40 Abandoned Cart Email Examples That Actually Win Back Lost Customers
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Shopping cart abandonment is a hard reality for all eCommerce stores—even the ones with high traffic and huge customer volume.
In fact, the average shopping cart abandonment rate is 69.80%.
But the good news is: email is one of the most effective ways to recover lost customers.
Relatively low spend and a high ROI makes the best abandoned cart emails work effectively towards recovering conversions—in this post, we’ll see how 40 amazing eCommerce brands do it.
An abandoned cart email is a follow-up message sent to someone who leaves your online store without completing the purchase of the items in their shopping cart.
Abandoned cart emails remind customers of items they left in the cart—enticing them to come back to purchase what they are already so close to buying.
To recover abandoned carts, your emails need to carry:
✔ Compelling copywriting—that either tickles, creates urgency or makes the shopper think
✔ Visual cues—this includes imagery of what’s left in the cart, use context of the product etc.
✔ A personalized offer—based on where the shopper is in their customer journey
✔ Personalized info & transactional links—to nudge the shopper to explore more in directions they’ve already shown interest in
Jump to:
Are abandoned cart emails transactional?
How many abandoned cart emails should you be sending?
When should you send an abandoned cart email?
Overtone uses conversion copywriting—a type of persuasive copywriting where the goal is to drive a person to buy.
Key Takeaway: Feature multiple reasons for a shopper to feel convinced, in your cart abandonment recovery email.
The North Face sets a benchmark with its creative cart abandonment email, making it both simple and engaging.
A visual cue is a perceptual signal that draws the attention of the users toward important elements.
Key Takeaway: Pair your visuals and copy in an engaging way to make shoppers go back to their cart.
Here’s a cart recovery email template from Quip which shows concern for oral health. It uses better brushing as a reciprocal to get customers to return to the cart.
Key Takeaway: Tie your nudge with how your brand works—like Quip clearly talks about how they believe in “no pressure”.
You'll love reading: 30 Best Examples of Nudge Marketing in eCommerce
This happens to be one of our favorite abandoned cart email examples because it focuses on what purchasing (or not) can lead to.
Key Takeaway: Instead of asking shoppers to buy, tell them “why” it’s going to be a good choice.
Sugar Bear Hair uses an image of a shopping cart for abandoned cart retargeting. This takes recipients back to traditional supermarket shopping.
Key Takeaway: A strong subject line and then no headline can actually make shoppers read through the best abandoned cart emails.
Bloomingdale's abandoned cart shopping email isn’t just about products sitting in the cart.
The brand brings their famous “My Brown Bag” link and improves recall instantly.
Key Takeaway: Make your email content aspirational for cart abandoners to take notice.
Recommended reading: eCommerce Email Copywriting: 20 Game-Changing Tips
With this abandoned cart shopping email from 23 and Me, customers won't get distracted by extra information and will focus on completing their order.
Key Takeaway: While asking shoppers to go back to their carts, if you can talk about the specialty of what awaits them, nothing like it.
Check out: eCommerce Shopping Cart Optimization: 50 Brilliant Strategies
This abandoned cart recovery email from Madewell use a compelling statement to make the email recipient rethink about the purchase they didn’t complete.
Key Takeaway: Use a witty headline that puts the customer in focus and not the product.
This email by Doggyloot to recover abandoned carts creates an instant connection between the brand and its target audience—copy like “lots of licks” serve as positive reinforcement.
Key Takeaway: It’s possible to offer a serious buying nudge through humor—in fact a balanced combination of the two can create a memorable conversion.
We recommend you to check out: Browse Abandonment Emails: Epic Examples, Tips, & Subject Lines
ThredUp has one of the best cart abandonment emails.
It gets to the point while giving the abandoned product a human voice.
Key Takeaway: Simple copy and imagery together can create an abandonment story in the minds of recipients—and lead them to convert without delay.
Also check out: How Many Emails To Include In An Abandoned Cart Workflow?
Dollar Shave Club is known for some of the best abandoned cart emails. The bear covering its eyes is intriguing and will encourage recipients to read the email.
The copy is written in everyday, laid-back language, which makes for easy reading.
