16 Best Abandoned Cart Recovery Strategies & Tactical Optimisations To Test (2025)

💬 As we all know as eCommerce growth marketers/store owners, we know the impact that cart abandonment can have in terms of sales numbers, which can have a cascading effect on other metric areas which can effect scaling/growth, such CAC inflation, conversion rates, AOV, and more - and this is particularly evident for larger brands that do many daily orders.

So, what cart recovering strategies have I seen work well for brands I've worked/consulted with, and what I've seen other awesome online stores do when it comes to optimising this area? Well today, I'm sharing numerous opportunities below with references.

Different experiments for optimisations and tests to run for improving cart abandonment (regardless of store's growth stage)

💬 I hope these various optimisations can help with new ideas to trial for your store - and as FYI, many of then can be implemented fairly quickly, thanks to software vendors available on the market (especially if you're on the likes of Shopify, there are some great low-cost options that can help).

There's no doubt that you have to have a UX-friendly (desktop and mobile) checkout experience - if it's sub par or you're seeing big drop offs, you have to make this a top priority to address.

Express payment providers is certainly something which can help streamline checkout experiences for both new and existing customers - especially for new when it comes to other benefits that express payments can provide, which includes trust/credibility, as well as less information to fill out.

Related to the above, having other payment options and gateways available, including BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later), is a great way to make it easier for people to transact - this particularly is important for higher-valued carts (which helps increase AOV).

‍Tip: don't include every single option available on the market - I've seen some brands do this, and it's unnecessary overload, and looks clunky.

I have come across a few stores over the years which don't give you the option to just do 'guest checkout', but get you to create an account before checking out. It's a lot less common these days I've found, but I just find this bad UX.

Don't get me wrong, getting customers to create an account post-purchase is fine, but don't let it disrupt or 'block' visitors/customers to check out faster - after all, this is the ultimate goal.

As part of any core-performing cart strategy, you need to have a cart abandonment email sequence in place.

Then, it's about optimising and testing variants of cart abandonment emails based on various attributes - incl. basket value, new vs non-existing customer, offers and more.

On top of emails, if possible and visitors/customers have properly opted in, SMS bumps can also help too.

Two channels worth considering to test as tactics - push notifications and WhatsApp.

First with push notifications, lots of cost-effective options on the Shopify App Store and generally out in the market - not just for cart reminders, but also great for other promotion strategies.

Then for WhatsApp, this isn't something I've actively setup before for cart abandonment reminders, but know a few brands have adopted this. Few solid app vendor options available to look into. Similar to push notifications, also great for other initiatives for promotions.

It's a no brainer to have this setup, and it can run automatically once you setup the product feed.

Tip: consider testing various 'winback' offers to see how to win certain customer segments back.

Whilst chatbots/live chat can sometimes be distracting, if targeted/prompted at the right time, it can help with conversions.

This is particularly an important consideration for any stores selling high-priced/valued goods.

And in relation to contact details, this does sort of speak for itself, but I've seen many brands who don't make it that obvious - my recommendation here is that if you sell expensive products in a key competitive category, look at what your competitors have done (especially top performers).

Quite important to be upfront when it comes to delivery/shipping policies.

This doesn't mean you have to show the full policy upfront on product pages, but summarise key points and have a link which is evident where visitors can view more in-depth info.

Shipping costs is certainly up there as one of the blockers when it comes to visitors/customers not checking out - but on the other hand, you simply just can't have 'free shipping' on all times.

One key initiative I really like which I've seen work well are shipping thresholds, and ensuring it's clear within the cart process. With the right cart experience, you can help boost AOV fairly quickly (especially with easy 1-click upsell options).

As a general rule of thumb that I believe in when it comes to eCommerce - social proof is a massive lever when it comes to standing out in the market.

Sprinkle social proof wherever you can across channels, campaigns, etc. - and the importance applies to new customers of course, but also for existing customers who may have become inactive (and you need to 'win' them back).

Related to the above checklist point, keep reminding customers/visitors of your core USPs. The biggest challenge for any brand is to satisfy messaging/content as part of the customer journey (especially with so many touchpoints, channels, etc) - so, keeping core USPs consistent across numerous channels, campaigns and marketing collateral helps keep key messaging to of mind.

These FOMO/scarcity stock limit tactics help remind customers/visitors that if they decide they're not 100% sure during the checkout process, that any items which are low on stock, might lead to the customer missing out.

Exit intent pop-ups can be really effective when done right, in terms of targeting, messaging, content, and design.

When visitors/customers move out of the abandoned sequence period, then put them in dynamic and personalised flows to try 'winback'.

For example, you can split, mix/match flows based on a few factors/attributes/segments - whether that be; new vs existing, product items/categories, and order value in basket.