Almost 70% of e-commerce shopping carts are abandoned before purchase completion. If you have a Shopify store and don't have an active strategy to recover abandoned carts, you're letting most of your potential sales slip away without doing anything about it.
I've seen it in dozens of stores across LATAM: owners invest in advertising to drive traffic, work on their store's design, optimize product listings... and then have no system in place to recover customers who made it to the cart and left. It's like filling a bucket with a hole in the bottom.
The good news is that recovering abandoned carts on Shopify is one of the channels with the best ROI in all of e-commerce. You're not looking for new customers; you're recovering people who have already shown real interest in your product. With the right strategy, you can recover between 10% and 25% of those carts.
In this article, I explain exactly why carts are abandoned, what tools are available in Shopify to recover them, how to configure each one, and what are the best practices I apply in my projects in Mexico and LATAM.
Why do customers abandon carts on Shopify?
Before discussing solutions, you need to understand the causes. Not all abandoned carts are the same, and the recovery strategy must adapt to the reason for abandonment.
According to studies by the Baymard Institute, the most common reasons for cart abandonment are:
- Unexpected extra costs (shipping, taxes): 48% of abandonments. The customer sees a price on the product page and arrives at checkout with a different total.
- Requirement to create an account: 24%. Many customers don't want to register to make a quick purchase.
- Checkout process too long or complicated: 22%. Each additional step in the checkout is an opportunity for abandonment.
- Does not trust the site to enter their card information: 18%. Especially relevant in LATAM where online fraud is a real concern for shoppers.
- The site had errors or loaded slowly: 17%. (This connects directly to speed optimization.)
- Was just browsing or comparing prices: 16%. These are the hardest to recover, but not impossible.
- Unsatisfactory return policy: 11%.
Understanding these causes allows you to tackle the problem on two fronts: prevention (reducing abandonments from the source) and recovery (bringing back those who have already left). In this article, we cover both.
Prevention: how to reduce cart abandonment before it happens
The best recovery strategy is not needing one. Before investing in recovery tools, make sure your store isn't generating avoidable abandonments.
Show shipping costs from the beginning
Unexpected shipping costs are the #1 cause of abandonment. Practical solutions:
- Show a shipping calculator on the product page or in the cart
- Offer free shipping above a minimum amount and communicate it clearly in your store's header
- If you cannot offer free shipping, be transparent: show rates before checkout
Enable guest checkout
Shopify allows checkout without an account by default, but some themes or configurations complicate it. Verify that your customers can purchase without registering. Go to Settings > Checkout > Customer Accounts and ensure it is set to “Optional” or “Disabled.”
Enable Shop Pay
Shop Pay is Shopify's accelerated checkout. Customers who have already used it in any Shopify store can complete their purchase with a single click. I have seen it in dozens of stores in LATAM: activating Shop Pay can reduce checkout abandonment by 15% to 25% on its own.
Build trust at checkout
In LATAM, distrust when entering card data is a real factor. Elements that build trust:
- Visible security seals (SSL, Shopify Secure)
- Clear and accessible return policy from the cart
- Number of reviews and visible rating on the product page
- Easy-to-find contact information
💡 Do you want me to review your checkout and tell you what is generating avoidable abandonments? At yosoyexperto.com, I conduct conversion audits for Shopify stores in LATAM with concrete and prioritized recommendations.
Recovery: Shopify's native tools for abandoned carts
Shopify includes native tools for recovering abandoned carts that many store owners do not have properly configured. Before installing third-party apps, make sure you leverage what you already have.
Shopify's automatic abandoned cart emails
Shopify automatically sends a recovery email to customers who abandoned their cart, provided they entered their email at checkout. This feature is active by default, but most stores have it with default settings without customization.
How to configure it correctly:
- Go to Marketing > Automations in your Shopify admin
- Find the "Abandoned cart email" automation
- Personalize the email subject — the default is generic and has a low open rate
- Adjust the sending time: the default is 10 hours, but 1-2 hours usually works better
- Add an incentive if your margin allows it: 10% discount, free shipping, etc.
Best practices for abandoned cart emails:
- Personalized subject with the customer's name and/or product: "Ricardo, you forgot something in your cart"
- Image of the abandoned product visible in the email
- Clear and direct CTA button: "Complete my order"
- Subtle urgency: "Your cart will be saved for 24 more hours"
- Direct link to the cart (Shopify generates it automatically)
Abandoned cart push notifications
If you have Shopify installed as a PWA or use a push notification app, you can send alerts directly to the customer's browser or device without needing their email. This is especially useful for customers who did not complete the checkout form.
