How to Track Abandoned Carts in Your Shopify Site and Boost Sales?

Are you worrying about website visitors adding products to cart in your Shopify store but leaving the site without completing the purchase?

Such Abandoning visitors are the concern for most Shopify owners. If you are one among them let us look at a promising solution for tracking Abandoned Carts and Converting them to Sales.

In this tutorial, we will see how to track Abandoned carts and send follow up emails. So that we can convert them into sales.

How to Track Abandoned Carts?

For this tutorial for tracking your Abandoned carts, probably you will need the following two:

• Shopify Store
• SendInBlue Account

Note for WordPress users: This tutorial is not applicable for WordPress users, as it involves the use of the SendInBlue app available in the Shopify App Store.

For ease of readers, I have split this tutorial into 8 Major Sections namely,

• How to Register for a New SendInBlue Account?
• How to create your Email List in SendInBlue Account?
• How to integrate your SendInBlue account with Shopify Store?
• How to Sync Contacts between Shopify Store and SendInBlue Account?
• How to send Subscription Confirmation Emails in SendInBlue?
• How to Track Abandoned Carts in your Shopify Store?
• How to create an Abandoned Cart Email Workflow in SendInBlue?
• How to create an Abandoned Cart Email Template in SendInBlue?

Register for a New SendInBlue Account

I assume that you already have a Shopify site. Therefore let me guide you with creating a SendInBlue Account.

Note: If you already signed up for a SendInBlue account, you can skip this section and proceed to the next.

For those who haven’t created their SendInBlue account,

Visit SendInBlue Homepage.

Go to SendInBlue

$This is an affiliate link

And on their Homepage, choose to Sign up Free.

Now you can create your new SendInBlue account either by filling up the form / signing with your Google Account.

Once you have completed the registration process, you will receive a confirmation email from SendInBlue. Click the verification link and complete it.

Create your Email List

I hope you have created your SendInBlue account successfully.

In this section, we will look at how to create your Email List at SendInBlue?

On your SendInBlue Dashboard, choose Contacts -> Lists -> Add a New List

On the next page, give a name for your Email List and choose to Create an Empty List.

Now, you can either add a contact or Import Contacts (To import multiple Email Addresses to your List).

For this tutorial, I am simply adding my own email address to the list.

Integrate SendInBlue Account with Shopify store

Now that you have created your SendInBlue account, it is time to integrate your SendInBlue account with your Shopify store.

Visit Shopify AppStore here and then Click Add App Button.

The Key Features of this Shopify AppStore is to:

• Allow users to Sync Contacts between Shopify and SendInBlue
• Ensure that your contacts receive Transactional Emails
• Add features like sending Transactional and Marketing SMS to your Contacts

If you haven’t already logged in to your Shopify store, you will be asked to do it now.

Now, Click the Install App button.

The SendInBlue App has been installed now. Next, you will have to connect your SendInBlue Account and Shopify store.

If you have already logged in to your SendInBlue account, you will see the following screen, where you will have to choose Allow Access.

If you haven’t logged in to your SendInBlue account, you will be asked to log in.

Once you have given access to the App, you will notice your Store and Token field automatically generated in your SendInBlue account.

Now, click the Save Button.

Once your Connection gets saved, you will be redirected to the Settings Page.

You have successfully integrated your SendInBlue account with your Shopify Store.

Sync Contacts between Shopify Store and SendInBlue account

The Next step is to sync your contacts from the Shopify store to SendInBlue.

Now go to your SendInBlue account and open the Shopify Settings Page.

Here Enable the Sync Contacts feature if not already enabled.

Then in the drop-down box, choose the Email List where all your Newsletter subscribers should be added.

Note: This is one-way sync between SendInBlue and Shopify store. It means that contact details will be synced from the Shopify store to SendInBlue but not vice versa. Therefore any changes made to the contact in SendInBlue account will not be reflected back to the Shopify store.

Since this is the first time you have enabled this feature, SendInBlue will automatically run sync in the background to collect data from your Shopify store.

