Cart abandonment recovery

Most abandoned carts are recoverable — the shopper got distracted, not disinterested. This playbook sends a timely reminder and then a stronger follow-up if they still haven't purchased, so you win back revenue without nagging buyers.

Build it

1. Send the abandonment event. From your store, emit a cart_abandoned event (or checkout_started) via the Events API or an SDK. Include useful properties like cart_total, item_count, and a checkout_url so you can reference them in your message.
2. Create an event-triggered campaign. Go to Campaigns → New, then set the trigger to event and choose cart_abandoned. Each contact who fires the event enrolls in the flow.
3. Build the flow. In the flow builder, add a delay step of 1 hour (enough time that they've truly left), then a send message step with an email reminder that surfaces the cart contents and a link back to checkout.
4. Wait for the purchase, then follow up. Add a wait_until step on the purchase event with a 24-hour timeout. If the contact buys, the event → true edge lets them exit. On the timeout → false edge, add a second send message step — an SMS nudge or a discount email — to close the sale.
5. Set the conversion goal. Set the campaign conversion goal to purchase. Buyers are removed from the flow automatically and each recovery is counted in your campaign analytics.

Tips

• Keep the first reminder friendly and reserve any incentive for the timeout follow-up — you don't want to train shoppers to abandon for a discount.
• Use {{ merge_fields }} to pull the product name and cart total into the copy so the reminder feels specific.
• Because wait_until listens for purchase directly, anyone who checks out through any channel exits cleanly.

Next steps

• Learn how to send behavioral events reliably.
• Fine-tune enrollment with campaign triggers.
• Set the success metric with conversion goals.