Cart Abandonment – three-touch recovery, with a discount on day three.
An ecommerce abandon flow built around the cart-add event, not the product-view event. Three reminder touches across email and SMS, escalating from social proof to a one-time discount on day three. Stops if the cart converts.
The flow
Triggered off the cart-add event from the storefront. Each step has a “did the order place?” exit gate so converted carts drop out cleanly.
Cart-add event, no checkout in 60 minutes
Listens for cart_add from the storefront, waits 60 minutes, checks for order_placed. If absent, lead enters the flow.
Email 1 – “you left these”
Soft reminder, product image and one customer review. Subject line tested against the brand’s open-rate baseline.
Has the order been placed?
Single check before each subsequent step. The dollar value of the cart matters: orders over $200 also branch into a “VIP support” handoff to the team.
SMS reminder, opted-in only
Short, friendly, one tap to checkout. Brand voice tuned, no emoji. SMS sent during local business hours only.
Drop into post-purchase flow
Hands the customer to the post-purchase nurture, suppresses any pending abandon emails or SMS.
Email 3 – one-time 10% discount
Sent on day three, expires in 48 hours, single-use code. Tagged so the discount can’t stack with other promos.
End of cycle – park in re-engagement segment
If the cart still hasn’t converted by day five, suppress and park in a quarterly re-engagement audience.
Recovers cart revenue without training shoppers to wait for a discount.
The problem this solves
An always-on discount in email one teaches shoppers that the discount is automatic. The first two touches lean on social proof and product detail. The discount only fires on day three, expires fast, and is single-use.
The behavior change
Shoppers convert earlier in the window because the discount isn’t on the table yet. Day-three openers get a real reason to act. Discount-only buyers self-sort into a separate segment for future targeting.
Where it plugs in
Lives in the ESP, listening to storefront events through the platform’s built-in connector. SMS branch requires opt-in capture in the cart flow, which is part of the build.
Numbers we’d expect to see.
- SMS branch typically lifts day-two recovery 30 to 50% over email-only.
- Discount fires on roughly 35 to 45% of remaining carts at day three.
- Discount-only buyers separate cleanly into their own segment for analysis.
- Order-placed gate runs before each step so converted carts never get a “you left these” email.
Numbers are illustrative ranges from comparable builds. Actual lift depends on your average order value, baseline conversion rate, and SMS opt-in rate.