Abandoned cart emails is a low-cost marketing strategy to recover lost sales. They are a type of sales emails that aim to bring back shoppers who had ditched their shopping cart and walked out without making a purchase.

It’s easy to see that shopping cart abandonment causes some loss of revenue to businesses. But how big is the loss? How significant?

Here’s what shopping cart abandonment statistics say. Statista estimates that the average online shopping cart abandonment rate is 69.99%.

In this post, we will analyze some of the most effective abandoned cart email examples of 2024 and see why they were so successful. But first, let’s take a quick look at why marketers send cart recovery emails and whether abandoned cart emails work.

Why should I send abandoned cart emails?

A cart abandonment email aims to encourage prospects to return and complete their purchase. These prospects had earlier abandoned their online shopping carts before making payment. 

One of the key reasons why you should send cart recovery emails is the high ROI. As per Harvard Business Review, getting a new customer is at least five times more expensive than retaining an existing customer. It makes a lot of business sense to have an abandoned cart email strategy in place.

Another strong reason is the smart economics of customer retention. An article published by Bain reports that a mere 5% increase in customer retention increases profits by 25% to 95%. It only proves that it’s a great deal more profitable to retain a customer than to get a new one. 

And finally, it’s plain common sense. Converting a potential buyer into an actual buyer is easier than bringing in a fresh visitor to your ecommerce site and then encourage them to buy.

Do abandoned cart emails work?

Yes, they do. Baymard Institute compiled cart abandonment statistics over 10 years from 49 studies and concluded that as much $260BN of these lost orders are recoverable. That’s huge money, by any standards. 

The success of abandoned cart email campaigns is strongly evidenced by their open rates. A study of over emails to 9.3M addresses reported an open rate of 41.8% (For reference, the average email open rates are in the range of about 20%).

If you don’t run cart recovery campaigns that aim to recover lost sales, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table. 

Remember, the goal of abandoned cart email strategy is not to bring new customers. The goal is to simply convert abandoned carts and recover lost sales.

Best abandoned cart email examples of 2024

To make sure you get only the most recent examples, we’ve chosen only those emails that were sent in 2024. Enjoy the latest!

1. Blackwolf

As you improve your understanding of how to use abandoned cart emails, you begin to realize that your customers look at so many factors apart from pricing and discount. The more you can focus on other aspects of your products, the less you’ll need to talk about pricing.

When talking about outdoors and camping and all that, here’s one of the best abandoned cart email examples. Blackwolf emails are great at understanding what their category really requires: creating experience.

In the image above, your eyes aren’t drawn to the colors, alternatives, pricing or the CTA. For abandoned cart emails that sell sports, entertainment, or outdoor gear, it’s important you make experience the hero of the story.

And that’s exactly what Blackwolf has done.

What makes it stand out
Experience, and not the product, is on the forefront.

Blackwolf could have included a hi-res photo of a beautiful backpack. Yet, you wouldn’t have glanced twice. But they’ve pushed the product to the margins and highlighted experience through a single photograph.

This photo evokes strong positive emotions, including longing for a camping holiday, nostalgia from childhood, quality time with family, spending time with nature,… and a lot more.

There’s no way you’d see this photo and not have a strong desire to go camping. And since you’re on it, you might as well make a purchase, right here, right now. Which is how this email woos customers into completing checkout.

2. 23andme

Cart abadonment emails aren’t where you should use pressure sales tactics. Check out any impactful abandoned cart email examples: You’ll see they’re about reminding customers and convincing them to complete the checkout process.

The subject line that 23andme uses is relaxed: ‘Sometimes you need more time to decide.‘. No mention of how the sale closes soon or how you’ve got only a few hours left to get that $3 discount, the way some online retailers do.

What’s more, the subject line offers support: ‘How can we help?’ This combination makes the subject line as if it’s from a friend, and not from a business that’s keen to close the sale.

What makes it stand out

23andme has some really intelligent abandoned cart strategy in place, if this example is anything to go by. You’ll notice the email copy is rather short, which makes the recipient feel that 23andme is genuinely offering help and not trying to sell anything.

Next, the email copy starts off where the subject line left off. Too often we’ve seen great subject lines being betrayed by email copy that has no connect whatsoever. Here, the spirit of offering help continues: first they offer help and then they provide reassurance (‘Don’t worry. Your cart is safe with us.’)

The body copy contains the urgency without appearing salesy. It clearly says they’ll save the sales cart for another 72 hours. Which also means that if you don’t complete the purchase within that time period, you’ll have to go through the shopping cycle all over again. Such small  details might have helped improve conversion rate.

3. Animal Rescue Site

Even if you’re not a pet parent, you’ll find photos of dogs and cats irresistible. And a photo of a dog kindly pushing the shopping cart for you – that’s even more irresistible!

The AnimalRescueSite (ASR) lets you mix the pleasure of shopping with the joy of giving and caring. With every purchase you make, you contribute to funding the food and supplies, as well as to the shelter, of rescued or abandoned animals.

The email subject line is delicately witty: “We Saved Your Cart”. That’s because saving animals is what ASR does, and because the spelling of a Cat and Cart only differ by one alphabet, you can’t help but smile when you read it.

