How to Recover Abandoned Carts in WooCommerce: Get Your Customers Back

If you are having a tough time with your eCommerce business due to the excessive cart abandonment rate, it’s time to deal with that. Every eCommerce business has to go through this problem, no matter if it’s a giant company like Amazon or a startup like yours.

A study by Baymard Institute shows that 69.57% of online shopping carts are abandoned.

That means for every 100 potential customers, 70 of them will leave without purchasing.

How profitable you’ll be, depends on how smartly you can recover these abandoned carts.

If you don’t have any prior experience to overcome this problem, fret not. Because in this blog, we are going to elaborately discuss how you can recover WooCommerce abandonment carts like a pro.

We will be focusing on three major points.

Why customers abandon their carts

1. How to recover abandoned carts using a free WordPress plugin, and
2. Proven tips to decrease the WooCommerce cart abandonment rate

So, keep reading this blog to unveil everything about WooCommerce cart abandonment and apply it to your eCommerce business. Without further ado, let’s get started!

What Is an Abandoned Cart?

Cart abandonment refers to when a shopper comes to your online store, adds one or more products to his cart, and then leaves your site without finally purchasing them.

If you are still not sure what is an abandoned cart, we can give you an example.

Let’s assume, you need to buy a book. That is why you visit an online bookstore e.g., amazon.com.

You find the book and add it to your cart. Then you discover something unusual like excessive delivery costs on the checkout page. Hence, you leave the site without ordering the book.

The cart that you left without making the purchase is called an abandoned cart.

If you are wondering why on earth someone would leave the cart without ordering the products, hold your confusion a bit longer! Now we are going to show you some reasons behind cart abandonment and clear your confusion.

Why Do People Abandon Their Shopping Carts?

When people add any products to their carts that means they really want to buy those products. So what could be the possible reasons that refrain them not making the final transaction?

Well, we have researched and come up with some key points that cause eCommerce cart abandonment.

1. Unexpected Costs

People don’t want to pay more than they see on the product page, especially when the product itself is expensive.

Let’s assume, you are selling washing machines online at $499 per unit. And you don’t reveal the shipping cost alongside the product cost. So, after adding a washing machine to the cart if a customer notices the price has been increased to $520, the customer will most likely leave your online store.

According to a study,

49% of customers leave their carts after discovering the unanticipated shipping cost at the checkout page.

2. Registration Obligation

If you think from an online store owner’s view, it’s normal to collect customers’ information. Because it helps later to retarget them through the email addresses or send special coupon codes to get them back on your site.

But in terms of a customer's point of view, it will annoy you if you have to create an account before placing the order.

Even, a big chunk of customers leave their carts behind and never come back to the store to complete the transaction if they are forced to create an account to order the product.

3. Complicated Checkout Page

Online shoppers are the busiest people, even, they are busier than the bees. So, if you offer an online shopper a too-long checkout page, or a complicated checkout page with unnecessary information, he will certainly leave your site.

According to Forter,

50% of Americans say they are less likely to purchase something online if the checkout process takes longer than half a minute i.e. 30 seconds.

So, try to optimize a checkout page that is straightforward and there are no distractions like popups or ads.

4. Unavailability of Customers’ Preferred Payment Gateway

Still, credit card is the most popular payment method for online shoppers, but you have to enable multiple payment methods for better ensuring a better customer experience.

You can never control your customers which method they prefer to pay.

So, if your customer wants to pay with Stripe and you didn’t enable Stripe on your site, regardless to say, he will not make the payment. Instead, he will search for another online store that receives Stripe payment.

5. Slow-Loading Website

If a site takes an eternity to load, no one will prefer to use that site. Even, you can’t remember when was the last time you waited more than a minute to load the site.

According to a YOTTAA study,

9 out of 10 (or 90%) of shoppers would abandon a site if it takes too long to load, with 57% likely to purchase from a competitor instead, and 14% never returning to your eCommerce site.

6. Availability of the Same Products at a Lower Price Elsewhere

Without loyal customers, every online shopper checks multiple online stores before finally purchasing the products.

Even, sometimes, loyal customers too check and order products from other websites if they find the same products at lower prices.

And there is nothing wrong with this. As everybody knows it’s a competitive market, and it’s becoming fiercer every day.

