Create an Abandoned Cart Customer Journey Map

When contacts leave items in their shopping cart, invite them to complete their purchase with an automated email or SMS using the Customer Journey builder.

Use an abandoned cart starting point in your customized journey map, or use a pre-built journey map to send emails or text messages to contacts who don’t complete the checkout process in your e-commerce store. Add additional journey points to your journey map to create a personalized path for your contacts.

In this article, you'll learn how to use the Customer Journey builder to create an abandoned cart email or SMS workflow.

Before you start

Here are some things to know before you begin this process.

• To learn more about Customer Journeys, how they work, and your pricing plan’s capabilities, check out About Customer Journeys.
• To send abandoned cart emails or text messages, you must have a connected and supported e-commerce store or custom API 3.0 integration. To find out if your store supports these starting points, visit the Integrations page, click the name of your integration, and check for Abandoned cart email in the Features list.
• Customer Journey maps with SMS Marketing functionality require an approved SMS Marketing program.
• Abandoned cart text messages are available to new SMS Marketing customers who indicate interest in sending abandoned cart text messages on their application.
• An abandoned cart starting point can’t be combined with other starting points in the Customer Journey builder.
• Any contact who abandons their cart can receive an abandoned cart email or SMS. If you add additional Send email or Send SMS journey points to your journey map, only subscribed contacts will receive those. Unsubscribed or non-subscribed contacts will continue through their journey, but they won't receive any emails or SMS along the way. To learn more about your contacts and the marketing they can receive, check out About Your Contacts.

Create an abandoned cart email journey map from scratch

Choose to create your abandoned cart email journey map with a pre-built journey map, or you can start from scratch.

To use a pre-built journey map to encourage contacts to complete their purchases, check out Use Pre-Built Journey Maps. To learn more about how to create a pre-built journey map with AI, check out Create Pre-Built Journey Emails with Intuit Assist.

To create an abandoned cart email journey map from scratch, follow these steps.

1. Click Automations, then click Overview.
   
2. Click Build from scratch.
3. Enter a name for your journey, then choose an audience from the drop-down if you have more than one.
4. Click Start Building.
5. Click Choose A Starting Point.
6. Click Shopping Activity, then choose Abandons cart or Abandons cart with specific products.
7. Click the Store Name drop-down menu and choose the e-commerce store you want to connect to your journey.
8. In the Customer Cart Contains drop-down, choose Any Products or Specific Products. If you choose Specific Products, click Include specific products or Exclude specific products, then use the drop-down to choose the specific products you want to target.
9. In the Abandoned Cart Wait Time section, use the Wait for drop-downs to set the number of hours, days, or weeks you’d like to wait until an eligible contact enters your journey. To choose a specific segment of your audience to send to, click Filter who can enter this journey. Choose up to 5 segment conditions, then click Use segment.
10. When you’re ready, click Save Starting Point.

Add an abandoned cart email to your journey map

Once you’ve saved your abandoned cart starting point, add a Send email journey point and select your abandoned cart email template. This email will include a link to your contact’s cart so they can complete the checkout process.

1. From your journey map, click Add a journey point.
2. In the Actions section, click Send email.
3. In the Send email pop-up modal, click Rename to edit your email name, then click Edit next to the To & From, Subject, Schedule, and Tracking sections to set up your abandoned cart email.
4. Click Select a Template.
5. Click Preview on any abandoned cart email template you want to check out. When you’re ready, click Apply on the abandoned cart template you’d like to work with.
6. Use the email builder to design your abandoned cart email. An abandoned cart email must include the contact’s cart information from your connected e-commerce store. To take care of this, we automatically add a Cart content block to your email. We also automatically add a Button block that links to your contact’s abandoned cart.
7. Add, edit, or remove any content blocks in your abandoned cart email. To learn more about how to design an email, check out Design an Email with the New Builder or add additional journey points to your journey map as needed.
8. When you’re ready, click Save and return to journey.
9. To activate your abandoned cart email journey, click Continue, then click Turn On.

