Abandoned Cart and Abandoned Checkout Are Different Flows. Many Brands Run One for Both.
Abandoned Cart and Abandoned Checkout Are Different Flows. Many Brands Run One for Both.
A subscriber who added something to a cart and left is not the same person as a subscriber who reached the payment page, entered their email address, and left. Running one recovery email to both groups is treating two very different buying signals as if they are the same problem. They are not.
What Is Actually Happening
In almost every ESP, you can trigger flows from two separate events: a cart add that does not progress to checkout, and a checkout initiation that does not result in a completed purchase. These are technically distinct events, and they represent distinct buyer psychology. The ESP knows the difference. Your copy should too.
Abandoned cart, the first event, fires when someone adds a product to their cart but never moves further. They may be browsing, comparing options, saving items for later, or simply not ready. You may or may not have their email address depending on whether they are already a subscriber. The intent signal is real but shallow.
Abandoned checkout, the second event, is a different category entirely. The subscriber navigated to the checkout page and provided their contact details. They were close enough to purchase that they started the process. Their intent is demonstrably higher.
The email can reflect that. It does not need to re-introduce the product or rebuild the case for buying. The subscriber was already at the payment screen.
In my audits, many brands have one flow handling both. The trigger is either set to cart abandonment only, missing the checkout event entirely, or it is built on checkout abandonment but described internally as the "cart recovery" flow. In both cases, the higher-intent group receives messaging calibrated to the wrong point in the purchase process.
Klaviyo's 2025 benchmark data shows that abandoned checkout emails consistently outperform abandoned cart emails on revenue-per-recipient. The reason is the intent gap. Someone who made it to checkout was materially closer to buying. A direct email that acknowledges they were at checkout, makes completing the purchase simple, and does not waste their time re-persuading them on the product performs better than a generic "you left something behind" message built for a lower-intent audience.
The missed opportunity is not just in open or click rates. It is in the messaging architecture.
When one flow handles both groups, the copy is written at the lowest common denominator. It is cautious, product-focused, and soft on the CTA because it needs to work for someone who barely engaged as much as someone who was at the payment screen. That calibration hurts the higher-intent group more than it helps the lower-intent one.
The One Fix
Separate the two flows at the trigger level and write distinct copy for each. This is a one-time structural fix.
The abandoned cart flow can afford to be educational and trust-building. It is working with a lower-intent audience. Show the product, address common concerns, offer social proof. Give the subscriber what they need to decide.
The abandoned checkout flow should be direct. The subscriber knows the product. They were at the payment screen. Your first email can acknowledge that plainly: they left before completing their order, here is a link back to their checkout, here is what happens after they buy. No need to re-pitch the product.
The objective is friction removal, not persuasion.
If you are currently running a single flow for both groups, start by splitting the trigger. In Klaviyo, this means having an "Active on Site" flow with a checkout started metric and a separate flow on "Added to Cart" that excludes people who have already triggered checkout. The copy can evolve over time. Getting the separation in place is the structural fix that makes the right messaging possible.
The timing also differs. In my experience, abandoned checkout emails perform better with a shorter first-send window. Someone who was at payment and left is still mentally in purchase mode for a shorter period than someone who added an item to a cart.
Waiting 24 hours to send the first email in a checkout abandonment flow misses the peak recovery window. Many brands I work with have sent it within an hour and seen materially better conversion than the same message sent the next day.
What Good Looks Like
When the two flows are separated and the messaging is calibrated to intent level, the abandoned checkout flow typically becomes one of the highest revenue-per-recipient automations in the programme. Not because the audience is larger, but because the intent is higher and the copy is finally doing the right job.
The abandoned cart flow, now freed from needing to work for a high-intent audience, can be more patient and educational. It can take three emails over three days rather than trying to close urgently in the first send. Conversion rates on both flows improve when neither is written for the wrong audience.
From experience, the single most consistent finding in DTC email audits is that brands are conflating these two flows. The fix is a one-time structural change in the ESP. In the accounts I have rebuilt, the revenue impact shows up in the first 30 days of the abandoned checkout flow running properly.