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Abandoned Cart

Recover lost sales by emailing customers who left items in their cart.

Overviewโ€‹

Flow:

  1. Customer adds products to cart and leaves without purchasing.
  2. Abandoned cart tracking records the cart (when enabled).
  3. After a configurable delay, a cron job sends a reminder email.
  4. Customer can return and complete the purchase.

Prerequisitesโ€‹

  • Abandoned cart tracking - Must be enabled.
  • Abandoned cart email - Must be enabled.
  • Abandoned Cart Reminder email template - Must be active in Setup โ†’ Email Templates (type: Products).
  • Cron job - Must be configured (see Cron Jobs).
  • Customer must be logged in (carts are tied to client accounts).

Configurationโ€‹

  1. Go to Setup โ†’ Settings โ†’ Products.
  2. Under Features, enable Abandoned cart tracking.
  3. Under Abandoned Cart Email:
    • Enable Send abandoned cart reminder emails.
    • Set Delay before sending (hours), e.g., 24.
  4. Go to Setup โ†’ Email Templates.
  5. Find Abandoned Cart Reminder (type: Products).
  6. Activate the template (it is disabled by default).
  7. Customize the subject and message using the merge fields below.
  8. Save.

Email Templateโ€‹

The abandoned cart email uses Perfex's standard email template system. You can fully customize the subject and body in Setup โ†’ Email Templates.

Merge fields:

Merge fieldDescription
{client_name}Customer or company name
{cart_total}Formatted cart total (e.g., USD 99.00)
{cart_link}Link back to checkout
{companyname}Your company name

Example subject: You left items in your cart

Example message:

Hi {client_name},

You have items worth {cart_total} in your cart.

[Complete your purchase]({cart_link})

Best regards,
{companyname}
warning

The template must be active for the cron to send emails. If disabled, no abandoned cart emails are sent.

Cron Job Setupโ€‹

Add the abandoned cart cron URL to your server's crontab:

0 9 * * * curl -s "https://yoursite.com/products/cron/abandoned_cart_emails" > /dev/null 2>&1

Run daily (e.g., 9:00 AM). See Cron Jobs for full details.

How It Worksโ€‹

  1. When a logged-in customer reaches checkout, their cart is stored.
  2. When they leave without purchasing, the cart remains in the database.
  3. The cron job runs and finds carts older than the delay.
  4. For each cart, the primary contact's email is used to send a reminder.
  5. The email includes a link back to the checkout page.
  6. Once sent, the cart is marked so it is not emailed again.

WhatsApp/SMS Integrationโ€‹

If WhatsApp/SMS Notifications are configured with an abandoned_cart trigger, SMS/WhatsApp messages can also be sent. See WhatsApp & SMS Notifications.