7. Discount Code

Sometimes customers add products to their carts and leave them without placing the orders because they expect they would get discount codes to buy the products.

They keep waiting until they get a discount code from the store owner. If they don’t get the discount, they leave the cart abandoned and search for another eCommerce site for doing the same.

How to Recover Abandoned Carts?

Cart abandonment in the eCommerce business is nothing new. There are a few ways to reduce the cart abandonment rate.

One of the most popular and effective ways is to use a WooCommerce abandoned cart recovery plugin.

Having said that there are several popular plugins to use. Which one would be the most convenient for you?

Before making our final decision on which plugin could be the best choice for you, let’s take a quick look at the most popular WooCommerce abandoned cart recovery plugins.

1. WooCommerce Cart Abandonment Recovery

WooCommerce cart abandonment recovery is arguably the most popular abandoned cart recovery plugin out there with more than 300,000 active installations.

This plugin is absolutely free. You won’t have to pay a single penny to use this plugin.

It collects the customer’s email address from the checkout page. If the purchase isn’t completed within 15 minutes, it starts sending a series of emails to that particular shopper.

Key features of the WooCommerce Cart Abandonment Recovery Plugin

• Unique checkout links to remind exactly what shoppers left off
• Ready-made email templates
• Personalized emails to address customer’s name
• Unique and limited-time coupon codes to complete purchase
• Integration with marketing automation tools

Check more about the WooCommerce cart abandonment recovery plugin

2. Abandoned Cart Lite for WooCommerce

Abandoned cart lite for WooCommerce is another free and popular abandoned cart recovery plugin with 30,000+ active installations.

This plugin captures information for both guests and registered customers. It comes with a default email template so that you can get started right away. Once the purchase is completed by using the recovery link, it stops sending email notifications to the customers.

Key Features of the Abandoned Cart Lite for WooCommerce

• Tracks if the cart is abandoned by the guest client or logged-in user
• Automatically sends a reminder email if the cart is abandoned
• Prebuilt email templates for quick setup
• Powerful Rick Text Editor to create templates from HTML
• Advanced reporting system to show the success rate

Check more about the abandoned cart lite for WooCommerce

3. CartBounty

Our last but not least pick of this list is CartBounty abandoned cart recovery plugin. It’s a freemium plugin which means apart from a free version, there is a premium version as well.

Unlike other WooCommerce abandoned cart recovery plugins, it comes with an exit intent popup feature. This option encourages unregistered visitors to save their carts for later.

Also, you can send a series of emails to remind the shoppers who left unpurchased products in their carts using CartBounty.

Key Features of CartBounty

• “Remember checkout fields” feature to save customer info after they refresh the checkout page
• Live shopping cart monitoring to analyze the most popular cart items
• Tracks guest carts
• Actions and filters for advanced configuration

Check more about the CartBounty

Our Verdict on Which Plugin to Choose

After analyzing the top three most popular and effective WooCommerce abandoned cart recovery plugins, we have decided to choose the WooCommerce cart abandonment recovery plugin.

Here are the reasons to choose the WooCommerce cart abandonment recovery plugin:

• With 300,000+ active installations, It’s the most popular plugin out there
• It has an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars with 225 reviews
• It doesn’t bloat your site
• There is no compatibility issue
• Compatibility with marketing automation tools
• It comes with prebuilt email templates
• Last but not least, it’s filled with all the abandoned cart recovery features

If you’re convinced about using the WooCommerce cart abandonment recovery plugin, let’s proceed to the next phase and learn how to use this plugin.

How to Recover Abandoned Carts Using the WooCommerce Cart Abandonment Recovery Plugin?

Using the WooCommerce cart abandonment recovery plugin is easy. Follow the below procedures to know what you need to do to recover the abandoned carts.

Step 01: Install the WooCommerce Cart Abandonment Recovery Plugin

Since it’s a free plugin, you can install it on your site directly from your dashboard.

So, log in to your WordPress dashboard, then go to Plugins -> Add New.

Now type the plugin name (WooCommerce cart abandonment recovery) in the search box. Choose your desired plugin from the search result.

Then click the Install Now button to install the plugin. After installing the plugin, you’ll see the “Activate” button. Click that to activate and use the plugin.

