How to Setup WooCommerce Cart Recovery (Boost Sales)

Roughly 70% of online shoppers who add an item to their cart leave without completing their purchase. If your store was a physical shop, that means seven out of ten people would be dropping their armful of products at the register and walking out the door.

The good news? With the right plugin, you can turn those abandoned carts into one of your store’s most reliable revenue streams.

By the end of this guide, you’ll have a complete cart recovery system that automatically tracks abandoned checkouts and sends personalized reminder emails, complete with a link that restores each shopper’s exact cart.

Why WooCommerce Cart Recovery Is Worth Setting Up

Before we open a single settings page, I want to explain why abandoned cart recovery has become one of my favorite ways to boost sales on any online store. Once you understand what these emails actually do, the setup feels minimal compared to the payoff.

Here are the reasons I set up cart recovery on every WooCommerce store I touch:

• You Recover Revenue You Already Earned: When a shopper adds a product to their cart, they have already decided they want it. Re-engaging that motivated buyer takes far less effort than convincing a brand-new visitor to make their first purchase.
• It Runs Completely on Autopilot: Once your automation is live, it works 24/7 without you needing to do anything else. A shopper can abandon a cart at 2am while you’re asleep, and they’ll still get a reminder, right on schedule. 
• The Reminders Feel Personal and Well-Timed: A good recovery email isn’t a generic newsletter blast. It greets the shopper by name, shows the exact items still waiting in their cart, and arrives when your store is still fresh in their mind. That kind of timing and personalization is something no human could do manually at scale. 
• A Gentle Discount Can Seal the Deal: Sometimes, a shopper may hesitate over a few dollars or the cost of shipping. In that case, including a coupon code in your cart recovery email can give that visitor the exact incentive they need to complete their order.
• You Finally See Why Shoppers Leave: Tools such as FunnelKit track every captured cart and sort it into recoverable, recovered, and lost. By regularly reviewing this data, you can spot and fix technical bugs or checkout hurdles before they impact your overall conversion rates.

Step 1: Install and Activate FunnelKit Automations

To get started, you’ll need the plugin that powers this entire abandoned cart system. I use FunnelKit Automations because it handles cart tracking and recovery emails directly from your WordPress dashboard. This keeps your store and customer data completely private.

There’s a premium version of FunnelKit Automations that includes powerful features to help your store grow, such as dynamic coupons and SMS reminders.

However, you can also download a completely free version of FunnelKit Automations from the WordPress repository. This includes live cart tracking and automated recovery emails, which is everything you need to follow along with this guide.

If you haven’t added a plugin to your site before, our guide on how to install and activate a plugin walks you through the entire process.

Step 2: Connect an Email Sending Service So Your Emails Actually Arrive

Before building your recovery campaigns, you need to ensure your abandoned cart emails will arrive safely in the shopper’s inbox. 

By default, WordPress attempts to send emails using basic server mail functions. This method is notoriously unreliable. Because many web hosts do not configure server mail properly, default WordPress emails often get delayed or sent straight to spam.

This deliverability issue is the single most common problem store owners encounter with cart recovery, and it has nothing to do with FunnelKit itself. 

The best way to fix this, is by connecting an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) service. An SMTP service authenticates your messages using proper security protocols so inbox providers trust them.

For this, I recommend WP Mail SMTP. This free plugin connects seamlessly to popular email delivery services, including SendLayer, Brevo, and SMTP.com. It then reroutes all your website’s outgoing email through this secure, trusted delivery provider, which improves your email deliverability rates. 

There’s a premium version of WP Mail SMTP that adds features like advanced deliverability reporting, plus additional email providers. However, the free plugin is plenty for now. 

For the full walkthrough, our WP Mail SMTP course shows you how to connect a sending service properly. 

Step 3: Create a WooCommerce Coupon Code (Optional)

Before creating your cart recovery sequence, you may want to consider creating a discount code. Adding a coupon to your follow-up emails encourages customers to finish their order.

