Abandoned cart emails remind customers about the items they left in their cart, so they can come back and finish checking out. In this article, you’ll learn how to turn on abandoned cart emails, customize the email, and track the carts you recover.

Overview

When someone adds items to their cart and leaves without completing their purchase, Podia can automatically send them an email with the items they left behind.

People must have submitted their email during checkout to receive the email.

Here’s what you can customize:

Timing: Choose how many hours after the cart is abandoned to send the email.
Subject and preview text: Write what customers see in their inbox.
Discount: Optionally add a discount to the abandoned items to encourage customers to complete their purchase.
Content and design: Edit the email’s text, cart section and styles.

If a cart already has a discount, the better one is applied at checkout. Discounts aren’t combined.

Turning abandoned cart emails on or off

Here’s how to turn abandoned cart emails on or off:

From your home feed, click on your site name and select Admin from the dropdown menu.
From the Admin dashboard, click Settings > Payments in the sidebar menu.
Click Edit next to the Abandoned cart email option.
Select Enabled to send the email automatically, or Disabled to stop sending it.
Click Save to save your changes.

If abandoned cart emails are turned off, you’ll see a message on the Abandoned carts page. Click Enable in settings to turn them back on.

Customizing your abandoned cart email

You can customize the look and message of your abandoned cart emails, including what you share with customers to encourage them to accept your offer.

Here’s how to customize your abandoned cart email:

From your home feed, click on your site name and select Admin from the dropdown menu.
From the Admin dashboard, click Email > Abandoned carts in the sidebar menu.
Click Edit email to edit your abandoned cart email.
First, use the Timing field to enter how many hours after the cart is abandoned to send the email.
- You can choose between 1 and 99 hours.
Enter a Subject for the email.
Enter Preview text if you’d like. If you leave it blank, email apps will show the first couple of lines of your email.
Select an option from the Discount dropdown menu to apply a discount to the items in your customers’ carts. A discount may encourage customers to complete their purchase.
- You can choose a percentage discount or a fixed amount discount.
If you added a discount, enter how much discount you want to offer and when it expires.
Use the email editor to customize your abandoned cart email. Click an email section to edit it, then use the menu on the right to customize that section.
- Need more help? Check Designing emails on Podia.
The Cart email section is a fixed part of your abandoned cart email. It shows customers the products they left in their cart and can’t be removed from the email. Click on it to edit.
Click Done when you’re finished.

You can use {items} in the Subject and Preview text fields to include the names of the abandoned items.

Here’s how each discount option works:

No discount: Sends the email without a discount.
Discount amount: Takes a fixed amount off each abandoned item.
Discount percentage: Takes a percentage off each abandoned item.

Discounts can expire after 1, 3, 7, 14, or 30 days, or never expire.

Viewing abandoned carts analytics

The Abandoned carts page shows every abandoned cart and how your email is performing.

Here’s how to view your abandoned carts:

From the Admin dashboard, click Email > Abandoned carts in the sidebar menu.
The Abandoned cart page shows how your abandoned cart email is performing and how many people left checkout without completing their purchase. Use this overview to see how your email is doing and track checkout activity.
Click a stat at the top of the page to see its trend in the chart.
Use the search field, status filter, date filter and sort options to find specific carts.

Here’s what each stat means:

Stat	What it shows
Carts	The number of abandoned carts where people abandoned after adding their email address (or being logged in).
Opened	The number of emails received that were opened.
Clicked	The number of opened emails that had their complete purchase button clicked. All other clicks are ignored.
Bounced	The percentage of sent emails that were never received.
Unsubscribed	The number of emails received that led to unsubscribe link clicks.
Recovered	The percentage of abandoned carts that were completed after receiving an abandoned cart email.
Revenue	Money collected from abandoned carts recovered by this email.

You can filter carts by status: Abandoned, Opened, Clicked, Recovered, Bounced and Unsubscribed. You can sort them by Contact, Date, Product, Status or Value.

FAQs

How do discounts in abandoned cart emails work?

When you add a discount to your abandoned cart email, each customer gets their own one-time code for the items they left in their cart.

Podia tracks the code for you, so nothing is stored in the customer’s browser.

Each customer gets their own code: Each email comes with a one-time discount code. It works once, for that customer and the products they left in their cart.
The clock starts when the email is sent: If you set the discount to last 7 days, it stops working 7 days after the email goes out. You can choose 1, 3, 7, 14 or 30 days, and 7 is the default.
The discount is checked at checkout: When the customer comes back, Podia checks whether their discount is still valid. If it is, the discount is applied automatically. If it has expired, they still see their saved cart, just at full price.
Discounts aren’t combined: If the cart already has a discount, the better one is applied at checkout.
The link outlasts the discount: The link back to their cart in the email works for 30 days, even after the discount has ended.

For example, you set a 3-day discount. A customer gets the email on Monday and clicks it on Friday. Their cart is still there, but the discount has expired.

Who receives the abandoned cart email?

Abandoned cart emails are sent to people who leave their cart while logged in or after entering their email address during checkout. Podia can’t email visitors who leave before providing an email address.

People who aren’t subscribed to your marketing emails or who didn’t agree to receive emails from you at checkout won’t receive an abandoned cart email either.

Can I change when the abandoned cart email is sent?

Yes. Edit the Timing field in the email editor to send the email anywhere from 1 to 99 hours after the cart is abandoned.

What happens if a cart already has a discount?

Discounts aren’t combined. If the cart already has a discount, the better one is applied at checkout.

Can I turn off abandoned cart emails?

Yes. Go to Settings > Payments, click Edit next to Abandoned cart email, select Disabled and click Save.

I don’t see an abandoned cart for someone who left my site… HELP!

This is expected if they weren’t logged in and didn’t submit their email during checkout. Podia only tracks carts it can connect to an email address.

Can I remove the Cart email section from my abandoned cart email?

No. You can rearrange the Cart section in your email, but you can’t remove it. This section displays the items customers left in their carts.