Cart abandonment is one of the biggest pain points in eCommerce today. Studies have shown that almost 70% of online shopping cart buyers are abandoning their carts before completing the purchase. But if you’re using BigCommerce, you’re in luck! The platform has built-in features to help you salvage those sales and re-engage those potential buyers. In this guide, we’ll break down the tools available for recovering abandoned shopping carts within BigCommerce, as well as strategies to improve the chances that a shopping cart will convert to a purchase.

What is Cart Abandonment?

When a shopper adds items to their shopping cart and then leaves the site without completing a purchase, that’s cart abandonment. There’s a variety of reasons for cart abandonment, from unexpected shipping fees to complicated checkout processes and distractions, but all of these missed purchases were potential sales lost and revenue missed as a result. Cart abandonment does present a huge opportunity for you as a merchant though. With appropriate follow-up, you’ll be able to recover a lot of these abandoned shopping carts!

BigCommerce’s Built-In Abandoned Cart Recovery Tools

BigCommerce provides a very powerful native tool called Abandoned Cart Saver that is available with the Plus, Pro, and Enterprise plans. The Abandoned Cart Saver allows you to automatically email the customer reminders that they abandoned their cart in order to help bring them back to possibly complete their purchase.

Key features include:

• Ability send reminders for up to three different abandoned cart emails
• Ability to customize branding and messaging in the email
• Ability to configure send time (ex. 1 hour, 24 hours, 3 days)
• The ability to include dynamic content, such as products and product images
• Incentives (discount codes, free shipping) to help drive conversion

Strategies to Increase Your Abandoned Cart Recovery Rate

1. Create an Email Sequence

Do not merely send one reminder email. Your email recovery rate will drastically improve if you send follow-up emails in a sequence.

• Email 1 (1 hour later): a gentle reminder that items are still in the cart
• Email 2 (24 hours later): increase in urgency or scarcity (ex. “limited stock”)
• Email 3 (2-3 days later): include a discount code as a promotional offer to drive the sale

2. Make the Subject Line Interesting

The subject line of an email plays an important role in how many people actually open your email. Try using friendly situations or curiosity such as:

• “You left something behind”
• “Still thinking about it? We’ll give you a little something…”
• “Your cart is about to expire”

3. Display Items in the Cart

Include images of the products, pricing, and a direct link back to the cart in your emails. This alters the notion of cart abandonment from simply forgetting to buy to a legitimate reminder of what they put in the shopping cart. Plus, it shows the customer you’re aware of their cart content and can help inspire action.

4. Provide Incentives for Comebacks

Sometimes it just takes a little push. Having a discount code or offering free shipping in a follow-up emails is the difference maker for many customers. Just be sure to say it is only good for a limited time.

5. Use Urgency

Words like “Items may sell out soon” or “Offer ends in the next 24 hours” help solicit prompt action. Time-based phrases can create a sense of urgency and psychological pressure that may encourage customers to decide faster.

6. Analyze and Test Your Campaign

You can use A/B testing to test subject lines, and email content and timing, for example. BigCommerce has great built-in analytics tools that can help you track open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates to support optimizing your emails.

Boost Recovery With Third-Party Apps

For those looking for enhanced capabilities, many third-party apps integrate seamlessly with BigCommerce:

• Klaviyo – Best for segmented email campaigns and automation
• Omnisend – Best for multi-channel (email + SMS) recovery workflows
• Justuno – Delivers onsite pop-ups, exit intent overlays, and lead capture
• Recapture – Specializes in email and SMS recovery with advanced cart analytics

Professional Assistance to Optimize Cart Recovery

Recovering abandoned carts is more than sending them an email … it’s a strategy. At [Your Company Name], we help BigCommerce brands recover more lost sales with customized solutions, including:

• Fully branded, high-converting email sequences
• Marketing automation and application integration
• Exit-intent popups and through-the-site recovery tools
• A/B testing and performance optimization
• Mobile-friendly and responsive design implementation

Whether you are just starting or looking to optimize or adjust what you’re currently doing, we’re happy to assist.

Conclusion

Abandoned carts do not mean lost sales. With the Abandoned Cart Saver within BigCommerce and a well-planned strategy, you can convert a lost opportunity into actual dollars in sales. Coming up with smart email sequences, great offers, and actionable insights, you’ll have customers walking back through the door.

Start implementing these strategies today—or contact us to help you build a high-performing abandoned cart recovery system tailored to your BigCommerce store.