In this guide, we’ll be creating a sequence of three cart recovery emails, so you can add the coupon to the second or third email. You might even use multiple coupons to create tiered discounts that grow larger as subscribers move through the sequence.  

If you decide to offer a discount, you can create these coupons directly in WooCommerce. Head over to Marketing » Coupons in your dashboard and click ‘Add new coupon.’

First, type in the exact coupon code customers will need to enter at checkout. It’s best to use something clear and memorable, like COMEBACK10 or SAVE10.

After that, use the fields and dropdowns to configure your coupon. For example, you can set the discount type, the amount, and any usage limits or expiration dates.

In the following screenshot, I’m creating a ‘COMEBACK10’ coupon that gives the customer 10 percent off.

When you’re happy with how the coupon is set up, click Publish to make it live. You can repeat this process for any additional coupon codes you plan to use.

Be sure to make a note of the exact coupon you created, as you’ll need to paste it into your emails later in this guide.

Step 4: Enable Cart Tracking

With your email deliverability sorted, you can now set up FunnelKit to track abandoned carts. This feature captures a shopper’s email address and cart contents in real time, giving FunnelKit the information it needs to follow up automatically.

To activate tracking, go to FunnelKit Automations » Settings in your WordPress dashboard, then click the ‘Cart’ tab. 

Inside the Cart tab, check the following box: Enable to live capture buyer’s email and cart details. This activates the tracking system. 

Directly below the main toggle is the Wait Period field. This setting determines how many minutes of inactivity FunnelKit counts before marking the cart as abandoned and triggering your recovery workflow. 

By default, FunnelKit Automations waits for 15 minutes. This works well for most stores by filtering out customers who are simply taking a few minutes to browse. However, you can adjust this timeframe by typing a new number into the ‘Wait Period’ field.

FunnelKit captures a shopper’s email address in real time as soon as they type it into the checkout field. Because it saves this contact information instantly, you can automatically send recovery emails to customers who leave your site before completing their order.

However, if your store gets visitors from the European Union (EU), then you’ll need to let shoppers know you’re collecting this information. To do this, select the GDPR Consent tab and then check the consent notice option.

This helps you comply with local privacy laws. 

Once you’ve adjusted these settings, click the ‘Save’ button to store these changes. Your store is now actively tracking abandoned carts in the background.

Step 5: Create Your Abandoned Cart Automation

Now that cart tracking is active, it’s time to build the automated email sequence that handles your recovery follow-ups. This workflow controls who receives an email, when those messages are triggered, and their contents.

To begin, navigate to FunnelKit Automations » Automations and click the Create Automation button near the top of the screen.

This action opens FunnelKit’s library of pre-built recipes alongside an option to build a custom workflow from scratch.

To save time, select the pre-made Abandoned Cart Reminder recipe under the WooCommerce category. This free template automatically generates a complete three-email follow-up sequence.

To save time, I always start with this template. However, if you prefer to start with a blank slate you can select ‘Start from Scratch’ instead. 

When you click a recipe, FunnelKit will show a preview of the workflow layout. To load this workflow into your dashboard, click ‘Import Recipe.’

Next, enter a title for your workflow. This is just for your reference, so use something descriptive like ‘Abandoned Cart Recovery.’ 

After that, click ‘Create.’ 

Step 6: Set Up the ‘Cart Abandoned’ Trigger and Delay Block

Every automation starts with a trigger, which is simply the event that kicks the whole sequence into motion. For cart recovery, that event is a shopper abandoning their cart (the ‘Cart Abandoned’ trigger). 

This trigger tells FunnelKit to enroll shoppers when they abandon their cart for the specified wait period, which is 15 minutes by default. 

After the trigger, the next section is ‘Delay.’ It’s not a good idea to send an email the exact second a customer abandons their cart. 

