Abandoned Cart Recovery Campaign
Automatically email customers who left items in cart, with an optional discount, recovering carts that would otherwise go silent
Shopify integration that identifies abandoned carts (items added but checkout not completed), sends reminder emails at 24h and 48h with discount code. Convert browsers to buyers.
Nora monitors Shopify for abandoned checkouts. When a customer leaves items in their cart for 24 hours, Nora evaluates the margin of the products. It generates a unique, single-use discount code with a seven-day expiry. Nora then sends an email to the customer containing a cart summary and the discount link. If the checkout remains incomplete at the 48-hour mark, Nora sends a final reminder email emphasizing the discount.
The ecommerce manager reviews the weekly recovery reports Nora sends in their chat channel. They use this data to identify products with high abandonment but low recovery rates. The manager investigates those specific items for potential issues like price shock or unclear shipping costs, and tells Nora if the discount tiers need adjusting for future campaigns.
Runs real-time monitoring, emails sent at 24h and 48h using Shopify, run by your Marketing Manager.
How it works
- Monitor abandoned checkouts — Nora listens for Shopify webhooks or polls the abandoned checkouts endpoint. It identifies carts that have items added but lack a completed transaction within the first hour.
- Evaluate product margins — Nora reads the product data for the items in the cart. It categorizes the cart into high-margin or lower-margin tiers to determine the appropriate discount level.
- Generate single-use discount — Using the Shopify price rules API, Nora creates a single-use discount code specific to that customer. The code is set to expire exactly seven days from creation.
- Send first reminder email — At the 24-hour mark, Nora emails the customer. The message includes the specific product names, quantities, the generated discount code, and a direct link back to their populated cart.
- Verify purchase completion — Before sending any further communication, Nora checks the Shopify order records. If the customer completed the purchase or emptied the cart, Nora cancels the remaining sequence.
- Send final reminder — If the cart is still abandoned at 48 hours, Nora sends a second email. This message reminds the customer of the total cart value and the pending discount expiration.
What this replaces
Manually recovering abandoned carts requires an operator to export incomplete checkouts from Shopify daily. They filter out carts that are too recent or already contacted, generate individual discount codes in the Shopify admin, and paste those codes into email templates. They must also track which customers received the first email to send the second reminder the following day.
- Export abandoned checkouts from the Shopify admin area
- Filter checkouts by time elapsed since abandonment
- Create single-use discount codes manually in Shopify
- Send individual reminder emails via a mail client
- Track follow-up dates in a spreadsheet for the 48-hour reminder
Rough estimate rather than a measured figure: about 45 minutes a day, based on 20 abandoned carts requiring two minutes each to generate codes and send emails, plus tracking overhead.
What it needs to run
Accounts and plans
- Shopify store account
- Email provider account (e.g., SMTP or Gmail for sending)
Access it asks for
- read_checkouts to view abandoned carts
- write_price_rules to generate discount codes
- read_products to check margins
- read_orders to verify if a purchase was completed
What Nora reads
- Abandoned checkout data
- Product margin details
- Order completion status
What Nora writes
- New price rules and discount codes in Shopify
- Outbound emails to customers
When it goes wrong
- Customer completes the purchase before the twenty-four hour mark. Nora detects the completed order in Shopify during its check prior to sending the first email. It stops the sequence and sends nothing.
- Shopify API rate limits are exceeded during a high-traffic sales event. Nora pauses execution, respecting the Shopify leaky bucket rate limit. It queues the remaining cart evaluations and resumes once the API limit resets.
- Cart contains only out-of-stock items at the time of sending. Nora checks current inventory levels before emailing. If all items are now out of stock, Nora cancels the email sequence.
- Email provider rejects the message due to an invalid customer address. Nora logs the bounce in the customer's Shopify profile using a tag. It halts the 48-hour reminder for that address and notes the delivery failure in the weekly chat summary.
- Product margin data is missing or recorded as zero in Shopify. Nora defaults to the lowest discount tier to protect profitability. It proceeds with the email sequence but flags the specific product to the ecommerce manager in the next report.
Who this is for
Worth it if
- Ecommerce stores processing 50+ orders a week with an average order value high enough to absorb a 10-15% discount.
- Merchants with clear product margins recorded in Shopify.
- Marketing managers who currently spend time manually emailing high-value cart abandoners.
Not worth it if
- Stores with very low margins where a 10% discount eliminates all profit on the sale.
- Merchants using a dedicated, complex email marketing platform that already handles multi-stage behavioral flows.
- Bespoke or made-to-order businesses where cart abandonment requires a personal sales conversation rather than a generic discount.
A worked example
Harbour Kitchen Supplies has 40 abandoned carts a day. Nora is instructed to send an 8% discount for high-margin knives and 15% for standard utensils at 24 and 48 hours.
Subject: You left items in your cart at Harbour Kitchen Supplies Hi Sarah, We noticed you left the 'Chef's Damascus Steel Knife x 1' in your cart. To help you complete your kitchen setup, here is an 8% discount code valid for the next 7 days: HKS-8-A7F92B. Your cart total before discount is $145.00. Click here to complete your order: https://harbourkitchen.myshopify.com/cart/checkout Reply to this email if you have any questions about the knife.
Frequently asked questions
How do I change the discount percentages later?
You tell Nora in your chat channel. If you decide to offer a flat 10% across all products instead of tiered discounts, you send a message stating the new rule. Nora updates its instructions and applies the new discount structure to all future abandoned carts.
Will Nora email customers who already bought the item?
No. Nora explicitly checks the Shopify order API immediately before sending the 24-hour and 48-hour emails. If the email address is associated with a completed purchase of those items, the sequence is cancelled.
What happens if a customer adds more items to the cart after the first email?
Nora evaluates the updated checkout object in Shopify. The 48-hour email will reflect the new cart contents and total. The discount code generated at the 24-hour mark remains valid and will apply to the eligible items in the updated cart.
Can I exclude certain products from the recovery campaign entirely?
Yes. You can instruct Nora to ignore specific items, like limited-edition drops or clearance goods. Nora reads the cart contents and skips the recovery sequence completely if it only contains excluded products.
Connects to
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