Abandoned cart program detects the moment a shopper walks away, then sends timely reminders turning missed opportunities into conversions. Learn how to create a triggered email campaign that displays the latest cart contents. Then set up automation to send it at the right time, boosting conversions without manual effort.

Use case

Imagine a customer browses your online store, adds a few items to their cart, but leaves without completing the purchase. Instead of losing that sale, you can automatically send a personalized email showing the exact items they left behind, encouraging them to return and complete their order.

And with a program in place, this process runs entirely on autopilot.

Personalisation ideas for this use case:

A customer who leaves a high-value item in their cart receives an email and an SMS reminder.
For regular customers, include loyalty points updates in the reminder email.
For first-time shoppers, add a satisfaction guarantee statement to the reminder email.

Before you start

Things you need to have:

Dotdigital Tag installed and active on your site.
See Add the Dotdigital Tag to learn more.

CartInsight data available in your Dotdigital account.
CartInsight tracking powers abandoned cart emails, but capturing this data requires additional scripting on your website in addition to enabling Ecommerce tracking in Tag settings.
Learn more in Extend the Dotdigital Tag for abandoned cart and browse.

At least one test contact with recent CartInsight records, such as a record showing cartPhase = ACTIVE and 'subTotal' > 0.
If you plan to send SMS reminders, your contacts’ mobile numbers must be stored in the system Mobile number field (not a custom field).

Step-by-step guide to creating an abandoned cart email

Step 1. Create your abandoned cart email

Go to Automation > Triggered emails.
Select ADD NEW.
Choose a template or start from scratch.
Enter a name and choose a location for your campaign.
Fill in your campaign details.
Select SAVE & CONTINUE.

Step 2. Design your email

In EasyEditor, drag a Title block onto the canvas.
Select the block, then enter your title, for example, You left something behind!
Drag a Text block onto the canvas.
Select the text block, then enter some text with a message encouraging the customer to return to their cart, for example, It looks like you forgot these great products. Complete your order now!
From the Ecommerce building blocks, drag an Abandoned cart block onto the canvas.
Select the Abandoned cart block, then expand the Price options drop-down menu, and choose how you want the price to display, for example, Show special price with price.
Adjust other aspects of your email.
Select PREVIEW to see how your email will look.
Select SAVE & CONTINUE.
On the plain text page, select SAVE & CONTINUE again.

Abandoned cart campaigns do not support plain-text versions because dynamic content needs HTML format.

Step 3. Test your campaign

Testing abandoned cart emails works differently than testing standard campaigns. Dotdigital Tag populates CartInsight data whenever a contact adds or updates items in their cart.

Test the abandoned cart block to ensure it behaves as expected before adding it to a live program.

To test the abandoned cart block:

Log into your website as the test contact.
Add items to the cart.
Log out to save the CartInsight data.
In your campaign, under Send to your test contacts select CHOOSE CONTACTS.
For Test send, choose The HTML version only.
Select SELECT TEST ADDRESS, choose your test contact, and select TEST SEND.
Select CONTINUE to review your campaign details.

If the CartInsight data is present, your test email will show the actual products left in the cart just like it would for a real customer.

Extra: Add tracking analytics

If you want to track the performance of your abandoned cart emails, you can add UTM tracking parameters.

You can add tracking information with any of the UTM parameters set up in your account. Set link tracking at the campaign level to use campaign-specific parameters. Otherwise, account-level parameters apply.

Learn more:

To add UTM tracking parameters to your abandoned cart email:

On the EasyEditor canvas, select the Abandoned cart block.
In the side panel, expand the Analytics menu.
To apply your default tracking values to links in the product block, select the Reset to defaults checkbox.
To change the values applied to your tracking parameters for links in your product block, clear the Reset to defaults checkbox, and enter the values you want to use in each text field.

Extra: Style your button

The abandoned cart button uses your campaign’s style by default. To customise it, follow these steps.

To style the button of your abandoned cart block:

On the EasyEditor canvas, select the Abandoned cart block.
In the side panel, expand the Button settings menu.
Choose either Button or Border depending on what you want to edit. You can then edit the following settings:
Button settings:
- Colour
  Enter a HEX colour code, or use the colour picker, to choose a colour for your button.
- Alignment
  Expand the alignment drop-down menu, then choose either Right, Left, Centre, or Full width.
- Padding
  Enter padding values, in pixels, for both the horizontal and vertical padding.
- Minimum width
  Enter a minimum width, in pixels, for your button.
Border settings:
- Colour
  Enter a HEX colour code, or use the colour picker, to choose a colour for your border.
- Border width
  Enter a value, in pixels, to set the thickness of your border.
- Border radius
  Enter a value, in pixels, to set the radius of your border.

Step 4. Create an abandoned cart program

Once your campaign is ready, you can build a program to automatically send it when a customer abandons their cart.

Typical abandoned cart flow:

System detects when a shopper leaves items in their cart.
System checks if purchase was made or cart emptied.
If not, sends first reminder after X minutes/hours.
If no response, sends follow-up (optional).
Exit if completed or cart is empty.

For example:

Day 1 - 3pm: Customer adds trainers to cart and leaves.
Day 1 - 3:30pm: They receive a reminder email showing their exact shoes.
Day 1 - 5pm: If the shoes are still in the cart, a second gentle reminder goes out.

Step 5. Create a program

Learn how to create a program in Create an abandoned cart program.

Test your program by simulating an abandoned cart journey, so you can check the full customer experience.

If your test email shows a blank cart, double‑check that:

The selected test contact has at least one recent CartInsight record with cartPhase = ACTIVE and subTotal > 0
Dotdigital Tag Ecommerce tracking is functioning correctly and sending data into your CartInsight collection.

Summary

With Dotdigital, you can do more than just send abandoned cart emails, you can automate the entire recovery journey. From designing a dynamic email to building a smart program that filters out completed purchases and targets the right channel, you’re set up to recover lost revenue with minimal effort.

Monitor your program’s performance by checking open rates, conversions, and revenue. Adjust your timings and content for maximum recovery.