An image that shows how to install the WooCommerce cart abandonment recovery plugin

Step 02: Configure the Plugin

To configure the plugin, navigate to WooCommerce -> Cart abandonment.

Click on the Setting tab.

Some of the essential options are:

• Enable tracking: Check the box in order to start tracking the abandoned carts.
• Cart abandoned cut-off time: Specify a duration (in minutes) after which a cart is considered abandoned.
• Disable tracking for: Select whom you don’t want to track.
• Exclude email sending for: Select whom you don’t want to send cart abandonment emails.
• Notify recovery to admin: Check the box if you want the admin receives an email every time a cart is recovered.
• Delete coupons automatically: Coupons will be deleted automatically if you check this box.
• Email settings: Enter the name of your website, the email address that you’ll use to send emails, and the email address that users can reply to.
• Send recovery report emails: You can send reports through email by enabling this option. Then enter the email address/addresses to whom you want to send the report.
• Enable webhook: Check the box in order to send data to your CRM or email marketing platform.
• Enable GDPR integration: If you want to track your customers’ data, make sure you check this box.

Finally, don’t forget to hit the Save button to save all the changes.

An image that shows the settings of the WooCommerce cart abandonment recovery plugin

Step 03: Send a Follow-up Email

There are two ways to send follow-up emails.

1. Create new template
2. Use the prebuilt templates

Let’s check how both of them work.

Method 01: Create New Template

• To create a new template, click on the “Create New Template” option from the “Follow-Up Emails” tab.

A snap that describes where to click to create a new template to send a follow-up email

• On the next interface, you’ll find options to create a follow-up email.
• Insert a template name and email subject. Template name won’t be visible to the customers’ end, it’s for you.

But the email subject is important, it’ll be seen by the customers. Furthermore, the email open rate depends on the email subject. So, try to optimize it smartly.

Then write an email to the email body option.

Don’t forget to insert the Unsubscribe option with the email.

A screenshot that shows how an email should be written

• If you want to give discounts, check the Create Coupon box.
• Then configure the coupon options like Discount Type, Coupon Amount, Coupon expiry date, and a few more.
• Then set the amount of time (in minutes) when you want to trigger this email after a cart is abandoned.
• You can check if this email is okay or not by sending a test email to your email address. Just type the email address in the box.
• Once you are done, enable the Activate Template Now toggle button. You’ll find this button above the Template Name option.
• Finally, click the “Save Changes” button to save this template.

A screenshot that shows the follow-up email settings

Method 02: Use the Prebuilt Templates

To use an existing template, click on any of the given templates.

An image that shows the list of the existing template

Now you’ll get all the same options that we have just discussed above. Edit this template as per your requirements.

Once you are done with all the customization, don’t forget to save all the changes.

A screenshot that shows the settings of a premade template for sending follow-up emails

That’s all! So, now you know how to send a follow-up email using the WooCommerce cart abandonment recovery plugin to get your customers back.

Step 04: Track Report

You can track all the reports from the Report tab.

There are four options to check the report.

• Today
• Yesterday
• Last Week
• Last Month

If you need a custom report, just set the date range and click the “Custom Filter” option. You’ll get your desired report.

If you want to track “Recoverable Orders”, “Recovered Orders” and “Lost Orders”, there are options as well. Just scroll a bit down and you’ll get the options.

A snap that shows different settings of the report tab of the WooCommerce cart abandonment recovery plugin

Congratulations! Now you know everything about using the WooCommerce cart abandonment recovery plugin. So, without any delay, use this plugin on your site and see the impact.

Proven Tips to Decrease the WooCommerce Cart Abandonment Rate Significantly

Apart from using an abandoned cart recovery plugin, there are a few ways to decrease the WooCommerce cart abandonment rate significantly. Let’s talk about that!

1. Free Shipping

Offering free shipping is one of the most common practices to improve the cart abandonment rate. However, if you have a small business with a limited profit margin, you’ll find it difficult to offer free shipping.

In that case, you can set some rules to claim free shipping. For instance, if a customer makes a certain amount of purchase, he will be able to claim free shipping. It’s important to be very transparent about what customers have to do in order to be eligible for free shipping.