Many shoppers simply step away temporarily or get briefly distracted, and will naturally return to their shopping cart a few minutes later. If you email the customer straight away, you risk annoying them and driving them away from your site. 

This Delay block is set to 30 minutes by default, but you may want to make this delay shorter or longer. 

To do this, click the block and then change the value in the ‘Delay for a specific period’ field. 

For this first message, I typically set the delay between 30 minutes and one hour. This timing ensures your store remains fresh in the customer’s mind without interrupting their active shopping session.

If you change this duration, then don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button to store your settings. 

Step 7: Customize Your First Recovery Email

This is the core of your cart recovery workflow: the email that actually invites the shopper back. A good recovery email is short, friendly, and makes returning to the cart effortless.

To create this message, click on the ‘Send Email’ action block in your workflow.

You’ll now see the FunnelKit email editor. 

Because you’re using a template, the editor already contains a basic message that you can easily customize.

For the subject line, the recipe uses “Your cart is saved” followed by the {{cart_billing_first_name}} merge tag. 

When FunnelKit sends this email, it’ll automatically replace all merge tags with real values. In this case, that’s the customer’s first name. 

You can add more merge tags to your email by clicking any of the ‘Merge Tags’ buttons.

In the popup that appears, simply copy the merge tag you want to use. 

You can then paste it anywhere in the email including the subject line.

The single most important element is the link that rebuilds the cart. 

In the body text, the recipe includes a ‘Click here’ link that carries each shopper straight back to a checkout page with their original items already loaded.

You can customize this link, such as changing the anchor text or replacing it with an alternative element such as a call to action button. Just make sure you set the embedded link to http://{{cart_recovery_link}} 

Pro Tip: Don’t worry if the link appears empty during testing. FunnelKit only generates and displays cart data when you send the email to an actual, tracked shopper with items in their basket.

When you’re happy with how the email looks, click the ‘Save’ button. You now have a polished first recovery email set up and ready to go, which already puts you ahead of most stores. 

Step 9: Build Your Follow Up Emails

A single email may recover some carts, but a multi-step sequence is almost guaranteed to recover more. This is especially true if you include a discount code to build urgency and motivate hesitant buyers to finish the checkout process. 

FunnelKit’s abandoned cart recipe includes two follow-up emails that you can easily customize.

Scrolling down your workflow canvas, you’ll see a second ‘Delay’ block followed by a second ‘Send Email’ action. 

To customize the second email, click its Send Email block to open the editor.

You can update the subject line and body text or add merge tags using the exact same process we covered earlier. Instead of simply repeating the first email, I recommend trying a different angle. For example, you might highlight product benefits, reassure shoppers about your return policy, or answer common questions. 

If you created a coupon code earlier, this is a great place to introduce it. You can add a simple line such as “Use code COMEBACK10 at checkout for 10% off” directly above the cart recovery link.

As always, don’t forget to click ‘Save’ to store any changes you’ve made.

Next, scroll further down the workflow canvas to reach the third Delay and Send Email blocks.

Once again, you can change the delay, or customize the email. Just keep in mind that this is your last chance to recover the lost sale, so you may want to give the customer a final push by offering a slightly larger discount or a perk like free shipping.

Step 11: Activate and Test Your Automation

Every store owner wants to avoid emailing a customer who has already completed their order. Fortunately, FunnelKit handles this for you automatically. 

As soon as a shopper completes their purchase, FunnelKit cancels any remaining emails in the sequence and marks the cart as recovered. That said, once you’ve customized the final email, you’re ready to go live.

In the top-right corner of the automation builder, you will see a switch that currently reads Inactive. Simply click this Inactive switch so that it changes to Active.

Your cart recovery system is now officially live and watching for abandoned carts. However, I never trust an automation until I’ve tested it myself, and I recommend you do the same. 

To run a test, open your store in a private browser window, add a product to the cart, and begin the checkout process using an email address you can easily access.

