CartAbandon is a Shopify abandoned cart app that recovers carts, checkouts, declined cards and failed subscription renewals. You install it from your Shopify admin, set your discount limits and turn on flows. For each cart it chooses email, SMS or WhatsApp, the delay, and whether a discount is needed.
Shopify includes an abandoned checkout email. It is free with your store, and for many shops it is the first recovery they ever run. It is worth keeping on until you have something better in place.
Here is an honest comparison.
| Shopify built-in abandoned checkout email | CartAbandon | |
|---|---|---|
| What it covers | Checkouts where the shopper entered contact details | Browse, cart, checkout, declined cards, subscription renewals, churn, stock and price alerts |
| Channels | Email, plus SMS where enabled | Email, SMS, WhatsApp, web push, onsite offer, retargeting audiences |
| Who gets what | One flow for every shopper | A plan per cart based on customer type, cart value, consent and history |
| Discounts | The same code for everyone, if you add one | Offer only when needed, capped by margin rules, unique single-use codes |
| Failed card payments | Not a separate flow | Payment update message timed to the decline code |
| Proof of results | Order counts | ROI panel and, on Scale and Plus, holdout groups |
| Price | Included with Shopify | From 49 USD per month, or 24 USD per month billed yearly |
If your store is small and your only goal is one reminder email, the built-in email may be enough. If you sell to repeat customers, take card payments that fail, or run subscriptions, you leave money on the table with a single flow.
Most searches for abandoned cart email on Shopify end with a template. CartAbandon writes the email for you, in your brand voice, with the exact items from the cart and a button back to a restored checkout.
The difference is the decision behind it. A returning customer with a 480 USD cart and SMS consent might get a text after 20 minutes with no discount. A first-time visitor with a 70 USD cart who only agreed to email might get an email after 4 hours with 10 percent off. You can read how emails are built on the abandoned cart email page.
CartAbandon adds one small async script to your storefront. It uses only first-party, strictly necessary identifiers and fires no ad pixels before consent. All recovery logic runs on our servers, so theme speed stays the same.
You do not have to rip anything out on day one. Many Shopify stores keep their email platform for newsletters and let CartAbandon handle recovery.
If you sell subscriptions through Shopify subscription apps or Recharge, a declined renewal card is lost revenue that looks like churn. CartAbandon runs subscription dunning on Scale and Plus.
When a renewal fails, it reads the decline code. Insufficient funds gets a payment update message with a secure link and a retry timed to a payday pattern. An expired card gets a request to update card details. No discount is added, because the shopper already chose to subscribe. These notices are transactional and kept separate from marketing.
One-time orders with declined cards are covered from Growth up. Lapsed buyers who pass their predicted reorder window get churn recovery on Scale and Plus.
| Plan | Price | Orders per month (about) | Stores | SMS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 49 USD/mo or 24 USD/mo yearly | 1 000 | 1 | 250 | Not included |
| Growth | 149 USD/mo or 74 USD/mo yearly | 5 000 | 1 | 1 000 | 1 000 |
| Scale | 399 USD/mo or 199 USD/mo yearly | 20 000 | 3 | 4 000 | 4 000 |
| Plus | 999 USD/mo or 499 USD/mo yearly | High volume | 10 | 15 000 | 15 000 |
No percent of recovered revenue and no per-message bill. Cancel any time in the panel and the plan runs to the end of the paid period. Agencies with several Shopify stores can run them from one panel on Scale or Plus. See the full list of flows on the abandoned cart software page.
FAQ
Yes. Shopify includes an abandoned checkout email. It sends one flow to every shopper. CartAbandon adds per-cart decisions, more channels, failed payment recovery and margin guardrails.
Yes, but you usually should not for the same flow. Turn off the built-in email when CartAbandon takes over checkout recovery, and frequency caps prevent double sends from other tools.
Yes. On Scale and Plus, CartAbandon runs dunning for failed renewals on Recharge and Shopify subscription apps, with retries timed to the decline code.
No. It adds one small async script, and all recovery logic runs on our servers.
No. You connect the store, approve access in Shopify, set guardrails and turn on flows. The AI drafts your first messages.
Enter your store URL and get an estimate in about 20 seconds, no email needed.
