. And Max sends per 15 minutes protects your sending reputation if a large batch comes due at once, such as the backlog when you first switch the sequence on.

Payment-failed carts get their own timing and wording: the first reminder goes after the minutes you set, with a subject and intro written for a declined card.

Taken together these turn a feature that can easily annoy people into one that mostly recovers sales.

Timing & rules and Tracking & privacy, with the EU and UK note.
Timing & rules and Tracking & privacy, with the EU and UK note.

💡 Note: The per-customer frequency cap and the sending window are what separate recovery from nuisance. Set both before switching the sequence on.

Tracking and privacy

When the address is captured, and what is measured

no stored settings

Recovery depends on having an email address before the order exists. Save the email as soon as it’s typed at checkout is what makes most recovery possible, and it is also the one to think hardest about, because it captures an address from somebody who did not complete a purchase.

Track opens and Track clicks are separate switches. Both are useful for knowing whether the sequence works, and both are personal data. Turning them off costs you measurement, not recovery.

If you sell in the EU or UK, read the note in this card. Open and click tracking count as marketing analytics there, and many merchants turn both off. Every reminder carries an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing stops all future reminders to that address. The screen gives you the controls; it cannot make the legal judgement for you, so take advice on your privacy notice.

⚠️ Careful: Saving the email as soon as it is typed captures an address from a shopper who never completed an order. That is what makes recovery work, and it is a decision to make deliberately, with a line in your privacy policy about cart reminders.

Keep going

Related panels

Checkout

The simple daily reminder, and the checkout being abandoned.

Offers

Code-triggered offers to attach to a recovery step.

Email

The Account emails address reminders come from, and the email log.

Cart Links

Links that return a shopper to a filled cart.

Reports

The abandoned cart figure, and what recovery is worth.

Subscribers

The marketing list, a different consent from this one.

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The WP EasyCart admin: orders and offers
Updated on October 2, 2026