How to Track Abandoned Carts in your Shopify site?
Are you worrying about website visitors adding products to the cart in your Shopify store but leaving the site without completing the purchase?
Such Abandoned visitors are a concern for most Shopify owners. If you are one among them, let us look at a promising solution for tracking Abandoned Carts and Converting them to Sales.
This tutorial will show us how to track Abandoned carts and send follow-up emails. So that we can convert them into sales.
How to Track Abandoned Carts?
For this tutorial for tracking your Abandoned carts, you will probably need the following two:
- Shopify Store
- Brevo account
For ease of readers, I have split this tutorial into 8 Major Sections, namely,
- How to Register for a New Brevo Account?
- How to create your Email List in your Brevo Account?
- How to integrate your Brevo account with Shopify Store?
- How to Sync Contacts between Shopify Store and Brevo Account?
- How to send Subscription Confirmation Emails in Brevo?
- How to Track Abandoned Carts in your Shopify Store?
- How to create an Abandoned Cart Email Workflow in Brevo?
- How to create an Abandoned Cart Email Template in Brevo?
Register for a New Brevo Account
I assume that you already have a Shopify site. Therefore let me guide you in creating a Brevo Account.
For those who haven’t created their Brevo account,
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Visit Brevo Homepage.
And on their Homepage, choose to Sign up for Free.
Now you can create your new SendInBlue account either by filling up the form/signing in with your Google Account.
Once you have completed the registration process, you will receive a confirmation email from SendInBlue. Click the verification link and complete it.
Create your Email List
I hope you have created your Brevo account successfully.
This section will look at how to create your Email List at SendInBlue?
On your Brevo Dashboard, choose Contacts -> Lists -> Add a New List
On the next page, give a name for your Email List and choose to Create an Empty List.
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Now, you can add a contact or Import Contacts (Import multiple Email Addresses to your List).
For this tutorial, I am adding my email address to the list.
Integrate SendInBlue Account with Shopify store.
Now that you have created your SendInBlue account, it is time to integrate your SendInBlue account with your Shopify store.
Visit Shopify AppStore here and then Click Add App Button.
The Key Features of this Shopify AppStore are to:
- Allow users to Sync Contacts between Shopify and SendInBlue
- Ensure that your contacts receive Transactional Emails
- Add features like sending Transactional and Marketing SMS to your Contacts
If you haven’t logged in to your Shopify store, you will be asked to do it now.
Now, Click the Install App button.
The SendInBlue App has been installed now. Next, you will have to connect your SendInBlue Account and Shopify store.
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If you have already logged in to your SendInBlue account, you will see the following screen, where you will have to choose Allow Access.
You will be asked to log in if you haven’t logged in to your SendInBlue account.
Once you access the App, you will notice your Store and Token field automatically generated in your SendInBlue account.
Now, click the Save Button.
Once your Connection gets saved, you will be redirected to the Settings Page.
You have successfully integrated your SendInBlue account with your Shopify Store.
Sync Contacts between Shopify Store and SendInBlue account
The Next step is to sync your contacts from the Shopify store to SendInBlue.
Now go to your SendInBlue account and open the Shopify Settings Page.
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Here Enable the Sync Contacts feature if not already enabled.
Then in the drop-down box, choose the Email List to which all your Newsletter subscribers should be added.
Since this is the first time you have enabled this feature, SendInBlue will automatically sync in the background to collect data from your Shopify store.
You have learned how to sync contacts between the Shopify store and SendInBlue account.
Additional Features:
You could have noticed that the Settings page had a couple of more options under Sync Contacts. If you wish to disable syncing contact subscription status from Shopify to SendInBlue, uncheck the first option: Sync Contacts’ Subscription Status (subscribed/unsubscribed).
Mostly you won’t find the need for this option.
And the next option is to AutoAssign Store Contacts’ Attributes to SendInBlue Contact Attributes.
