How to Reduce Abandoned Carts: Fix the Checkout, Then Recover the Rest

Most carts are abandoned: the average is 70.22%, while 42% of US shoppers say they were just browsing or not ready to buy (Baymard Institute, 2025). Reduce abandonment by fixing the reasons you control, then follow up on the rest rather than treating every unfinished cart as a lost sale.

The biggest fixable reasons are extra costs at 40%, slow delivery at 20%, distrust of the site with card details at 19%, and forced account creation at 18% (Baymard Institute, 2025). Start with complaints and checkout failures in your own store, because the survey identifies possibilities, not the exact causes affecting your customers.

The following reasons exclude shoppers who were just browsing (Baymard Institute, 2025). The percentages are survey responses, not pieces of a total you can add together.

The average US checkout displays 23.48 form elements, compared with 12 to 14 for an ideal flow (Baymard Institute, 2025). Review what shoppers must type, select or confirm, and remove requests that are not necessary to fulfill the order.

• Offer guest checkout without requiring account creation first.
• Show the total cost early, including shipping, tax and fees where they can be calculated.
• Make delivery expectations visible before payment.
• Offer relevant payment methods and understandable error messages.
• Put the returns policy where shoppers can check it before committing.

Accurate business information, accessible support, a clear returns policy and a consistent payment experience give shoppers something they can actually evaluate.

Abandoned cart email has a 6.0% click rate and $6.77 revenue per recipient; the top 10% reach 11.3% and $13.70. SMS has a 10.3% click rate and $4.48 revenue per recipient, with the top 10% at 18.5% and $8.69 (Klaviyo, 2026).

Compare completed orders and contribution after costs, because order value, audience and attribution affect revenue per recipient.

Loop Voice customer data reports Modern Hearing at $300,000+ recovered and 11% of calls becoming a sale, Warrior Will Power at $200,000+ from 1,184 calls and 7.1%, CityMan USA at $45,000+ and 5%, and CastleFlexx at $30,000+ and 8%.

Use a follow-up to resolve the obstacle that remains: delivery uncertainty, a product question or an interrupted checkout. Send the shopper a link to finish the purchase in the store's checkout.

Email is a practical starting point when the shopper supplied an email address. SMS belongs in an opted-in audience, while a call needs both an appropriate permission basis and a financial reason to have an answered conversation; see the calling consent guide.

A shopper who reached shipping or payment, or a returning customer with a clear product question, provides more useful context than a visitor who only added an item. Those signals help prioritize attention, but they do not guarantee a sale or replace permission.

Coordinate messages rather than letting separate tools pursue the same customer independently. The combining channels guide explains how to organize follow-ups around the checkout and stop after an order or opt-out.

If there are few abandoned checkouts, start with checkout repairs and email instead of buying an elaborate calling program. Low order values can also leave too little contribution margin to support additional conversation costs.

There is no universal minimum cart value. Compare expected contribution from an additional recovered order with the cost of reaching and helping the shopper, including discounts, returns and fulfillment.

Do not use a recovered-revenue total alone to decide. A campaign can attribute orders without producing enough additional profit, especially when some shoppers would have returned without a reminder.

A checkout is abandoned once it remains incomplete for more than ten minutes after the shopper entered an email (Shopify Help Center, 2026). Find those records under Orders > Abandoned checkouts, rather than treating every anonymous cart as a contactable checkout.

Automatic recovery emails run through the Shopify Messaging app at Apps > Messaging > Automations (Shopify Help Center, 2026). Review the email and its checkout link, and verify that the automation suits the way your store handles recovery.

Shopify Flow is a free app on Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans (Shopify Help Center, 2026). Do not build a current recovery plan around Shopify Scripts: all Scripts stopped running on June 30, 2026, replaced by Shopify Functions (Shopify developer changelog, 2026).

Loop Voice recovery agents answer shopper questions and send checkout links via SMS, helping a shopper return after the store has addressed the checkout obstacle. Loop Voice inbound agents also answer support calls 24/7, including order status and returns. See how calls and SMS help shoppers return to checkout on Loop Voice features.