Key Takeaway: Feature the most relevant social proof that’ll make abandoners reconsider the purchase more seriously.
Recommended reading: Top 15 eCommerce Conferences to Attend in 2025
Columbia uses a price drop abandoned cart email strategy to convince users to buy.
Key Takeaway: Make sure to lead with the cart abandonment price drop even if featuring you’re multiple kinds of discounts in the rest of the email.
Nomad Goods addresses the perceived risk associated with the purchase by including a 30-day return & exchange policy and a 2-year limited warranty.
Key Takeaway: Design your cart abandonment recovery email in a layout that’s easy to navigate—Nomad distinguishes sections clearly to highlight multiple aspects.
You need to read: 35 Thanksgiving Email Examples For 2024 (eCommerce)
Most customers don’t want to be sold to, they want to invest in an experience.
WhiskeyLoot has carefully tailored their cart recovery email to meet customers exactly where they are.
Key Takeaway: Use an abandoned cart email strategy that considers ways to resolve customer objections instead of just pushing them towards cart recovery.
Do check out: 24 Email Automation Examples For More Conversions (eCommerce)
Society 6 doesn’t just use FOMO in this abandoned cart email sequence—they specify the time to speed up action.
Key Takeaway: Making your headline sound like a favor (with some urgency thrown in) will nudge cart abandoners towards closing the purchase faster.
Approaching cart abandoners is serious—but if you can make it funny and relatable like Rudy’s does, you’ve got a winner.
This abandoned cart email template is designed to get customers to move quickly & convert.
Key Takeaway: Choose a clean layout for your abandoned shopping cart email—along with only one strong message—to drive maximum impact.
J. Crew likes to be classy with how they portray their brand and this shines through in this high converting abandoned cart email.
Notice how their email replicates the user interface of their online store? That’s done to reduce cognitive load.
Key Takeaway: Mimicking your online storefront in a cart abandonment recovery email pays off—shoppers navigate faster and are also more likely to convert faster.
Many abandoned cart recovery email examples don’t do what Pacsun does: say it like it is, with a twist.
Key Takeaway: Use a cart abandonment email template that reduces scrolling and captures the most important info within the first fold itself.
Do read: Reducing Online Jewelry Store Cart Abandonment: 19 Proven Strategies
Thrive Market features one of the best abandoned cart email examples—they tell you how much you’ll save by purchasing your items from them versus other retailers.
Key Takeaway: Make your abandoned cart email flow so simple, abandoners don’t feel it’s another “task” to go through it!
Ugmonk's abandoned cart recovery email focuses on personalization with the owner and designer reaching out directly to answer questions.
Key Takeaway: When using an only-text cart abandonment email to draw a shopper, ensure to:
✔ Use their name
✔ Ask them if they’d like to share feedback or ask a question
✔ Offer multiple ways to act, including visiting their cart and finishing the purchase
To enhance your abandoned cart email conversion rate, the email design needs land easy on subscribers.
Key Takeaway: The best cart abandonment emails often feature design that’s similar to a brand’s homepage, leading subscribers through easy navigation, discovery and in the ideal scenario, recovery.
Google's abandoned cart email works well because it intelligently puts copy and product nudge into different sections, easing visual processing.
Key Takeaway: Even if you use a “view your cart” CTA in the email, make sure you feature an additional image, product name, quantity and price along with it for instant recall.
Jessop's cart recovery email stays dedicated to photography and videography, with an unconventional CTA button.
Key Takeaway: A reminder about what a product can finally do can ramp up your abandoned cart email conversion rate.
This is one of several abandoned cart email examples that we have come across that lead with urgency. Mango uses two CTAs that serve as gentle reminder for customers to complete their purchase.
What works in this checkout abandonment email example:
Key Takeaway: The same CTA twice within a short scroll can actually be a small nudge to.
You'll also love reading: 21 Clever Ways To Reduce Checkout Abandonment Rate
In their cart abandonment email, Bonobos makes up for a lack of an image by offering a special coupon code.
Key Takeaway: Addressing the shopper in question based on where they are in their journey is a good idea for cart recovery—for example, if they’re a repeat customer, remind them of the journey so far.