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If you are not interested in the AutoAssign option available, uncheck the option and choose to Map Attributes on your own.
Now, you will look at the Mapping Table.
Choose the appropriate SendInBlue Contact Attribute with the drop-down box against the Store Attribute.
Once done, click the Save Button to save the Mapping Data.
Again click the Save button on the Settings Page.
Enable Subscription Confirmation
Now your contacts will be synced between the Shopify store and SendInBlue. But you haven’t informed your customers that they have been added to the newsletter list.
Informing the customers about the newsletter subscription will increase the open rates and ensure that your future emails are not sent to the spam folder.
To send a Newsletter confirmation email, enable Use SendInBlue Subscription Confirmation Options to Manage Opt-in Settings.
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And then choose to go with either one of the two methods,
- Single Opt-in Method
- Double Opt-in Method
Single Opt-in:
Using the Single Opt-in method, you decide that the default subscription form is sufficient to add the contact to your Newsletter.
You can send a subscription confirmation email with either the Default Confirmation Template available or by creating a custom template.
Double Opt-in:
You will send a confirmation link to your contact by choosing the Double Opt-in method. Once your contact clicks the confirmation link, you will get their consent to send newsletters.
To implement this,
Choose Double Confirmation Email and the Template to send Confirmation Email.
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Additional Options:
By default, users hitting the confirmation link will be redirected to SendInBlue Thank you page. But if you wish to send them to a custom page / your Own Website, Choose the Confirmation Page after Clicking on the Validation Link in the Email.
And then, enter the link in the Text Box.
Also, you can send a final confirmation mail after your users have clicked the confirmation email.
Just tick Final Confirmation Email and choose an Email Template.
Track your Abandoned Customer
To quickly summarize,
- We have integrated SendInBlue and Shopify Account
- Synced all contacts/customers
- Enabled Newsletter Subscription for your New Contacts
And with that, you can send attractive Emails to your Store Customers.
Now, you will have to identify your Customers who are abandoning the site. To do this, you will have to track your visitors’ behavior.
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To track the Behavior of your Shopify store visitors,
In your SendInBlue Account, go to the Shopify Settings Page
Enable “Allow SendInBlue to Track Visitor Actions” and then tick “Track Actions related to an abandoned cart.”
Enabling tracking actions of an abandoned cart in Shopify Settings Page, you will access 3 Standard Events,
- cart_updated: This event indicates when a coach gets created or updated
- order_completed: The event indicates when a cart is purchased
- cart_deleted: This event indicates when the products are getting deleted from the existing shopping cart
Creating an Abandoned Cart Email Workflow
Next, you should be automating Abandoned Cart Emails with a workflow.
The basic logic behind this workflow is,
- Trigger: The workflow should be triggered when creating a new shopping cart.
- Send: After creating the shopping cart, we should send a follow-up email to the buyer.
- Recognize: Check if the Shopping Cart Items are purchased (Workflow Success) or removed (Stop Workflow), or updated (Restart Workflow).
So, I hope you have understood the logic behind setting up this workflow. Only if you know the logic can you customize the workflow as per your needs in the future.
Now let’s move on to create an Abandoned Cart Workflow.
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In your SendInBlue account, go to the Automation app and choose to Create a New Workflow. And then Choose Abandoned Cart Workflow.
Now you should complete these 6 steps to customize your Abandoned Cart Workflow.
Step 1: Choose the Custom Event
This is the event that we are going to track. Every time this event happens, the workflow will get started. We want this workflow to begin when a buyer adds an item to the shopping cart.
So choose the Custom event to be cart_updated.
Step 2: Add a Delay
Once the buyer adds an item to the cart, we need to give him a grace period to see if he completes the purchase or leaves the page.
And this grace period is the delay time for this workflow.
So choose the delay period before you trigger the next event in the workflow.
Step 3: Send an Email
In the next step, you will have to choose an Email Template. The Default Email Template for Abandoned Cart has been selected as we haven’t created any template for this step.
