Sending automated abandoned cart emails is a great way to recover lost sales and increase revenue for your business. By reminding customers of the products they left behind in their cart, you can encourage them to complete their purchase. Additionally, you can offer discounts or other incentives to sweeten the deal and entice them to come back and complete their purchase.

We have created a series of articles to help you automatically send abandoned cart emails:

• About abandoned cart emails
• Part 1: Create an abandoned cart email template
• Part 2: Automatically send your abandoned cart emails - YOU ARE HERE
• Part 3: Send abandoned cart emails in different languages (optional)
• Part 4: Calculate your abandoned cart conversion rate (optional)
• Troubleshooting and FAQs

Good to know

• To ensure that your customers do not receive double abandoned cart emails, we recommend disabling abandoned cart emails created outside of Brevo, such as the ones that may be automatically sent from your website.
• If needed, you can add extra steps after step 3 of this automation and send a series of abandoned cart emails. For instance, you could send additional emails 24 hours and three days after the first one to remind shoppers that the products are selling quickly and offer them a coupon code.

🧐 How does it work?

Brevo allows you to identify and track shoppers who abandon their carts on your website, as well as the products they leave behind. To retrieve this information, Brevo requires you to install the Brevo tracker on your website. This can be done through a plugin, Google Tag Manager, or manually. If you have used one of the last two methods, ensure that you have also added the Identify function to the script and created the abandoned cart track events.

Once identified, the shoppers will be added to the "identified_contacts" list in your Brevo account and will enter the abandoned cart automation. After a specific delay, an abandoned cart email will be sent to encourage them to complete their purchase.

The abandoned cart automation consists of 6 actions and conditions:

🤖 Create the abandoned cart automation

To create the abandoned cart automation:

1. Go to Automations.
2. Click Create an automation.
3. Select the Abandoned Cart automation.
   
4. Click Use this automation.

From now on, you will automatically be guided through a series of 6 steps to create your abandoned cart automation.

🛒 Step 1: Contact adds a product to their cart (entry point)

The entry point for the abandoned cart automation is An event happens. Events are alerts that Brevo receives from your website when certain key activities occur, such as when someone purchases a product. Since we want to follow up with abandoned carts, the trigger of this entry point will be when a shopper creates a new shopping cart.

To add the entry point of your abandoned cart automation:

1. Select the cart_updated event from the Custom Event (Track Event) dropdown.
   
   💡 Good to know

   If you are using the OpenCart plugin, the cart_updated event is named cart_created instead. If you are using your own custom events, select the event that indicates when a cart is created or updated.
2. For more advanced use of the abandoned cart automation, you can add specific conditions to the cart_updated event:
   
   1. Select the Add conditions to the selected JS event option.
   2. Create your condition by selecting data in the dropdowns and fields. In our example, we added a condition so that the automation is triggered only if the total value of the cart is over $10.
      
3. Click NEXT.

Now, as soon as a contact adds a product to their cart, they will enter the automation.

⏳ Step 2: Add a delay before sending the abandoned cart email

In the abandoned cart automation, you will be prompted to add a 2-hour delay between the time the cart_updated event happens and the sending of your abandoned cart email. You can adjust the delay to better meet your needs:

1. In the first field, enter the delay you want your contact to wait for.
2. In the dropdown, select the time units you want to use.
   
3. Click NEXT.

✉️ Step 3: Send the abandoned cart email

After the designated delay period has elapsed, the next step in the abandoned cart automation is to send an email. You will need to select the email template you wish to use for your abandoned cart email:

1. Select the abandoned cart email template you want to send.
   
   
   💡 Good to know

   If you haven't created an abandoned cart email template yet, refer to Part 1: Create an abandoned cart email template to learn how to create and personalize an abandoned cart email template.
2. Select the Use my event data and The event data which triggered the workflow options. These options allow Brevo to personalize your email using the data from the abandoned cart.
   
3. (Optional) Based on your needs, select the following options:
   1. I want to send a hidden copy of this email: By setting up a hidden copy of the abandoned cart email, you can receive a copy every time a contact receives it. You can specify specific recipients separated by commas or contacts that contain a certain contact attribute.
      
   2. I want to choose when to send this email:
      • Send at best time: This feature maximizes the open rate by delivering your emails at the optimal time for each recipient over a 24-hour period (Business and Enterprise plans).
      • Choose a specific time frame: Select the time and day when you want to send the email, for example, every weekday at 8 am.
        
4. Click NEXT.

The selected abandoned cart email template will be personalized with the product details of each shopper who abandons their cart when it is sent.

💰 Step 4: Contact purchases their cart (exit condition)

Once a contact has purchased their cart, you should remove them from your abandoned cart automation:

1. Select the order_completed event from the Custom Event (Track Event) dropdown.
   
   
   💡 Good to know

   If you are using your own custom events, select the event that indicates when a cart is purchased.
2. For more advanced use of the abandoned cart automation, you can add specific conditions to the order_completed event:
   
   1. Select the Add conditions to the selected JS event option.
   2. Create your condition by selecting data in the dropdowns and fields. In our example, we did not add any conditions to the event, as we want to remove all contacts who purchased their cart without exception.
3. Click NEXT.

🗑️ Step 5: Contact deletes a product from cart (exit condition)

If a contact deletes a product from their cart, you should remove them from your abandoned cart automation:

1. Select the cart_deleted event from the Custom Event (Track Event) dropdown.
   
   
   💡 Good to know

   If you are using your own custom events, select the event that indicates when a cart is purchased.
2. For more advanced use of the abandoned cart automation, you can add specific conditions to the cart_deleted event:
   
   1. Select the Add conditions to the selected JS event option.
   2. Create your condition by selecting data in the dropdowns and fields. In our example, we did not add any conditions to the event, as we want to remove all contacts who deleted products from their cart without exception.
3. Click NEXT.

🔄 Step 6: Contact updates their cart or creates a new one (restart condition)

Whenever a contact updates their cart or creates a new one, they should restart the abandoned cart automation:

1. Select the cart_updated event from the Custom Event (Track Event) dropdown.
   
   💡 Good to know

   If you are using the OpenCart plugin, the cart_updated event is named cart_created instead. If you are using your own custom events, select the event that indicates when a cart is created or updated.
2. For a more advanced use of the abandoned cart automation, you can add specific conditions to the cart_updated event:
   
   1. Select the Add conditions to the selected JS event option.
   2. Create your condition by selecting data in the dropdowns and fields. In our example, we added a condition so that the automation is triggered only if the total value of the cart is over $10.
      
3. Click FINISH.

✅ Activate the automation

Once you have finished creating the automation, you can activate it to allow contacts to enter it and receive your abandoned cart email. To activate it, click Activate automation.

🔨 Test the automation in real conditions

To ensure that your automation works well and that the email sent includes the event data, it is recommended that you test it yourself. For the abandoned cart automation, here is a real test scenario you can perform:

1. Create or log into an account on your website.
2. Add a product to your cart.
3. Abandon your cart and wait for the delay you set at step 2.
4. Test the remaining steps by updating, removing, and purchasing products from your cart.

This should trigger the automation and give you an accurate sense of its functionality.

⏩ What's next?

• Part 3: Send abandoned cart emails in different languages (optional)
• Part 4: Record a conversion (optional)
• Troubleshooting and FAQs

🤔 Have a question?

If you have a question, feel free to contact our support team by creating a ticket from your account. If you don't have an account yet, you can contact us here.

If you’re looking for help with a project using Brevo, we can match you with the right certified Brevo expert partner.