What makes it stand out

The best part is these abandoned checkout emails don’t ask you to shop. Instead, they show you that your money goes to a noble cause: caring for sheltered animals. Right below the cute photo of a dog pushing a cart, you see “Each item purchased helps provide food ….” It’s nearly impossible to miss this line, because of its font size and placement.

The second reason this email works so well is the clever use of ratings and testimonials. As you scroll down, you immediately see ‘Why Shop With Us?’. The section is highlighted because a rating of 4.8 out of 5 from over 20,000 reviews is impressive. And they make sure you don’t miss it.

Right at the bottom is another number which convinces you that ASR might just be the right place to spend your money. Just above the footer, you see: ‘$75M Raised’. Powerful piece of social proof, this.

When over 20k people have spent money here, there’s no reason why
social proof in your abandoned cart emails wouldn’t make an impact.

4. BeardSurgeon

The personal grooming space ceased to be a ‘females only’ market long back. Males like to pamper themselves just as well, and the ever-widening range of grooming products for males has made the space crowded and highly competitive. 

The best element of abandoned cart email when you’re in a very competitive market is perhaps how you personalize the email. You can understand the customer and the kind of products that suit them if they have a purchase history with you.

Here’s an email that doesn’t need previous engagement. Because personalization hasn’t been done using purchase history; it’s been done by the fact that the email was sent by the founder of the company.

Right below the ‘Hey There,’ you see the co-founder is writing to you. And that makes you sit up and take notice.

What makes it stand out
We noticed that BeardSurgeon used a subtle hack in its emails. The font-size of their 5-star customer reviews was larger than the font-size of the rest of the copy. That way, you almost would never miss the customer testimonials. And once you’ve experienced social proof through the 5-star reviews, there’d be little convincing left to do, right?

Also, one thing that clearly works in its favor for BeardSurgeon’s cart abandonment emails is the simplicity and brevity. It’s short, clean, and very to-the-point.

You see the photo of the products you likely left behind, the CTAs, and five-star reviews. That’s it. Unlike some of the long emails you see, BeardSurgeon is able to bring back cart abandoners and recover lost revenue with shorter, crispier emails.

5. oVertone

However much you decide to be non-judgmental about someone’s looks, you can never help admiring lovely hair when you see it. All through human history, people have gone to great lengths to take care of their hair.

Today, haircare brings in a sizeable chunk of ecommerce sales, and abandoned cart automation plays an important role there.

oVertone has used a semi-minimalistic approach in its email design. There’s a lot of white space; they’ve kept the product photographs relatively small. The result? High readability that drives the reader’s eyes to the places that matter.

What makes it stand out

The email subject line is quite conversational and if you are like most people, you’d think of this as a friendly email rather than a sales email. Abandoned cart email templates that use an informal approach in their subject lines are more likely to have a higher open rate.

We’re sure you didn’t miss how the email opening line plays around phrases a bit. ‘Get out of my hair’ is a line that traditionally expresses frustration. Here, the line’s turned upside down and gives a humorous call to action.

Finally, instead of flooding the email with textual content or discount codes, oVertone chose to simply display a few relevant products and mention their prices. You’ll notice that they ended with answering two questions. No prizes for guessing that these are the two most frequently asked questions in hair care.

6. Jessops

There’s considerable technicalities involved in photography today. Which is why simple product images don’t explain everything. Paradoxically, the range of specifications is wide. Hence, asking online shoppers to choose even the basic specificiations can make it look like a confusing checkout process.

Black color dominates in the design of Jessops’s abandoned cart email sequence. A wise balance of black and white makes the checkout flow appear easier, because the design looks simpler.

The image of two boxes, each with a picture of a shopping cart, sitting on the laptop keyboard beautifully conveys this is about ecommerce. The headline in big letters is to-the-point: Forgotten Something?

What makes it stand out

Jessops clearly understands the priorities of their customers. The first thing you see below the CTA is a link where you can get customer support. After all, photography investment is technical so it’s not surprising that potential customers may ask many questions before they decide one way or the other.

This must be extremely important for them, since they’ve added the names, roles, and photos of their support team. That gives tremendous comfort to customers, because they know there’s a real team behind the email. In fact, this remains one of those rare abandoned cart email examples where the support seems to drive sales.

One of the top reasons that customers don’t want to make a purchase from an online store is that some key information is missing. Higher your product pricing, the more you need such information. Here, for instance, 4 things are highlighted: free delivery, price match promise, a finance option is available, and the option of collecting the item from a nearby store.

7. DollarShaveClub

DollarShaveClub (DSC) was among the earliest players to enter the personal grooming space with a subscription model. Such a model assures substantial future purchases. So it’s only natural that they rely heavily on email marketing for their ecommerce store.

And they’ve been pretty creative and are known for their humorous ads and email campaigns. Their follow up email copy is direct and rather well designed. Plus, they use colors rather smartly. All this has contributed to the fact that they are now an easily recognizable brand, – not a mean achievement, considering what a tremendous hold Gillette has over this category.

