An abandoned cart automation emails shoppers who added products to their WooCommerce cart but didn’t place the order. The email contains a link that restores their cart and opens the checkout.
Abandoned cart automations require MailerPress Pro and an active WooCommerce plugin.
How cart tracking works
The Abandoned Cart trigger (the event that starts the automation) reacts when a shopper adds a product to the cart, changes a quantity or updates their checkout details. It works with both the block-based and the classic checkout.
- Who is tracked: logged-in customers are identified by their account. Guests are tracked as soon as they type their email address at checkout, even before an order exists. A guest cart without an email address can’t be tracked.
- One run per cart: the automation starts once, when a new cart is detected. Later changes to the same cart update its saved content without starting the automation again.
- Automatic cancellation: when the shopper places an order or empties the cart, the cart is closed. If the cart is closed when a Send Email step runs, the email isn’t sent.
Create the automation from the pre-made workflow
- Go to MailerPress > Automations > Pre-made workflows.
- Find Abandoned Cart Recovery in the WooCommerce workflows and click Use template. MailerPress creates the automation as a draft.
- Click the Send Email step, then Create New Email, and choose the Abandoned Cart Reminder template.
- Edit the email if needed, then go back to the automation.
- Click Activate.
The pre-made workflow contains four steps:
| Step | Default setting |
|---|---|
| Abandoned Cart (trigger) | Starts when a new cart is detected. |
| Wait | 24 hours. |
| Condition | Order Created equals No (No Order – Cart Abandoned): continues only if the shopper hasn’t ordered since the cart was last updated. |
| Send Email | Name “Abandoned Cart Recovery”, subject “You left items in your cart!”. |
You can also build the same steps yourself from All automations. For help with the automation editor, see Create Automated Email Workflows with MailerPress Pro.
Configure the trigger and the timing
Click the Abandoned Cart trigger to see its settings:
- Minimum Cart Value: starts the automation only when the cart total reaches this amount. Leave empty for any amount.
- Require Email: starts the automation only when the customer’s email address is known.
To change the delay before the reminder, click the Wait step and set the Duration and the Unit (minutes, hours, days or weeks).
To send a second reminder, add another Wait step and Send Email step after the first email. Before each email, MailerPress checks again that the cart is still open.
Design the recovery email
The Abandoned Cart Reminder template already contains a Cart Recovery Button labeled “Complete My Order”. You can edit its text directly in the email. Useful blocks:
- Cart Recovery Button: links automatically to the shopper’s own cart recovery link. You don’t need to enter a URL.
- Abandoned Cart Items: lists the products left in the cart.
- Coupon Code: with Auto-generate WooCommerce coupon turned on, MailerPress creates a unique WooCommerce coupon for each recipient when the email is sent.
When the shopper clicks the recovery link, MailerPress puts the saved products back in their cart (replacing its current content), fills in their email address and opens the checkout page. If the cart can’t be restored, the shopper still lands on the checkout page.
Older abandoned cart emails keep working: a regular button with no link and a text such as “Complete my order”, “Complete your order” or “Recover my cart” automatically points to the recovery link.
Test the automation
- Temporarily set the Wait step to a few minutes and activate the automation.
- In a private browser window, add a product to the cart, go to checkout and enter an email address you can check. Don’t place the order.
- When the email arrives, click the recovery button and check that the cart is restored.
- Set the Wait step back to your real delay.
For every trigger and step, see the automation triggers and actions reference. For the other WooCommerce features, see How to integrate MailerPress with WooCommerce.