Help · Automations

Browse, cart and checkout reminders

A shopper on the way to an order usually takes a few steps: they look at a product, put it in their cart, start checking out, and place the order. Each step short of the order has a reminder of its own, and the starting points under Create automation build them to work together.

The reminders work as a ladder

Browsed product follows up on a product somebody looked at, Added to cart on a cart left behind, and Abandoned checkout on a checkout left unfinished. Each one lets a shopper go the moment they climb to the next step, so the next reminder takes over, and every one of them stops at an order.

Without this, a shopper who looked, added to cart and started a checkout in one visit would be inside all of them at once, and could get a reminder from each about the same product. With it, each person hears only from the reminder for the furthest step they reached, and nobody is reminded about something they have already bought.

What starts each one

Browsed product and Added to cart start from what your online store sees a shopper do: the Viewed Product and Added to Cart events. Abandoned checkout starts from Checkout Started, which Shopify reports when somebody begins a checkout. The browse and cart reminders go only to people who gave you consent to email them.

• Browsed product and Added to cart start only for somebody your store already recognizes. Browsing that happened before a person was known does not start either one later, even once they sign up.
• Abandoned checkout can also reach people who never gave you consent, as long as they reached checkout. That is why one person on your team must read and accept the position before it can be enabled; the Starting points page explains it. It only enters somebody your online store saw before they checked out.

The rule each starting point already carries

Each of these starting points arrives with its Automation filter already set, so you do not have to add anything for them to work together. The rule says the person has not taken any of the later steps since they entered this automation, and it always includes "has not placed an order".

On the card, the rule reads as one sentence, such as never Placed Order since they entered this automation, followed by the other parts. It shows as a sentence rather than as rows you can edit, because every part must be true at once and the card's rows are joined by or. It is in force exactly as written. Remove this rule takes the whole sentence off, not one part of it.

Browsed product lets people go at a checkout as well as at a cart for a reason: a shopper can go from a product page straight to checkout with an express payment button and never add anything to a cart. The checkout part of the rule is what catches them.

Checked before every step

The Automation filter is checked when someone enters and again before every step. The moment a person stops matching it, they leave and get none of the rest. A shopper who adds to cart during Browsed product's wait leaves before its email goes, and Added to cart picks them up instead.

The card says it in its own words:

Checked when someone enters and before every step. Anyone who stops matching leaves.

Since they entered this automation means the moment that person entered, so it points at the same moment at the first step and at the last. A person who leaves this way shows on their profile as having stopped matching the automation's rule.

The waits, and changing them

Browsed product and Added to cart each wait 4 hours, then send one email. Abandoned checkout waits 4 hours, sends its first email, waits 1 day, and sends its second. To change a wait, open that wait step and set Wait for to the minutes, hours or days you want.

• A shorter wait reaches people while the product is still on their mind. A longer one gives a shopper who was coming back anyway time to do it, and the rule lets them go before anything is sent.
• How often the same person can start one again is set under Can a profile enter again? on the Start card. Browsed product and Added to cart start at most once every 7 days for the same person, and Abandoned checkout at most once every 3 days.
• Every email begins as a draft. Nothing is sent until you enable each email, apply your changes and enable the automation. A changed wait takes effect when you apply your changes.

If you built or imported one yourself

Give it the rule its starting point would have carried. A checkout reminder needs one row on its Automation filter: Placed Order, exactly 0 times, since they entered this automation. A browse or cart reminder needs two or three rules that must all hold at once, so start from its starting point instead and put your own emails in it.

For a checkout reminder:

1. On the automation's Start card, under Automation filter, press Add a rule and choose Did something.
2. Pick the event Placed Order, set it to exactly 0 times, and change the time to since they entered this automation.
3. Apply your changes.

Why a browse or cart reminder cannot be built from rows. The card joins its rows with or, so two rows there keep anybody who matches either one. The shopper who added to cart and has not ordered would stay in your browse reminder, which is exactly the person the rule is meant to let go. Start from Browsed product or Added to cart instead, which carry their rules whole, and give each email your own design with Change template on the email step.

An automation you imported keeps the rule it came with. Open its Automation filter card. If it says Everyone can enter., it has no rule, and nothing lets a person who buys go before the end.

A rule on the automation, not on each email

Put these rules on the Automation filter, not on an email's Only send if… card. A rule on the automation covers every email in it, including one you add later, and lets the person go. A rule on one email holds back that email only; the person stays in and moves on to the next.

The email's card says so:

Checked only at this step. Anyone who doesn’t match skips this email and moves on.

That card is for a different job: one email in a series that only some people should get, such as an extra note for people who have never ordered before.