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In Tanqory, a checkout left for thirty minutes without activity appears in Orders under Abandoned Checkouts, with the customer, last activity, subtotal and payment method.
How to calculate the abandonment rate
Count the carts created in a period and the orders placed from them, then divide the carts that did not become orders by all carts:
Cart abandonment rate = (carts − orders) ÷ carts × 100
The same March as on the conversion rate page: 15,000 sessions, 1,200 carts, 600 shoppers who reached checkout and 300 orders.
| Measure | Calculation | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Cart abandonment rate | 900 ÷ 1,200 | 75% |
| Left before checkout | 600 ÷ 1,200 | 50% |
| Checkout abandonment rate | 300 ÷ 600 | 50% |
| Carts that became orders | 300 ÷ 1,200 | 25% |
The 900 abandoned carts split into two groups: 600 that never reached checkout and 300 that reached checkout and stopped there. The two groups have different causes and different fixes, so report them apart.
Cart abandonment and checkout abandonment
The names describe where the shopper stopped:
- Cart abandonment. The shopper put items in the cart and left, either before starting checkout or during it. It counts every cart that did not become an order.
- Checkout abandonment. The shopper started checkout, for example by entering an email or an address, and left before paying. It counts only carts that reached checkout.
Which of them you can follow up depends on what the store knows. A reminder needs an email address. A visitor who added to cart and left without signing in gave you none, so that cart cannot be emailed at all. A shopper who typed an email at checkout, or who was signed in to a customer account, can be. If 240 of the 300 shoppers who stopped in checkout had entered an email, your reminder list in March is at most 240, not 900. That ceiling is before any consent rule removes more of them (see below).
In Tanqory, a checkout left for thirty minutes without activity appears in Orders under Abandoned Checkouts, with the customer, last activity, subtotal and payment method, and its status moves from Not Contacted to Contacted to Recovered.
What to count, and why many carts are not lost sales
Tools disagree on what an abandoned cart is, so two reports for the same store can show different rates. Pick one rule, write it down and keep it:
- When a cart counts as abandoned. Some tools wait 30 minutes without activity, others an hour or a day. A shorter wait marks more carts as abandoned, and more of them later look recovered when the shopper simply finishes a little later.
- Carts or shoppers. A shopper who fills a cart on a phone and orders on a laptop creates one abandoned cart and one order. Counted per cart, that is an abandonment; counted per shopper, it is a sale.
- The period. A cart created on March 31 and paid on April 1 is abandoned in March and an order in April. Count carts and orders by the date the cart was created, or accept a small error at each month end.
- Bots and your own team. Bots and staff testing the store add items to carts and never pay. Leave them out, as you would for conversion rate.
Many carts were never going to be orders. Shoppers use the cart to keep a list, to see the total with shipping and tax, to compare your price with another store, or to wait for payday. A high abandonment rate is normal for that reason, and a reminder does not turn those carts into sales. What you can change is the share of shoppers who meant to buy and were stopped by something in the checkout.
Recovered is not the same as caused
A recovered checkout is one that became an order after it was marked abandoned. Some of those shoppers would have come back without any email. To measure what a reminder adds, hold some back: send reminders to half the abandoned checkouts and none to the other half, for a few weeks.
| Group | Abandoned checkouts | Orders later | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sent a reminder | 120 | 18 | 15% |
| No reminder (held back) | 120 | 6 | 5% |
A report counts 18 recovered orders. The reminder caused 18 − 6 = 12 of them, a lift of 10 points.
Why shoppers stop at checkout
Reasons a shopper who meant to buy leaves checkout:
- Costs that appear late. Shipping, tax or import duties added on the last step change the price the shopper agreed to. Show shipping cost and a delivery date on the product page or in the cart, and show prices with tax where buyers expect it.
- A forced account. Asking a first-time buyer to create an account and a password adds a step they did not plan. Offer guest checkout and invite them to save their details after the order.
- Missing payment methods. A buyer who does not use a card, or uses a local wallet or bank transfer, stops when that method is not there. Each method you add through your payment gateway carries its own fees.
- Long forms and errors. Many fields, an address form that rejects a valid address, or a declined card with no clear message stop people who were ready to pay.
- Slow pages. A checkout that takes seconds to load on a phone loses buyers on every step.
- Doubt. An unclear returns policy or no way to ask a question makes a buyer leave to think it over.
Each fix has a cost: margin when you cut shipping prices, fewer customer accounts with guest checkout, and fees on each payment method. Judge a change on orders and margin, not on the abandonment rate alone.
Reminder emails
A reminder brings back some shoppers who meant to buy. What to decide:
- Timing. Send the first reminder within a few hours, while the shopper still remembers the cart, for example one hour after the checkout was left. A second reminder a day later is a common pattern. Each extra email adds unsubscribes and complaints, so test the number of reminders rather than adding more.
- Stopping. End the sequence as soon as the shopper orders, and do not send a reminder for an item that is now out of stock.
- Content. Show the items, the total with shipping, and a link that reopens the checkout with the cart filled in. A way to reply with a question helps the buyers who stopped because of doubt.
- Consent. Rules for marketing email differ by country. Some require the shopper's prior consent before any marketing email; others allow email to a customer as long as each message has a clear way to unsubscribe. They also differ on whether a cart reminder counts as marketing. Record whether and how each shopper agreed, include an unsubscribe link, and check the rules for the countries your customers live in, with a lawyer where you are unsure. This page is not legal advice.
The cost of a discount in the reminder
A discount code in the reminder brings back more orders and gives up margin on each of them, including orders that would have come back anyway. Take the 240 emailed checkouts from above, a $40 order and $20 of goods, so a 50% gross margin. A plain reminder brings back 36 orders (15%). A 10% discount brings back 42.
| Reminder | Orders | Paid per order | Margin per order | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plain reminder | 36 | $40 | $20 | $720 |
| Reminder with 10% off | 42 | $36 | $16 | $672 |
Six more orders, $48 less margin. The larger cost comes later. Shoppers who learn that leaving a cart brings a code start to leave carts on purpose. If 50 of the 300 shoppers who used to pay full price each month wait for the code instead, each of their orders gives up $4: another $200 a month. If you use a discount, keep it out of the first reminder, make it small, and limit it to a first order.
Questions
What is a good cart abandonment rate?
There is no single good number. The rate follows what you sell, how shoppers use your cart and the rule your tool uses to mark a cart as abandoned. The useful comparison is your own rate over time, split into carts left before checkout and checkouts left before paying.
We do not quote an industry average here. Published averages count carts after different waiting times, per cart or per shopper, and few say which rule they used, so a store cannot tell whether it sits above or below them.
What is the difference between an abandoned cart and an abandoned checkout?
An abandoned cart is any cart that did not become an order, wherever the shopper stopped. An abandoned checkout is a cart whose shopper started checkout, for example by entering an email or address, and left before paying. Only a shopper who gave an email, at checkout or by being signed in, can be sent a reminder.
How soon should I send an abandoned cart email?
Within a few hours of the checkout being left, for example after one hour, while the shopper still remembers it. A second reminder about a day later is a common pattern. Stop the sequence as soon as the shopper orders, and test the number of reminders against unsubscribes.
Should an abandoned cart email include a discount?
Usually not in the first reminder. A discount brings back more orders but gives up margin on every one of them, including orders that would have come back without it. Shoppers who learn that leaving a cart brings a code also start to wait for one before they pay.
Can I send a reminder to every shopper who left a cart?
No. You can only email a shopper whose address you have, which leaves out visitors who never entered one. Marketing email consent rules also differ by country, and some require consent before you send. Check the rules where your customers live; this is not legal advice.