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Let’s discuss customizing this template later.
Click Next to proceed to the next step.
Step 4: Event to Exit Workflow
Now, you will have to decide when to exit this workflow.
In our case, we need to exit the workflow if the buyer completes the purchase. So choose the exit event to be order_completed.
Step 5: Second Event to Exit Workflow
This is the second alternate case to exit the workflow.
Apart from the buyer making the purchase, we also need to exit the workflow when the buyer deletes the item from the cart.
So choose the event to be cart_deleted
Step 6: Event to Restart the Workflow
So what if the buyer doesn’t purchase or deletes the item from the shopping cart? We should continue with this workflow once again from the start.
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Therefore choose the restart event for the workflow to be cart_updated.
And then click the Finish button.
That’s it; you have completed setting up a Basic workflow for sending Abandoned Cart Emails.
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Creating an Abandoned Cart Email Template
As I mentioned earlier, you can customize your Abandoned Cart Email Template.
Click the template in your Abandoned Cart Workflow and choose Edit Email Content.
In this SendInBlue Email Editor, you can edit the template as you like.
The Email Template also allows the usage of placeholders.
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Here are some Item placeholders for your reference:
Items data Insert this placeholder in your template Item name {{ item.name }} Item SKU {{ item.sku }} Item category {{ item.category }} Item ID {{ item.id }} Item variant ID {{ item.variant_id }} Item variant name {{ item.variant_name }} Item price {{ item.price }} Item Quantity {{ item.quantity }} Item URL {{ item.url }} Item image {{ item.image }}
And some cart-related placeholders for your reference:
Cart data Insert this placeholder in your template Affiliation {{ params.affiliation }} Date {{ params.date }} Subtotal {{ params.subtotal }} Discount {{ params.discount }} Shipping {{ params.shipping }} Total before tax {{ params.total_before_tax }} Tax {{ params.tax }} Total {{ params.total }} Currency {{ params.currency }} URL to view the cart {{ params.url }}
Once you have added the placeholders, don’t forget to click the Save button.
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Wrapping Up
After you are done with setting up these Abandoned cart Emails, you can try it. To test your Abandoned Cart workflow, follow the steps below,
- Enter your Email Address through the Subscription form in your Shopify Store.
- Confirm your Newsletter subscription
- Add an Item to Shopping Cart
- Check if you have received an Email after the Delay Period
- Try deleting the item from the cart and see if you are still receiving emails. (You shouldn’t be getting)
- If possible, try adding the item to the cart and make a purchase after the follow-up newsletter. (You shouldn’t be getting emails after the purchase).
I hope you will love our tutorial. If you are struck anywhere, let me know in the comments section. I will help you out.
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Aadarsh Roy says
Hey Nirmal Kumar ,
Excellent post with Fab-work. I truly appreciate your hard-work.
Glad to say that you have provided helpful guide & effective solution for tracking Abandoned carts in shopify site & transforming them into sales. You have explained in a very nice way along with all the crucial information and necessary steps that are true enough to understand and educate the learners.
Your each of the mentioned steps (including images) are so clear and providing better understanding as well. Following the steps will be a great helping hand. After going through this post i really got helpful ideas & tips and have also boosted my knowledge.
Eventually thanks for sharing your knowledge and such a helpful post.
Nirmal Kumar says
Thanks Aadarsh!
Your comments at my articles are always motivating 🙂
Regards,
Nirmal Kumar
Dev Patel says
Are you worrying about website visitors adding products to the cart in your Shopify store but leaving the site without completing the purchase?
Such Abandoned visitors are a concern for most Shopify owners. If you are one among them let us look at a promising solution for tracking Abandoned Carts and Converting them to Sales.
Thanks for the tutorial and for explaining everything in a very precise manner.
BlogHeist says
Hey Dev!
Thanks a lot for dropping by.
We appreciate your recommendation.
Reach us at: https://blogheist.com/contact-us/ for any queries.