You can also offer free shipping to the person who already has abandoned his cart. If you have his email, send a personalized email with a code to redeem free shipping. It works in most of the cases.

Or, if you aren’t able to give free shipping, make it clear in the first place. Never surprise your customers on the checkout page by adding shipping costs or taxes without declaring it along with the product price on the product page.

2. Guest Checkout

Guest checkout means it enables your customers to buy products from your eCommerce website without registering or logging in to their accounts. Your customer will just enter his name, billing, and shipping information to complete the purchase. In some cases, you can ask for his email address for sending shipping notifications.

All this data will only be used to ship the product. You’ll not be able to use the email address for sending any marketing campaigns.

So, this is how guest checkout works.

Guest checkout decreases the cart abandonment rate, for sure. At the same time, you need your customers to register on your site. How would you balance this situation?

Well, you can always ask your customers to sign up or create an account for additional promotions once they’ve completed their purchase.

Or, you can offer something like order tracking opportunity if they sign up to your eCommerce site.

3. Simplified Checkout Page

Don’t make the checkout page scary. A too long and complicated checkout page irritates online shoppers.

Customers leave the checkout page because of unclear CTAs, annoying pop-ups, or ads. All these aspects affect the quality of the user experience on your website.

So, try to make the whole checkout process within one page with clear CTAs and without any distractions like popups or ads.

Putting a dynamic progress bar on the checkout page is a smart choice. It helps the customers understand how many steps are left to complete the purchase.

An image that shows how a progress bar looks on a checkout page

4. Secured Payment Options

Your customers will give you their sensitive data like credit card information. So, you have to earn credibility in terms of making them comfortable to put their information.

For doing that first of all, make sure you are offering multiple payment options that are trusted by people around the world. Offer your customer payment options like Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, Square, Google Pay, PayPal, and Stripe.

Another proven way to earn the customers’ trust is to show the trust badge on the checkout page. Follow the below image to know what it looks like.

A screenshot that shows how a trust signal looks like on a checkout page

5. Money Back Guarantee/Refund Policy

You can show the money-back guarantee or refund policy on the checkout page. It gives customers to complete the purchase if you can perfectly place the message.

Try to display a “No Question Asked” money-back guarantee with a time duration. For instance, if a customer wants to return the products within 3 days or 7 days, he will be able to get his money back without any hassle.

If you can place this message perfectly on the checkout page, the cart abandonment rate will surely be decreasing.

FAQ(s) on WooCommerce Abandoned Cart Recovery

Now we’ll answer some of the most frequently asked questions on WooCommerce abandoned cart recovery process.

1. How to calculate cart abandonment rate?

Cart abandonment rate is calculated by dividing the total number of completed transactions by the total number of initiated sales.

2. What is the eCommerce cart abandonment rate in 2023?

In 2023, shopping cart abandonment statistics show that the eCommerce cart abandonment rate is approximately 71% across the world.

3. What is a good abandonment cart recovery rate?

If you are able to recover 10% of the abandoned carts, you’re doing better than most of the eCommerce business owners.

4. How to recover abandoned carts in WooCommerce?

You can recover your WooCommerce abandoned carts by using a WordPress plugin. There are both free and premium plugins to do that.

We suggest you to use the WooCommerce cart abandonment recovery plugin to get your job done without costing a penny.

5. What are the best WooCommerce abandonment cart recovery plugins?

Here is the list of the best WooCommerce abandonment cart recovery plugin:

1. WooCommerce cart abandonment recovery plugin
2. Abandoned cart lite for WooCommerce
3. CartBounty
4. Retainful
5. Metorik

Recover your WooCommerce Abandoned Cart Now and Set the Milestone of the Highest Conversion Rate

Cart abandonment is a pain for every eCommerce business owner. It can cause a significant profit if you don’t take any measurements to recover abandoned carts.

The smarter one can deal with this problem, the more profitable he will be.

The good news is now you know how to tackle this problem. All you have to do is install the WooCommerce abandonment cart recovery plugin and configure it to send personalized emails to the customers who abandoned the carts.

Also, you should follow the tips that we have shared in this blog to reduce the cart abandonment rate significantly.

Be remembered, you’ll not get success overnight. Keep practicing all these tips and methods that we have discussed and you’ll undoubtedly see the impact gradually. Good luck!