SHOPIFY NOTIFICATIONS

Shopify abandoned checkout emails not sending: what to check first

Short answer: first confirm the automation is switched on, then open Orders, Abandoned checkouts and read the Email status column for the checkout that did not get an email. Shopify deliberately skips the recovery email in several situations, and it explains each one in a tooltip on that page.

Shopify's help page covers all of this, but it is long and mixes in checkout reviewing, payment failures and reports. Below is only the part about why an email did not go out.

Note: Shopify marks that help page as describing the legacy abandoned checkout experience, and says there is a new experience you can opt into. Your admin screens may look different from the steps below. We have not checked every difference.

What counts as abandoned

According to Shopify, a checkout counts as abandoned if it stays incomplete for more than ten minutes after the customer has given their email. Items in a cart that never reached checkout are not saved, so no email can be sent for them. Recovery only applies to the Online Store and Buy Button sales channels. Checkouts from Shopify POS or third-party sales channels do not get recovery emails.

If you are testing, a cart you left before entering an email address will never produce an email.

Step 1: is the automation on?

In the Shopify admin, go to Apps, then Messaging, then Automations. Open the Abandoned checkout emails by Shopify automation and choose Edit settings. Make sure Send abandoned checkout emails automatically is selected, then look at the two settings below it:

• Send to: which kind of visitor receives the email.
• Send after: how long Shopify waits after abandonment.

If Send after is set to a long delay, a test email will not appear for hours. Wait for that time before concluding it is broken. Save any change.

Step 2: read the Email status

Go to Orders, then Abandoned checkouts. Each checkout has an Email status column and a Recovery status column. If automatic recovery emails are on, Shopify says the page shows tooltips explaining why an email was not delivered. Hover over the status of the checkout you expected to get an email.

Step 3: the cases where Shopify does not send

Shopify lists these. If one matches, nothing is broken.

• The customer completed a purchase before the email was due.
• A payment processing error happened during checkout.
• Your store does not ship to the customer's address.
• You let customers use a phone number instead of an email address at checkout, and this customer chose the phone number.
• None of the products in the checkout can be bought, for example because inventory is empty.
• Everything in the checkout is free, and the customer did not visit the shipping page to add a shipping fee, or shipping is also free.
• Shopify Payments blocked the payment as high risk.

Shopify says a payment processing error stops the email. If you test by making a payment fail on purpose, the email may be skipped for that reason, so test by leaving the checkout without attempting payment.

Step 4: bots and blocked checkouts

Shopify says some checkout attempts identified as suspected card testing or bot activity are left out of the abandoned checkouts list, and that not all automated activity is filtered. So your list can differ from what you expect. High-risk checkouts blocked by Shopify Payments show in the Blocked view.

Step 5: B2B stores

Shopify says abandoned checkouts are off by default for Shopify B2B, and that the store or organization owner has to contact Shopify Support to ask for them.

Step 6: you might be sending from somewhere else

If you also use an email tool such as Klaviyo for abandoned checkout flows, check that you did not leave both running, or that you turned off the Shopify automation without replacing it. If the other tool is the one that is not sending, check that tool's flow status and filters first.

What you can do right now

If you want the customer back and the email did not go, you can send the link by hand. Open the abandoned checkout and click the customer's email address, and your mail program opens with the recovery link in the body. Shopify warns that anyone who opens the link can continue that checkout, that it cannot be disabled or expired after you send it, and that if the person is signed in to a customer account the order is created for that customer. Send it only to the customer who abandoned it.

Abandoned checkouts older than three months are deleted automatically, so look soon.

When to hire help

Get help when the status looks fine but emails still do not arrive, when the emails arrive in spam, when you are running two tools at once, or when you need the flow rebuilt in Klaviyo or another email tool. Tell us which checkouts you expected emails for and what the Email status said. We will tell you what we found and agree the price first. One defined defect is a fixed $299, with the $99 diagnosis credited. Small copy changes to an email template are $49 flat and you only pay if it is fixed. Larger work gets a written quote. We never ask for your password: tell us what is happening.