Now, you have learned how to sync contacts between the Shopify store and SendInBlue account.

Additional Features:

You could have noticed that the Settings page had a couple of more options under Sync Contacts. If you wish to disable syncing contact subscription status from Shopify to SendInBlue, uncheck the first option: Sync Contacts’ Subscription Status (subscribed/unsubscribed).

Mostly you won’t find the need for this option.

And the next option is to AutoAssign Store Contacts’ Attributes to SendInBlue Contact Attributes.

If you are not interested in the AutoAssign option available uncheck the option and choose to Map Attributes on your own.

Now, you will look at the Mapping Table.

Choose appropriate SendInBlue Contact Attribute with the drop-down box against the Store Attribute.

Once you are done click the Save Button to save the Mapping Data.

Again click the Save button in the Settings Page.

Enable Subscription Confirmation

Now your contacts will be synced between Shopify store and SendInBlue. But, you haven’t informed your customers that they have been added to the newsletter list.

Informing the customers about the newsletter subscription will increase the open rates and makes sure that your future emails are not sent to the spam folder.

To send a Newsletter confirmation email enable Use SendInBlue Subscription Confirmation Options to Manage Opt-in Settings.

And then choose to go with either one of the two methods,

• Single Opt-in Method
• Double Opt-in Method

Note: If you have Disabled Use SendInBlue Subscription Confirmation Options but Enabled Sync Contacts feature, your emails will get automatically added to the Email List without sending any confirmation emails to the contact.

Single Opt-in:

By going with the Single Opt-in method, you decide that the default subscription form is sufficient to add the contact to your Newsletter.

You can send a subscription confirmation email with either the Default Confirmation Template available or by creating a custom template.

Double Opt-in:

By choosing the Double Opt-in method, you will send a confirmation link to your contact. Once your contact clicks the confirmation link, you will get their consent to send newsletters in the future.

Note: If you wish to comply with GDPR, you will have to choose the Double Opt-in method.

To implement this,

Choose Double Confirmation Email and the Template to send Confirmation Email.

Additional Options:

By default users hitting the confirmation link will be redirected to SendInBlue Thank you page. But if you wish to send them to a custom page / your Own Website, Choose Confirmation Page after Clicking on the Validation Link in the Email.

And then enter the link in the Text Box

Also, you can send a final confirmation mail, after your users have clicked the confirmation email.

Just tick Final Confirmation Email and choose an Email Template.

Track your Abandoned Customer

To quickly summarize,

• We have integrated SendInBlue and Shopify Account
• Synced all contacts/customers
• Enabled Newsletter Subscription for your New Contacts

And with that, you are allowed to send attractive Emails to your Store Customers.

Now, you will have to identify your Customers who are abandoning the site. To do this, you will have to track the behavior of your Visitors.

To track the Behavior of your Shopify store visitors,

In your SendInBlue Account, go to the Shopify Settings Page

Enable “Allow SendInBlue to Track Visitor Actions” and then tick “Track Actions related to an abandoned cart”.

Enabling tracking actions of an abandoned cart in Shopify Settings Page, you will be access to 3 Standard Events,

• cart_updated: This event indicates when a cart gets created or updated
• order_completed: The event indicates when a cart is purchased
• cart_deleted: This event indicated when the products are getting deleted from the existing shopping cart

Creating an Abandoned Cart Email Workflow

Next, you should be automating Abandoned Cart Emails with a workflow.

The basic logic behind this workflow is,

• Trigger: The workflow should be triggered when a new shopping cart is created
• Send: After the shopping cart has been created, we should send a follow-up email to the buyer
• Recognize: Check if the Shopping Cart Items are purchased (Workflow Success) or removed (Stop Workflow) or updated (Restart Workflow).

So, I hope you have understood the logic behind setting up this workflow. Only if you understand the logic you can customize the workflow as per your needs in the future.

Now let’s move on to create an Abandoned Cart Workflow.