As soon as you enter your email address and then abandon the checkout, FunnelKit should capture the cart. To verify the capture, go to FunnelKit Automations » Carts and look for your test cart in the recoverable list.

If it appears there, everything is set up correctly. 

It is as easy as that! You now have a fully automated WooCommerce cart recovery system quietly working in the background of your store.

Step 12: Track Your Recovered Carts

Once your automation is up and running, you’ll want to monitor the results. This is where you get to watch abandoned carts turn into real revenue.

To see the data, go to FunnelKit Automations » Carts. 

FunnelKit sorts the data into three tabs:

• Recoverable: Shows carts that have been abandoned and are currently moving through your email sequence.
• Recovered: Lists every abandoned cart your automation successfully converted into a purchase. 
• Lost: Shows carts that never converted despite your reminders.

I always closely monitor the Lost tab, as a high number of lost carts may point to a pricing or checkout issue that’s worth investigating. 

Frequently Asked Questions About WooCommerce Cart Recovery

Does WooCommerce track abandoned carts by default?

No, WooCommerce does not track abandoned carts by default. Because WooCommerce only records completed orders, unpurchased carts vanish without a trace. 

FunnelKit Automations fills this gap by capturing customer email addresses and cart contents during checkout, giving you the tracking data you need to follow up on those abandoned carts. 

How long before a cart is considered abandoned?

By default, FunnelKit waits 15 minutes after a shopper’s last activity before marking their cart as abandoned. This 15-minute window works well for most stores, as it’s long enough to avoid interrupting people who are still actively browsing.

If your store has an unusually long or short checkout flow, you can easily adjust this delay in FunnelKit’s Cart settings. Getting this timing right ensures you only send follow-up emails to shoppers who have genuinely left your site.

How many recovery emails should I send before stopping?

In my experience, three emails is the ideal number for most stores. Spacing your messages at one hour, 24 hours, and 48 hours should capture the bulk of recoverable sales without annoying your customers. 

Sending more than three emails often leads to higher unsubscribe rates and spam complaints rather than extra orders. However, if you’re just starting out then even a single well-written email will help you recover sales you would have otherwise lost entirely.

When should I offer a discount instead of just a reminder?

I recommend saving coupon codes for your second or third email rather than the initial message. Many shoppers will return to complete their order after the first email, so offering a coupon too early can hurt your profit margins unnecessarily.

Can I recover abandoned carts from guest checkouts?

Yes. FunnelKit captures a shopper’s email address as soon as they type it into the checkout field, even if they never create an account or complete the purchase. That means you can still recover guest shoppers (who likely make up a huge portion of your store traffic) via FunnelKit.

Why aren’t my recovery emails sending or landing in the inbox?

This is the most common issue store owners encounter, and it almost always comes down to email deliverability rather than a problem with FunnelKit itself.

When you rely on default WordPress mail settings, email providers will often block, delay, or send your messages straight to spam folders. The fix is to connect an SMTP service using a plugin like WP Mail SMTP, which authenticates your outgoing emails so inbox providers trust them.

Once you route your mail through a proper sending service, deliverability issues almost always disappear. 

Do I need the Pro version, or is the free FunnelKit enough?

You can create a complete WooCommerce cart recovery sequence using the free version of FunnelKit Automations. This includes live tracking, custom delays, and multi-step email workflows. 

You only need to upgrade to the premium plugin if you want to access advanced features like dynamic expiring coupon codes, SMS reminders, detailed conditional logic, and deeper analytics.

My advice is to start with the free version, prove that cart recovery brings in revenue for your store, and then upgrade only when those extra features justify the cost.

Start Recovering Lost Sales Today

You now have a complete cart recovery system running on your online store, turning abandoned carts into paying customers. In my experience, this is one of those quiet upgrades that keeps paying you back, long after you’ve set it up.

However, a recovery sequence is just one piece of running a successful WooCommerce store. If you want to keep growing, our comprehensive video library covers everything you need to build a successful online business: 

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