Retargeting with Meta Ads and Google Ads
Shopify natively integrates with Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and Google to create retargeting audiences based on customers who visited your store, added products to the cart, or initiated checkout without completing it.
This is one of the most effective strategies because it reaches customers who did not leave their email. Configuration requires having the Meta pixel and Google tag correctly installed in your store.
Go Recover: the specialized abandoned cart recovery app for Shopify
Shopify's native tools are a good starting point, but if you want to take cart recovery to the next level, you need a specialized solution. One that has particularly caught my attention for stores in LATAM is Go Recover.
Go Recover is an app specifically designed to recover abandoned carts on Shopify through multiple channels: email, SMS, and WhatsApp. This last point is especially relevant for the Latin American market, where WhatsApp is the dominant communication channel.
What makes Go Recover different?
- WhatsApp Recovery: In Mexico and LATAM, WhatsApp open rates exceed 90%. A recovery message via WhatsApp has a completely different impact than an email that might get lost in the inbox.
- Multichannel sequences: You can set up flows that combine email + WhatsApp + SMS at different times after abandonment, maximizing recovery probabilities.
- Message personalization: Messages include the customer's name, abandoned products, and a direct link to the cart to complete the purchase with one click.
- Smart segmentation: You can configure different messages and offers based on cart value, customer history, or the specific product abandoned.
- Results Dashboard: See exactly how many carts you recovered, the revenue generated, and the ROI of each channel.
How to set up Go Recover in your Shopify store
- Install the app from the Shopify App Store and connect your store
- Configure your channels: Activate the channels you want to use (email, WhatsApp, SMS) and connect your accounts
- Define your recovery sequence: Set the sending times for each message (e.g., WhatsApp at 30 min, email at 2 hours, SMS the next day)
- Personalize messages: Use the customer's name, abandoned product, and a clear CTA. Avoid sounding robotic: write as if it were a personal message.
- Define your incentive strategy: Decide whether to offer a discount and at what point in the sequence (I recommend not offering a discount in the first message — many customers will buy without needing it)
- Activate and monitor: Review the dashboard weekly to optimize messages with lower conversion rates
Best practices for WhatsApp recovery messages
WhatsApp has different rules than email. Here's what works in the LATAM market:
- Conversational, not corporate tone: "Hi [Name] 👋, we noticed you left something in your cart 👀" works better than "Dear customer, we inform you that..."
- Short and direct message: maximum 3-4 lines. The customer should understand what you want and what they need to do in 5 seconds.
- One single CTA: the direct link to the cart. Don't include more options.
- Send during useful hours: between 9 AM and 8 PM in the customer's time zone. Never in the early morning.
- Don't overuse frequency: a maximum of 2-3 messages per abandoned cart. More than that is perceived as spam and harms your brand.
⏱️ Do you want me to configure Go Recover and your recovery flows from scratch? Check out my hourly packages at yosoyexperto.com/precios — we'll get it running in a single work session.
Complete cart recovery strategy: the sequence I use in my projects
After working with dozens of stores in LATAM, this is the recovery sequence that has worked best for me. I call it the 30-2-24 sequence:
Message 1: WhatsApp at 30 minutes
The first contact should be quick. At 30 minutes, the customer still has the product fresh in mind. The message should be brief, friendly, and without pressure:
"Hi [Name] 👋, we noticed you left [Product] in your cart. Do you have any questions? We're here to help. You can complete your purchase here: [link]"
No discount yet. Many customers will buy at this point without needing an incentive.
Message 2: Email at 2 hours
If they haven't purchased after the WhatsApp message, the 2-hour email can include more information: product image, reviews from other customers, information about the return policy. The goal is to address objections.
Message 3: WhatsApp or SMS at 24 hours (with incentive)
If the customer hasn't purchased after 24 hours, it's time to add an incentive. A 10% discount or free shipping is usually enough to close the sale:
"Hi [Name], your cart is still saved 😊. Because we want you to have the best experience, we're giving you a 10% discount with code VUELVE10. Valid for 24 hours: [link]"
Important: do not offer the discount in the first message. If you do, you will be training your customers to abandon the cart on purpose to wait for the coupon.
Klaviyo for advanced abandoned cart recovery
If you already have Klaviyo installed in your store (or are considering installing it), it has one of the most powerful abandoned cart recovery systems on the market for email marketing.
