The problem
Some shoppers reach checkout, give their email and leave. If an online shop sees 150 abandoned checkouts a month and 4% (6 people) would finish the order after a reminder, at a £38 average basket that's £228 a month in sales (6 x £38) lost by doing nothing.
What the AI does
Shopify's help page says a checkout counts as abandoned when it stays incomplete for more than ten minutes after the customer has given their email, and that you can send recovery emails automatically, each with a link that takes the customer back to their cart. You choose who receives them and how long after abandonment they are sent. Shopify's pricing page lists abandoned checkout recovery on every plan. Whether a reminder counts as marketing under PECR depends on what it says; the cautious route is to send only to shoppers who agreed to marketing emails at checkout, and to check the 'Send to' options in your settings.
A worked example
A tea shop in Norwich with one part-time packer sells on Shopify Basic and sees about 150 abandoned checkouts a month. The owner turns on the abandoned checkout email and reviews the results monthly.
Before
150 abandoned checkouts a month with no follow-up: £0 recovered
After
6 of the 150 (4%, an assumption) come back at a £38 average basket: 6 x £38 = £228 in sales
What it's worth
About £103 a month in gross profit: £228 in recovered sales at an assumed 45% margin after product and packaging costs (£228 x 0.45 = £102.60). The 4% recovery rate is an assumption, not a promise, and it could be lower. Shopify Basic is £25 a month, or £19 billed yearly, and recovery is listed on every plan; if you already pay for Shopify the extra cost is nil.
How to set it up
- In Shopify, open Apps, then Messaging, then Automations, and edit the abandoned checkout email.
- Choose to send abandoned checkout emails automatically and pick who receives them and how long after abandonment.
- Check the 'Send to' option so only shoppers who agreed to marketing emails receive reminders.
- Read the email as a shopper would: check the wording, your shop name and that the link returns to the cart.
- Place a test checkout with your own email, abandon it and confirm the email arrives.
- Each month, look at the Email status and Recovery status columns on the Abandoned checkouts page and note how many came back.
What goes wrong
- Marketing emails need consent under PECR and UK GDPR. Shopify's page doesn't cover consent for these emails, so decide who should receive them and check your 'Send to' setting rather than assuming.
- Shopify's page says no email is sent if a payment error occurred or the customer entered a phone number instead of an email, so some abandoned checkouts can't be followed up.
- The help page describes the legacy experience and points to a newer automation; the menus in your admin may differ, so follow what you see.
- Don't add discounts to every reminder by default; they train regular customers to abandon on purpose.