How to Reduce Cart Abandonment: Fix the Causes, Then Recover the Rest

To reduce cart abandonment, fix the reasons shoppers leave first (surprise costs, slow or unclear delivery, forced accounts, long or broken checkouts, and too few payment options), then recover the shoppers you can still reach with well-timed reminder emails and SMS. Baymard Institute puts the average documented cart abandonment rate at 70.22%, so even small improvements recover meaningful revenue.

Some abandonment is unavoidable. People browse, compare prices and save items for later. The goal is to remove the abandonment you cause.

Key takeaways

• Show the full cost, including shipping, taxes and duties, before checkout. Extra costs are the top reason people leave.
• Offer guest checkout and the payment methods your customers already use.
• Cut checkout form fields and fix errors that wipe what customers typed.
• Make delivery speed and returns visible on product and cart pages.
• Recover the rest with separate abandoned cart and abandoned checkout flows, without leading with a discount.
• Measure abandonment by step and device, not as one overall number.

Why shoppers abandon carts

Baymard Institute's survey of US online shoppers found that 42% had abandoned a cart because they were "just browsing / not ready to buy." Excluding that group, the most common reasons were:

Baymard also reports that the average US checkout shows 23.48 form elements by default, while an ideal flow can be as short as 12–14. Most stores have room to cut.

Step 1: Measure where people drop off

Before fixing anything, find out which step loses the most shoppers:

1. Add to cart → begin checkout (cart abandonment)
2. Begin checkout → shipping info
3. Shipping info → payment info
4. Payment info → purchase (often payment failures)

Split each step by device and by traffic source. A big drop at shipping usually means costs or delivery times; a drop at payment usually means missing methods, distrust or declines.

On Shopify, open Orders > Abandoned checkouts and read through recent entries. Each checkout's timeline records payment attempts and failure reasons such as declined cards, incorrect card details, ZIP mismatches, failed 3-D Secure authentication, sold-out inventory and expired discount codes. Shopify deletes abandoned checkouts older than three months, so export them if you want a longer record.

Step 2: Fix the causes on your site

1. Show the total cost early

Surprise costs at checkout are the single biggest cause. Show shipping cost (or a calculator) on product pages and in the cart, display a free-shipping threshold with a progress bar, and be explicit about taxes. For international customers, show prices in local currency and, if you can, include duties so nothing is added at the door. See how to sell internationally on Shopify Markets.

2. Make delivery speed and dates visible

"Ships in 3–5 business days" is weaker than "Order today, arrives by Thursday." Put delivery estimates near the Add to Cart button and repeat them in the cart. If you offer express shipping, say how much it costs before checkout.

3. Offer guest checkout

Forced account creation drives away nearly one in five shoppers who leave. Let people check out as guests and offer an account after purchase, when the benefit (order tracking, faster reorders) is obvious.

4. Add express and familiar payment options

Accelerated checkouts let returning customers skip typing. Shopify supports Shop Pay plus Apple Pay, Google Pay, Amazon Pay and PayPal options, shown in an Express Checkout section ordered for each customer. Also offer local methods your markets expect, such as buy-now-pay-later in markets where it's common, or bank and wallet options where cards are less used.

5. Shorten the checkout form

Remove optional fields you don't use (company name, second address line shown by default, separate billing address when it matches shipping). Turn on address autocomplete. Use the right mobile keyboards for phone and card fields.

6. Fix errors and crashes

Test checkout weekly on mobile and desktop with real payment methods. Watch for app conflicts, broken discount codes and scripts that block buttons. Error messages should say what's wrong and keep the form filled in.

7. Build trust at the point of payment

Show recognizable payment logos, a short returns summary, support contact details and real reviews near the buy button. Make sure checkout branding matches your store so it doesn't look like a different site.

8. State the returns policy plainly

A clear, fair returns policy shown in one line near the price ("Free 30-day returns") answers a question shoppers otherwise leave to look up.

9. Keep the cart persistent

Make sure carts survive closing the browser and, for signed-in customers, switching devices. Shoppers often research on mobile and buy later on desktop.

10. Use exit-intent and save-for-later carefully

A gentle exit message ("Want us to email your cart?") can capture an email address so you can recover the visit. Avoid aggressive pop-ups that block the page on mobile.

For a full audit beyond the cart, use the ecommerce conversion rate optimization checklist, and see product page best practices that convert for the information shoppers need before they ever reach the cart.

Step 3: Recover the shoppers who still leave

Know which tool sends what

Shopify can send abandoned checkout emails itself through the Shopify Messaging app (Apps > Messaging > Automations), where you choose who receives them and how long to wait. Shopify won't send a recovery email in some situations, for example if the customer completed a purchase first, if a payment processing error occurred, if you don't ship to their address, if they entered only a phone number, if products are out of stock, or if Shopify Payments blocked the checkout as high risk.

If you use Klaviyo or another email platform, turn off Shopify's native emails so customers don't get duplicates. Klaviyo recommends building two flows: one triggered by Added to Cart and one by Started Checkout.

A recovery sequence that works

Add SMS only for shoppers who have explicitly opted in to texts, and keep it to one message. Branch by cart value: a large cart may deserve a personal email from your support team.

The full setup, including triggers, filters and timing, is in the Klaviyo email flows every store needs.

Be careful with discounts

Automatic discounts in the first reminder teach customers that abandoning pays. Offer incentives late in the sequence, only to people who have never bought, and use single-use codes. Track whether the discount adds net orders, not just recovered ones.

From experience: On Shopify stores, one of the most common reasons recovery emails underperform is that two systems send them, so customers get two different reminders within an hour, sometimes with different discounts. Pick one sender, and test the whole sequence yourself with a real email address before trusting the dashboard.

Step 4: Track the right numbers

• Cart-to-checkout rate and checkout completion rate, by device and traffic source
• Recovered revenue per flow, and the share of abandoned checkouts recovered
• Payment failure rate by method and country
• Revenue per visitor, so a discount-driven recovery doesn't hide lower margins

Review monthly. If your overall rate is steady but mobile checkout completion drops, something changed on mobile: check recent app installs and theme edits first.

Cart abandonment checklist

• [ ] Shipping cost or free-shipping threshold visible on product pages and in the cart
• [ ] Delivery date estimate shown before checkout
• [ ] Guest checkout enabled
• [ ] Express checkout (Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal where available) turned on
• [ ] Local payment methods offered in each market you sell to
• [ ] Checkout form trimmed to essential fields with address autocomplete
• [ ] Weekly checkout test on mobile and desktop with real payment methods
• [ ] Returns policy summarized near the buy button
• [ ] Persistent carts across sessions and devices
• [ ] One system (Shopify or your email platform) sending recovery emails, not both
• [ ] Separate abandoned cart and abandoned checkout flows
• [ ] Discounts limited to late messages, first-time shoppers and unique codes
• [ ] Abandoned checkout timelines reviewed monthly for payment failure patterns

Next steps

• Pull your funnel by step and device for the last 30 days and find the biggest drop.
• Fix the top three causes from the table above that apply to your store.
• Audit who sends your recovery emails and remove duplicates.
• Set up separate cart and checkout recovery flows with a no-discount first message.
• If you'd like a Shopify or Shopify Plus checkout audit, see Shopify Plus development.

Sources

• Baymard Institute, Cart abandonment rate statistics: https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate
• Shopify Help Center, Recovering abandoned checkouts: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/orders/abandoned-checkouts
• Shopify Help Center, Accelerated checkouts and accelerated checkout buttons: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/accelerated-checkouts
• Klaviyo Help Center, How to create an abandoned cart flow: https://help.klaviyo.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002779411

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