A cart reminder is an email sent to a customer who put items in their cart on your website and left without ordering. It lists what they left behind and links straight back to their cart. You set it up at Website › Marketing › Cart Reminders, one page with everything on it and a single Save Settings button.
What the page shows first
The panel at the top tells you whether reminders are actually going out, not just whether the switch is on:
- Reminders are on: reminders are being sent.
- Reminders are off: nothing is sent automatically.
- Switched on but not sending: the switch is on, but something else is holding reminders back. A Paused for vacation badge means Vacation Status is on with orders paused. A red Disabled for this site badge means cart reminders are switched off for your site at the platform level; contact support to have it turned on.
Below that are four figures for your shop: Sent, last 30 days, Opened their cart (customers who clicked back to their cart), Went on to order, and Sent all time. A line under the figures says when the last reminder went out and how many carts qualify for a reminder on the next run. Reminders are checked twice a day.
Three buttons take you further: Carts already reminded, Send one now from Manage Carts and Abandoned-cart report.
Turning reminders on
- Open Website › Marketing › Cart Reminders.
- In the Automation card, turn on Send reminders automatically.
- Choose how long to wait: Wait 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10 or 14 days after the cart was started, then send the reminder. Three days is a good default.
- Check the wording in The email card (below), then click Save Settings.
Which carts get a reminder
The Automation card lists the rules, and they are worth knowing before a customer asks:
- Each cart gets one automatic reminder. A cart that has already been reminded is left alone.
- Only carts with an email address can be reminded. A visitor who never typed one in is skipped.
- Carts older than 30 days are never reminded.
- Items that have sold since are dropped from the reminder, so nobody is invited back to a book that is gone. The cart itself does not reserve anything.
- Vacation Status with orders paused holds reminders until you are back.
- Reminders go to everyone who left a cart, whether or not they joined a mailing list. Put an unsubscribe line in your footer text if you want one.
Writing the email
The email card holds the words. The customer's cart items are listed between the intro and the closing.
- Subject line:
%COMPANY_NAME%becomes your shop name. - Description length: how much of each item's description shows under its title (25, 50, 100 or 200 words, or Full description).
- Intro, Closing and Footer: the text above the items, below them, and the small print at the bottom.
Link to %HTTP%cartrm.php in the intro, closing or footer. When the reminder is sent, that link becomes a personal one for each customer: clicking it brings their cart back exactly as they left it, even on another device. The Opened their cart figure counts those clicks. Other placeholders you can use: %COMPANY_NAME%, %COMPANY_SIGNATURE% and %HTTPS% for your site address.
Tracking has one box, Campaign tag (UTM), added to every link in the email so your analytics can tell reminder visits apart. Leave it blank for none.
Fonts and colours come from Email Design, which styles every email your shop sends; the Email styling card says so. On a site still using older email templates, that card has its own font and colour choices instead.
Previewing and sending a test
The See it before it sends card builds a sample reminder with your text as it stands right now (saved or not), two example books and your site's email design. Nothing goes to customers.
- Preview opens the sample, with Desktop and Phone widths.
- Email me a test: check the address (your own is filled in) and click Send. The test arrives with [Test] in front of the subject.
In a sample the personal cart link points at your plain cart page. Only administrators can preview or send a test.
Sending one reminder by hand
You do not have to turn the automation on to remind someone. Click Send one now from Manage Carts to open your Shopping Carts list; each cart that has an email address has a Send Reminder link (Resend Reminder if it was reminded before). The customer's own record has the same option on its Carts tab, and warns you first if the customer is not opted in to emails. See Wants, wishlists, inquiries, and carts.
Common questions
The switch is on but nothing is being sent. Why?
Look at the badge at the top of the page. Paused for vacation means Vacation Status is on with orders paused; Disabled for this site means support needs to turn it on. If the badge says Reminders are on, check the line under the figures: it may say no cart qualifies right now.
Will a customer get more than one reminder?
Not automatically. Each cart is reminded once. You can send another by hand from the Shopping Carts list.
Why did a customer not get a reminder?
Most often their cart has no email address (they never signed in or typed one), the cart is older than 30 days, or it was already reminded.
Does a reminder hold the books for the customer?
No. The cart is not reserved. Anything that sells in the meantime is left out of the reminder.
Where do I see whether reminders are working?
The figures at the top of the page cover the last 30 days, and Abandoned-cart report opens the fuller report. See The Customers reports.