Shopify abandoned checkout email: who gets it, when it sends and what to fix

A Shopify abandoned checkout email is the message Shopify sends when a shopper enters their email at checkout and then leaves without paying. It holds a link back to their checkout, so they can pick up where they left off. Shopify can send it for you, but only if the right automation is on, pointed at the right people and timed sensibly.

This guide shows where the setting lives in 2026, who gets the email by default, why some abandoned checkouts never get one, and whether to put a discount in it during Black Friday. By the end you can check your setup and know what the email can and can't do.

What Shopify counts as an abandoned checkout

Shopify's help center defines it narrowly. A checkout counts as abandoned when the shopper has given their email information and the checkout stays incomplete for more than ten minutes. A full cart with no email typed in is not an abandoned checkout, so no email can go out for it.

Also from the same page:

• Recovery emails work only for the Online Store and Buy Button sales channels. Checkouts on Shopify POS, Shop or third-party sales channels don't get one.
• You find the list under Orders > Abandoned checkouts. Checkouts older than three months are deleted automatically, and you can't delete one yourself.
• Abandoned checkouts are off by default for Shopify B2B, and only the store or organization owner can ask Shopify Support to turn them on.

Legacy email or the new automation: check which one you have

Shopify is moving abandoned checkout emails into the Shopify Messaging app. There are two versions in use right now:

• The legacy email. It sends an automatic email after the wait you choose in its Send after setting, using the Abandoned checkout notification template. Shopify says you can keep using it until it's removed.
• The new abandoned checkout automation. It lives in Apps > Messaging > Automations, uses the Shopify Messaging email editor and can be changed with Shopify Flow, including the wait time.

Switching is permanent. Shopify's guide to the new abandoned checkout automation says you can't go back to the legacy emails after opting in. If you're switching before Black Friday, do it now rather than in sale week, so you have time to test.

How to set up the abandoned checkout automation

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Apps > Messaging, then click Automations.
2. Click View templates and select the Abandoned checkout template.
3. Click Edit to change the email or the workflow, then click Turn on automation and confirm with Continue.
4. To change the email later, open the automation and click Edit > Edit email. You can change the To field, subject line, preview text and the From address, and edit the body with the same sections you use for other Shopify Messaging emails.
5. To change the timing, open the automation, click Edit and adjust the workflow in Shopify Flow.

When you move from the legacy email, Shopify carries your previous settings over.

Check who the email goes to

This setting is easy to miss. By default, the new automation is sent only to customers who are subscribed to email marketing. To include everyone who abandons a checkout, edit the To field and select All customers. Which is right depends on how you collect consent and the email rules where you sell, so decide on purpose.

If you keep the subscriber-only default, the number of people who opt in at checkout matters more. Under Settings > Checkout, the Marketing opt-in section controls where the marketing consent checkbox appears: checkout, the sign-in page or both. You can also choose to preselect it.

Why some abandoned checkouts never get an email

If the list looks full but few emails go out, check Shopify's list of cases where the new automation doesn't send:

• The shopper hasn't previously completed a purchase and subscribed to marketing.
• The shopper completed a purchase before the email was due.
• None of the items in the checkout can still be bought, for example because they're out of stock.
• Every item in the checkout is free, and the shopper either never reached the shipping page or shipping is also free.
• The checkout was started in the Shop app.
• Shopify Payments blocked the payment as high risk.
• The shopper abandoned a newer checkout and its wait time hasn't passed yet.

The legacy email lists three more cases: a payment processing error, a shipping address your store doesn't ship to, and a shopper who entered a phone number instead of an email when your checkout allows either. To check whether a given email was sent or failed to deliver, open the automation in Shopify Messaging, click View recent activity in the Workflow section and open the Run ID.

If you recognise a real customer whose payment was blocked, Shopify suggests creating a draft order and sending them an invoice. Our guide to Shopify high risk orders covers what to check before you ship.

Should the email include a discount during Black Friday?

Shopify lets you add a discount to the email so the shopper returns to a checkout at the lower price. In the new automation you add it in the email editor. For the legacy template, Shopify's guide to discounts in abandoned checkout emails shows how to append a code to the checkout link.

