Abandoned cart series

The Abandoned cart series template is useful when you want to increase your chances of bringing customers back to your site. This template helps you build a workflow that:

  • sends a reminder message to everyone who left their cart after a specific amount of time
  • sends another message to target specifically those customers who didn’t respond to your first message. Note: abandoned cart items will not be included in your follow-up messages.
  • tracks who returned to your website and who didn’t
  • tags your customers based on their whether or not they returned to your site.

Template overview

Category: Abandoned cart
Elements in template: 7
Minimum number of elements to configure: 7

Here’s what you’ll need to configure the elements and publish the template as a workflow:

  • Automation messages or messages that can be used as automation messages
  • Tags (optional). They will help you identify your customers if you want to target them specifically or add them to another workflow. You can create tags as you’re building the workflow, but its best to have a basic tagging plan set.

Configuring the template

All greyed out elements need to be configured. Click an element to open its Properties tab.

Starting the workflow

  1. Configure the Abandoned cart element to track contacts who don’t complete their purchase. To do this, click the element. The next step depends on the integration method you use:

    • for JavaScript, click Get Web Connect, copy the snippet to the clipboard and after that click on ‘Back’ on the top left. (At this point it’s best to save it to a temporary document in case you copy something else to the clipboard). Under Properties, enter 2 URLs: one for the cart and the other for the post-purchase thank-you page. Note: Once you’re done configuring the template, you’ll need to copy the snippet to your website’s management system or insert it directly into the HTML source code. 

      For detailed instructions on installing the tracking code, please go to How do I add the tracking JavaScript code to my website?

    • for API, select API as the integration method. Then, use the drop-downs to specify the purchase you want to track.

      Note: The time settings for this element are preset to the recommended value.
  1. In the Send message element, use the drop-downs to select the message you want to send as a reminder.

  2. Configure the URL visited element to track if your contacts visited your product site:

    • Click the element. This will display the Get Web Connect option.
    • Click Get Web Connect, click Copy code to copy the snippet to the clipboard and after that click on ‘Back’ on the top left. (At this point it’s best to save it to a temporary document in case you copy something else to the clipboard).
    • Under Properties, enter the URL of the product site you want to track. Use a wildcard if you want to track visits anywhere on your site. To learn more about configuring the element and using wildcards, go to How do I set properties for the URL visited condition?

Note: Once you’re done configuring the template, you’ll need to copy the snippet to your website’s management system or insert it directly into the HTML source code. For detailed instructions on installing the tracking code, please go to How do I add the tracking JavaScript code to my website?

Tagging as recovered

In the Tag action attached to the “if yes” (green) connector of the URL visited condition, select the tag to assign to contacts who returned to your site.

Sending a follow-up

  1. In the Send message element attached to the “if no” (red) connector of the URL visited condition, use the drop-downs to select the message you want to send as a second reminder.
  2. Follow Step 3 to set up the second URL visited condition. Customers who visit your site will automatically be tagged as contacts who returned to your site.
  3. For the Tag element attached to the “if no” (red) connector of the URL visited condition, select the tags you want to assign to the customers who didn’t return customers.

Note: Products from abandoned cart can be shown only in the first message. After sending the first message in the workflow we no longer have information about the data from the cart.

Finishing setup

Click Save and publish when you’re done setting up the template or Save and exit if you want to finish editing the template later (it will appear as a draft on the Manage workflows page).

Related workflows

  • Win back
    You can use the tag applied at the end of the workflow to customers not interested in your current offer to trigger the workflow designed to reach such clients.

Related links