In your SendInBlue account, go to the Automation app and choose to Create a New Workflow. And then Choose Abandoned Cart Workflow.

Now you should complete these 6 steps to customize your Abandoned Cart Workflow.

Note: These 6 quick steps are only to help Beginners with setting up Abandoned Cart easily. You need not follow the same. You can customize this workflow as you like.

Step 1: Choose the Custom Event

This is the event that we are going to track. Every time this event happens, the workflow will get started. We want this workflow to begin when a buyer adds an item to the shopping cart.

So choose the Custom event to be cart_updated.

Step 2: Add a Delay

Once the buyer adds an item to the cart, we need to give him a grace period to see if he completes the purchase or leaves the page.

And this grace period is the delay time for this workflow.

So choose the delay period before you trigger the next event in the workflow.

Step 3: Send an Email

In the next step, you will have to choose an Email Template. The Default Email Template for Abandoned Cart has been chosen as we haven’t created any template for this step.

Let’s discuss customizing this template later.

Click Next to proceed to the next step.

Step 4: Event to Exit Workflow

Now, you will have to decide when to exit this workflow.

In our case, we need to exit the workflow if the buyer completes the purchase. So choose the exit event to be order_completed.

Step 5: Second Event to Exit Workflow

This is the second alternate case to exit the workflow.

Apart from the buyer making the purchase, we also need to exit the workflow when the buyer deletes the item from the cart.

So choose the event to be cart_deleted

Step 6: Event to Restart the Workflow

So what if the buyer doesn’t make the purchase or deletes the item from the shopping cart? We should continue with this workflow once again from the start.

Therefore choose the restart event for the workflow to be cart_updated.

And then click the Finish button.

That’s it, you have completed setting up a Basic workflow for sending Abandoned Cart Emails.

Creating an Abandoned Cart Email Template

As I mentioned earlier you can customize your Abandoned Cart Email Template.

In your Abandoned Cart Workflow, click the template and choose Edit Email Content.

In this SendInBlue Email Editor, you can edit the template as you like.

The Email Template also allows usage of placeholder.

Here are some Item placeholders for your reference:

Items data  Insert this placeholder in your template

Item name {{ item.name }}

Item SKU {{ item.sku }}

Item category {{ item.category }}

Item ID {{ item.id }}

Item variant ID {{ item.variant_id }}

Item variant name {{ item.variant_name }}

Item price {{ item.price }}

Item quantity {{ item.quantity }}

Item URL {{ item.url }}

Item image {{ item.image }}

And some cart related placeholders for your reference:

Cart data  Insert this placeholder in your template

Affiliation {{ params.affiliation }}

Date {{ params.date }}

Subtotal {{ params.subtotal }}

Discount {{ params.discount }}

Shipping {{ params.shipping }}

Total before tax {{ params.total_before_tax }}

Tax {{ params.tax }}

Total {{ params.total }}

Currency {{ params.currency }}

URL to view cart {{ params.url }}

Once you have added the placeholders, don’t forget to click the Save button.

Wrapping Up

After you are done with setting up these Abandoned cart Emails, you can try it. To test your Abandoned Cart workflow follow the steps below,

• Enter your Email Address through the Subscription form in your Shopify Store
• Confirm your Newsletter subscription
• Add an Item to Shopping Cart
• Check if you have received an Email after the Delay Period
• Try deleting the item from the cart and see if you are still receiving emails. (You shouldn’t be getting)
• If possible try adding the item to cart and after the follow-up newsletter, make a purchase. (You shouldn’t be getting email after the purchase).

I hope you would love our tutorial. If you are struck anywhere, let me know in the comments section. I will help you out.

More Related articles you might like:

• SendInBlue Review: Best Email Automation for Beginners
• Shopify vs WooCommerce: The Ultimate Comparison (2020)
• How to follow up with Lost Leads? (Step by Step)
• How to use Abandoned Cart Email Strategy with OptinMonster?
• How to automate Email Newsletters with RSS for your latest blog posts?

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