Before you add one for Black Friday, read this note in Shopify's guide for the legacy email: if the shopper manually entered another discount code before leaving, the recovery code replaces it. Shopify doesn't say how the new automation handles this, so test it with your own checkout. In sale week, a replaced code can cause two problems:

• A shopper who had entered your 25% Black Friday code returns to a 10% recovery code and pays more than they expected.
• A recovery code that stacks with automatic discounts can take the price lower than you planned.

Three ways to avoid this:

• Leave the discount out of the recovery email while a sitewide sale runs. The sale price is already the reason to come back.
• If you do add one, check its combination settings so it can't stack in ways you didn't plan. Our guide to Shopify discount combinations walks through this.
• Mention the discount in the email copy. Shopify doesn't add a message about it for you.

A worked example: before and after

Say you sell candles, and the numbers here are only an example. In early November you open Orders > Abandoned checkouts and see 120 checkouts from the past month, but far fewer emails sent.

Before: you switched to the new automation months ago and never opened it again. It sends only to subscribers, waits the default time and adds a 10% code. Your Black Friday plan is 20% off sitewide with an automatic discount.

After:

• You review your consent setup and decide whether the To field should stay on subscribers or change to All customers.
• You turn on the marketing checkbox on both checkout and sign-in.
• You remove the 10% code for the sale period and write a subject line about the sale ending.

Then you start a checkout with your own email, leave it, and check the email arrives with the right link and no unexpected discount.

Abandoned checkout email checklist

• Confirm whether you're on the legacy email or the new automation.
• Check the To field: subscribers only, or All customers.
• Check the wait time in Shopify Flow.
• Check the marketing opt-in setting under Settings > Checkout.
• Decide on a discount for the sale period, and check its combinations.
• Edit the subject line, preview text and From address.
• Test with your own email on desktop and mobile.

Common mistakes, and what this won't fix

• Forwarding checkout links carelessly. When you send one by hand from the abandoned checkout page, anyone who opens it can continue that checkout. You can't expire the link afterwards, so send it only to the shopper who left it.
• Expecting it to catch cart abandoners. No email means no abandoned checkout email. Shoppers who leave from the cart page, before typing an email, aren't reached.
• Treating the email as a fix for checkout problems. If payments fail, click a payment event in the abandoned checkout's Timeline and read its Message field. Shopify's list of payment failure reasons includes declined cards, failed 3-D Secure authentication, and a discount code or gift card that can no longer be used. An email won't fix a failing payment method or an unclear shipping cost.
• Measuring it in the wrong place. For the new automation, read the reporting on the Automations page in Shopify Messaging. Shopify counts a checkout as recovered when the shopper completes the order after the email, whether or not they clicked the link.

Where Atomato fits

Atomato doesn't send abandoned checkout emails, recover carts or show on Shopify checkout. It runs on your store's theme pages, alongside whichever email tool you use, and helps earlier: on the Enterprise+ plan ($69.99 a month), NotiEmail puts an email signup form in your store's notification feed. Each signup goes to Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Omnisend or Drip, with an optional discount code. That grows your list before shoppers reach checkout. For more ways to grow your list, see our guide to email list building on Shopify.

Common questions

Why is my Shopify abandoned checkout email not sending?

The common causes are a To field set to subscribers only, a shopper who bought before the wait time passed, none of the items still available, a high-risk block, or a checkout from the Shop app, POS or another sales channel. In the new automation, open View recent activity and check the Run ID.

How long does Shopify wait before sending it?

A checkout counts as abandoned after ten minutes. The email goes out after the wait time set in your automation, which you can change in Shopify Flow.

Can I send more than one abandoned checkout email?

The legacy setting has one Send after time. In Shopify Messaging you can create a second abandoned checkout automation, which starts with a 10 hour wait and sends only to customers subscribed to marketing. You can edit each one's wait time in Shopify Flow. Test any change with your own email before a sale.

Can I send an abandoned checkout email manually?

Yes. Go to Orders > Abandoned checkouts, open the checkout and click the customer's email. Your email client opens with the checkout link in the body.

Next step

Open Apps > Messaging > Automations today. Check the To field and the wait time, decide on the discount for sale week, and send yourself a test before Black Friday traffic arrives.

Install Atomato free on Shopify