The best cart abandonment emails have one thing in common: they make the shopper feel included in the question they ask or suggestion they make—this Nordstrom cart recovery email is a case in point.
Key Takeaway: Choose the most important microcopy to highlight as questions or conditions—this reduces distraction and improves engagement.
Sugar Bear Hair stands out from the crowd with its gif getting customers to look at their abandoned shopping cart email.
Key Takeaway: Calling out attention to customer support info upfront is a big way of creating reassurance for the cart abandoner.
This high-converting abandoned cart email from ASOS showcases how important a product visual is, especially when featured in a use context.
Key Takeaway: Making the main product be the only colorful element in a cart abandonment email ensures complete focus & engagement.
Home furnishings retailer Hayneedle knows how to sweeten the deal for shopping cart abandoners—the reason it converts well is because it has a personalized tone and a “just for you” deal.
Key Takeaway: Even if you’re announcing a small discount in your cart recovery email, make sure it gets a lot of attention as a design element.
Some of the best cart recovery emails are those that work as reminders while building a brand connect—and Away does just that!
Key Takeaway: Minimalism in abandoned cart email copy goes a long way in capturing interest that can then be channeled towards the abandoned product.
Chewy includes the Autoship option with 20% savings for first time Autoship buyers in this cart recovery email.
For an eCommerce brand, it helps increase the LTV, a metric that decides the long-term success of a business.
Key Takeaway: Make it easy for cart abandoners to see why not buying from your brand would be a loss—check out how Chewy uses icon call-outs to show why it’s better than competitors.
Allowing customers to customize a product is customer centricity. When your cart recovery email features the customization option, more abandoners will find a reason to stay back and convert.
In fact, customers are willing to pay more for customized products and are more likely to become brand advocates, even if they're cart abandoners.
Key Takeaway: Find a reason for cart abandoners to engage with your recovery email then and there, instead of having them go back to their cart without a nudge that works.
Check out: 52 Cart Abandonment Email Subject Lines That Actually Work
Information overload is real, folks: 65% of interviewed customers have experienced it at some point.
What happens then? They simply sign off. So, to recover cart abandoners, focus on visual hierarchy and building an aesthetic that presents information without overwhelm.
Key Takeaway: Focus on the balance between the design you choose for your abandoned cart email and the products you feature—typically, they play off each other!
Customers want to feel like they'll have it easy because you have their back.
They’re often short on time and don’t have the energy to go through an entire catalog, search for information on incentives, or even reactivate their carts.
This cart abandonment recovery email prioritizes calling out each ignored product and anchoring the price as well for better effect.
Key Takeaway: To cut through the clutter of many cart abandonment emails, you may have to assume a less-pushy position for abandoners to actually convert.
Guess how many customers leave because of a mismatch in pricing? 25%.
A good way to bring them back: BNPL financing. Whether that’s equal monthly installments, discounts, or coupons, it’s a good tactic to work with customers who are on the fence because of pricing.
Key Takeaway: Ensure your cart recovery email is able to address multiple issues that could be delaying the abandoner from purchasing what’s sitting in their cart.
Moschino is a luxury brand revered for its style: it’s well regarded by influencers, often spotted by celebrities, and has a visual language true to the brand.
So, when they extend this design language to their super creative abandoned cart emails, wonders happen around conversions.
Don't forget to check out: 24 Scientific Strategies to Increase your eCommerce Conversion Rate
Key Takeaway: Whether your brand’s known for its tone of voice or its definitive design language, bring it into your abandoned cart email sequence to convince abandoners.
Brooklinen's cart recovery email example follows a GREAT copy principle: address customer queries as they think and prioritize.
Key Takeaway: Make your cart abandonment email copy have the flow of an engaging conversation—this’ll ensure abandoners will read through an at least invest in some micro-conversions.
This cart abandonment email has an opening line, an incentive line, two closing lines, and three CTAs.
That’s it. And it’s so well made you could save this as an abandoned cart email template.
Key Takeaway: In an abandoned cart flow with multiple CTAs, ensure great hierarchy through the CTA text—in Alex Mill’s case, notice how the first CTA itself urges checkout.