What makes it stand out

It’s no secret that people skim through lots of emails, and abandoned checkout emails are certainly one of those. So it becomes like ‘blink and you miss it’ in a number of emails. 

DSC knows this and hence they have chosen scannable abandoned cart emails. There’s a lot of white space so even if you skim quickly, you are unlikely to miss key details. 

Second, DSC seems to understand that modern customers have a very short attention span. Hence, they’ve included only two products (plus one promotional product), and their pricing. No sensory load for customers – they can quickly understand and make a decision.

8. Canadian Outdoor Equipment

They say the best form of selling is about providing alternatives and thus offering solutions. When your customer is not sure what to buy, coercing them into buying something they’re going to regret later is poor business in the long run. A customer who feels they’ve been cheated won’t return to buy again. Which means you won’t realize the customer lifetime value (CLV). 

Write abandoned cart emails that assist the customer in making the correction decision and you’ll have a customer for life. The products that Canadian Outdoor Equipment sells aren’t something you buy on a regular basis. So just offer as help as possible to the customer while they make a choice.

What makes it stand out

Among the several approaches to abandoned cart emails, Canadian Outdoor Equipment chose to design the email in a way it looked like a website, with a menu and all that. This design, kept in the header of the email, makes the email look familiar. Familiarity leads to trust, which, in turn, leads to sales.

Probably you also noticed there’s no mention of any discount, nor is the email offering free shipping. While helping customers save some money is a great idea, discounts in abandoned cart emails isn’t indispensable. 

Especially when you’re selling camping gear, features like weather-resistance, ease of setting up, and safety are quite important. So instead of rushing off into offering a discount, you help your customers explore.

All this will give you a better idea about what they’re looking for. Offer to sell them those features; discounts can wait.

9. Le Puzz

One of the reasons why shoppers abandon carts is the high shipping costs. That means if cart abandonment emails were a jigsaw puzzle, this email from Le Puzz has its piece in the right place.

One, the discount code “Ok2Ship” is a mini CTA in itself. When at  a brick-and-mortar shop, you’d say, “Ok, pack it!”, right? Well, this email turns it into, “Ok Ship it”.

And two, the actual CTA strums the emotional strings. Sometimes, you have a strong desire to buy something: a toy, a dream car, a vacation home, … Sadly, the small price difference holds you back. This CTA encourages you to give in and indulge yourself. 

What makes it special

There are several reasons we loved this email – and we believe most subscribers share that feeling!

Le Puzz’s abandoned cart email layout is designed to replicate the website experience. The design subtly makes you think of the emotions you had experienced when you checked out the site and added this item to the shopping cart. It might have been easier to resist the temptation the first time, but this time, well, it’d be tough!

Then there’s the photograph. The setting is not that of a superstore. Notice the photo shows the puzzle box in a crate you see in homes – the kind of crate you likely have in your home too. 

And that does the trick. Without telling you, the photo makes you imagine how the puzzle would look like in the plastic crate at your home. Your bond with the puzzle grows stronger. And boom! You hit the CTA button and suddenly the abandoned items become purchased items.

10. Prose

Unlike the mass-produced, one-cream-fits-all beauty products, Prose creates personalized hair and skincare products. For instance, if you’re looking for a shampoo, you will be asked several questions, regarding your hair quality, your age, your hair-care routines, where you live (to determine UV), and more.

Based on your answers, their system will come up with a tailor-made combination of products. These products are selected on the basis of their ingredients which will best suit your hair care goals.

What makes it special

The first thing you notice is the mega discount of 50%. If you were to study abandoned cart emails that convert, you’d probably find the ones with discounts or coupon codes perform very well. People love discounts!

The highlight is of course what their USP is: personalized products. The message doesn’t say ‘Your products are ready’; it says ‘Your formulas are ready’. That drives a clear point home: they are creating formulas only for you.

You’ll also notice the email copy never loses its focus (which probably explains why it’s short). They want to entice you back to their site and hence the concluding section repeats the various offers, including the 50% discount offer for the first-purchase.

Cart abandonment email strategies: An infographic

Here’s an inforgraphic that captures the successful stratgies of cart abandonment, as discussed above.

Abandoned cart emails best practices

We just discussed the 10 best cart recovery emails. And you should feel free to create your own abandoned cart email template that uses a few best practices covered above. Add whatever tone you feel would yield better results.

For instance, some marketers have found better results by inserting a sense of urgency in their emails. Other marketers have found success with their free shipping offer. Still others found personalized subject lines worked best for them.

You may leverage your email marketing KPIs in order to understand your customers’ preferences. Hence you’ll want to tweak your own cart abandonment campaign one thing at a time to see what works.

Here’s a quick summary of the above examples:

A small word of caution: it’s important to not treat any abandoned cart email example in isolation. Just improving your emails may or may not work.

What you can do next

Any successful strategy that targets abandoned carts must also explore where is the system broken. Is your checkout page poorly designed? Are you throwing up unexpected shipping costs at the last moment? Is a clear call to action missing? Or are there some issues with your ecommerce website itself?

Once you plug all the holes, recovering lost sales will be a great deal easier.

So what are your favorite examples and strategies?