Nice work! Contacts will begin this abandoned cart journey when they abandon their cart at checkout and meet the starting point conditions you’ve set.

Create an abandoned cart SMS pre-built journey map

Like abandoned cart emails, abandoned cart SMS requires you to connect a supported e-commerce store or custom API 3.0 integration. You can only send 1 SMS per abandoned cart, and it must be sent within 48 hours after a contact enters the journey.

In addition, there are specific requirements you must meet before you can create an abandoned cart SMS journey map.

• New SMS Marketing users must indicate interest in sending abandoned cart text messages on their application. Do this by clicking Yes in the Are you interested in sending abandoned cart text messages? section on the Sender Information step.
• Existing SMS Marketing users who want to create an abandoned cart SMS journey map must contact our Support team for assistance.
• Double opt-in must be enabled for your connected audience. After you indicate abandoned cart interest on your SMS Marketing application, we automatically turn double opt-in on for you. Update this as needed from the SMS settings page. If you disable double opt-in while you have an active abandoned cart SMS journey, sending will be paused and disclosures on your signup forms and landing pages will be removed.
• You must update your SMS Marketing program’s terms and conditions to include abandoned cart text messaging. If you indicate interest in sending abandoned cart text messages on your SMS Marketing application, and you use the Mailchimp template to create your terms and conditions, we do this for you.
• You must update your SMS Marketing program’s privacy policy to include abandoned cart text messaging.

To create an abandoned cart SMS pre-built journey map, follow these steps.

1. Click SMS, then click Overview.
   
2. In the Enable abandoned cart message section, review Step 1: Update forms, Step 2: Turn on double opt-in, and Step 3: Connect your store. After you indicate abandoned cart interest on your SMS Marketing application, step 1 and step 2 are automatically completed for you. If you have already connected an approved e-commerce store, step 3 will also be marked as completed. If not, you’ll need to connect your store with your Mailchimp account.
3. In the Enable abandoned cart message section, click Step 4: Setup abandoned cart automation.
   
4. In the Recover abandoned cart for SMS section, click Use this journey. If you want to create a pre-built abandoned cart journey map with SMS and email journey points, click Use this journey in the Recover abandoned cart for SMS and Email section.
5. Review the pre-built journey details, then click Use this journey.
6. Click Continue. The audience you selected on the SMS Marketing application is automatically connected to your pre-built journey.
7. Click the starting point, click the Store name drop-down, then choose the e-commerce store you want to connect to your journey.
8. In the Customer Cart Contains drop-down, choose Any Products or Specific Products. If you choose Specific Products, click Include specific products or Exclude specific products, then use the drop-down to choose the specific products you want to target.
9. In the Abandoned Cart Wait Time section, use the Wait for drop-downs to set the number of hours, days, or weeks you’d like to wait until an eligible contact enters your journey. To choose a specific segment of your audience to send to, click Filter who can enter this journey. Choose up to 5 segment conditions, then click Use segment.
10. When you’re ready, click Save Starting Point.
11. From your journey map, click the Send SMS action.
12. Click Edit name to name your abandoned cart text message, then click Edit content to create your abandoned cart text message in the SMS builder. Opt-out instructions are required.
13. Click the Add merge tag(s) icon, then click Abandoned Cart URL to add a link to your contact’s abandoned cart.
    
14. Click Save and continue, then click Save.
15. Add, edit, or remove any journey points in your pre-built journey map. You can only send 1 SMS per abandoned cart.
16. When you’re ready to start sending abandoned cart text messages, click Turn On.

Great job! Contacts will begin this abandoned cart journey when they abandon their cart at checkout and meet the starting point conditions you’ve set. Manage your program’s abandoned cart opt-in consent for SMS in the Abandoned Cart Opt-in section of the SMS settings page.

If you want to create an abandoned cart SMS journey map from scratch, use one of the Abandons cart starting points that are specific to SMS.