Klaviyo's abandoned cart flow allows you to:
- Segment by cart value (different message for a $500 MXN cart vs $5,000 MXN)
- Personalize content based on customer purchase history
- A/B test subjects, content, and send times
- Sequences of up to 5-7 emails with conditional logic
- SMS integration for multichannel sequences
Klaviyo and Go Recover are complementary, not exclusive. You can use Go Recover for WhatsApp and SMS, and Klaviyo for advanced email marketing. Together, they cover all recovery channels with the best tool for each.
Shopify has official documentation on abandoned cart automation at help.shopify.com that helps you understand native options before evaluating third-party apps.
Common mistakes when trying to recover abandoned carts on Shopify
I've seen it in dozens of stores in LATAM. These are the most common mistakes:
Error 1: Offering a discount in the first message
As I mentioned before, this trains your customers to abandon the cart on purpose. Save the incentive for the second or third contact.
Error 2: Sending too many messages
More than 3 messages per abandoned cart begins to feel like harassment. Respect the limit and, if the customer does not buy after 3 contacts, let them go. You can try to recover them later with a win-back campaign.
Error 3: Not personalizing messages
A generic "You left something in your cart" email without the customer's name or specific product has very low conversion rates. Personalization is what makes the difference.
Error 4: Ignoring mobile
More than 70% of carts in LATAM are created from mobile. Make sure your recovery emails look perfect on small screens and that the cart link leads to an optimized mobile experience.
Error 5: Not having the customer's email
If the customer abandoned before entering their email, you cannot contact them via email. That's why ad retargeting and push notifications are important complements. You can also use email capture pop-ups in the cart to get contact information before checkout.
Error 6: Setting up recovery and forgetting about it
Recovery flows need continuous optimization. Review metrics monthly and adjust messages, timings, and incentives based on results.
Conclusion: recovering abandoned carts on Shopify is one of the best investments you can make
If you don't already have an active strategy to recover abandoned carts on Shopify, you're letting 10% to 25% of your potential sales slip away without doing anything. And the best part is that recovering those carts costs much less than acquiring new customers.
The path is clear: first, optimize your checkout to reduce avoidable abandonments, then activate Shopify's native tools, and finally implement a specialized solution like Go Recover for WhatsApp and SMS, complemented by Klaviyo for advanced email marketing.
With the right sequence and well-written messages, you can turn that 70% abandonment rate into a constant source of recovered revenue that works for you on autopilot.
Do you want to implement all of this in your store without wasting time on trial and error? Schedule a session with me or hire an hourly package at yosoyexperto.com and we will set up your complete cart recovery strategy from scratch.
Frequently asked questions about abandoned carts on Shopify
How long does Shopify keep an abandoned cart?
Shopify saves abandoned carts for a maximum of 30 days. After that time, the cart is automatically deleted. This means you have a 30-day window to try to recover each cart, although most recoveries occur within the first 24-48 hours.
Does Shopify automatically send abandoned cart emails?
Yes, Shopify has a native abandoned cart email automation that is active by default. However, it only works if the customer entered their email at checkout. The default setting sends the email at 10 hours, but you can adjust the time and customize the content from Marketing > Automations.
What is the best time to send an abandoned cart email?
It depends on your audience, but as a general rule: the first message between 30 minutes and 1 hour after abandonment, the second between 2 and 4 hours, and the third the next day. Avoid sending messages between 10 pm and 8 am. A/B test different times to find the optimal one for your specific audience.
Should I offer a discount to recover abandoned carts?
Not always. Many customers abandon due to distraction or because they wanted to think more, not because price is an obstacle. Start without a discount in the first message. If they don't buy after the second contact, then offer a small incentive (10% or free shipping). This protects your margin and avoids training customers to expect discounts.
Does Go Recover work for stores in Mexico?
Yes, and it is especially relevant for the Mexican and Latin American market due to its WhatsApp recovery capability. In Mexico, WhatsApp has over 90% penetration among smartphone users, which means recovery messages through this channel have much higher open and response rates than email.
Can I use Go Recover and Klaviyo at the same time?
Yes, and it's the combination I recommend for high-volume stores. Go Recover handles WhatsApp and SMS (the highest impact channels in LATAM), while Klaviyo handles advanced email marketing with segmentation and A/B testing. Together, they cover all recovery channels without duplicating efforts.