ASICS is a sports brand—a sports brand for the affluent. Like Moschino, it has already earned a reputed place for itself, one that it leverages in its marketing.
This abandoned basket email is a good example of that.
Key Takeaway: Use imagery to throw light on the use context of the products sitting in the cart—the more attractively you can do this, the more abandoners will be drawn to reconsidering the purchase.
We recommend you read: 34 Ways Online Sports Stores Can Boost Conversions
The phrase “Heads Up!” has been intuitively drilled in our minds as one that requires attention.
This subconsciously catches readers by surprise and actually breaks through the connection barrier we often experience in eCommerce.
The abandoned cart email template builds on it further with smart copy, easily accessible CTA, and quick product display.
Key Takeaway: Using a phrase that draws attention but doesn’t add to cognitive load is a must for cart recovery emails—Huckberry applies this principle to create an email that’s crisp and clutter-free.
Yes, abandoned cart emails are considered transactional emails. They are triggered by a specific action (abandoning a cart) and are designed to achieve a specific goal (recovering the abandoned cart).
✔️ They are triggered by a specific action (abandoning a cart)
✔️ They are designed to achieve a specific goal (recovering the abandoned cart)
✔️ Personalize the email to the individual customer
✔️ Include a list of the items that were left in the cart
✔️ Offer a discount or incentive to complete the purchase
✔️ Make it easy for the customer to complete the purchase, such as by including a link to the checkout page
✔️ Send the email promptly, within 24 hours of the cart being abandoned
✔️ Test different versions of your email to see what works best
More important than the number, is the frequency of when you send these emails.
One of the best abandoned cart email best practices: Send about 3 cart abandonment emails, somewhere between 10 minutes to 1 hour from the trigger event (trigger event here being them abandoning cart), 24 hours, and 3 days respectively.
However, we would advise you to experiment with your abandoned cart email strategy and see what works best for your brand.
This is a crucial question you need to answer to get the timing of your cart recovery emails right.
While the idea is not to push your customers into a purchase, get too late and you lose them.
This is why established businesses typically target a timeframe of half a day or 24 hours within the abandonment to send these emails.
If you also intend to send out a subsequent discount code for conviction, do so within two to three days of the original abandonment email—and use a countdown timer to not come off as needy.
Cart abandonment refers to a visitor adding products to a virtual cart and then leaving the site without completing a purchase. It’s one of the biggest challenges that most eCommerce businesses tend to face even today.
As of today, the worldwide average cart abandonment rate stands at 84.24% in some industries. That only shows the extent to which cart abandonment can cause business damage when the shoppers choose to make purchases online more than at brick and mortar stores.
Now the reasons can be plenty: high shipping costs, unclear returns policy, not getting a discount on the cart total—you name it!
Abandoned cart recovery is the process eCommerce businesses use to reduce their cart abandonment rates. The process typically involves not just marketing through emails and retargeting attempts but also UX refinements for customers to feel satisfied.
The intent that lies behind abandoned cart recovery is to understand the customer better and align UX & marketing efforts for a superlative shopping experience.
Yes. Abandoned cart emails are legal and allowed under new GDPR regulations.
According to the European Union's definition of legal grounds for processing data, you are compliant as long as you have consent from the user to send those emails.
However, make sure you’re not overdoing them as your customers would not shy away from marking your emails as spam.
So do it only to the point it is actually necessary.
You might also like to read: Reducing Fashion eCommerce Cart Abandonment: 12 Proven Strategies
To automate abandoned cart emails, eCommerce businesses have to do the following in a linear fashion:
✔️Create the initial automation by configuring a trigger around category, product & cart value
✔️Send an email to this automation either by creating a new template or using a template from a past campaign
✔️Customize the abandoned email by rearranging the way items, prices and products will appear in the body content
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Most eCommerce store owners don’t see email as a serious revenue stream.
Ask them about the importance of email marketing, and you'll hear: “we don’t really have a major strategy,” “we mostly use generic templates,” or “we just send emails to people on our list.”
BUT AT THE SAME TIME:
There are stores out there that drive 30%+ of their revenue from email marketing.
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