WooCommerce Plugin - Sending Automated Abandoned Cart Emails

You’ve noticed that some customers in your WooCommerce shop don’t complete their purchase and leave their shopping carts filled with wonderful items?

Our CleverReach plugin for WooCommerce allows you to send automated reminders to customers who abandon their filled shopping carts. Boost your sales with just a few clicks and minimal effort.

This post will help you with several things: it describes how to insert a newsletter checkbox with our WooCommerce plugin, what the abandoned cart overview looks like, how to set up automated newsletters and monitor your success with THEA reports.

In addition, you will receive important tips and learn where to get help & support.

Inserting a Checkbox for Newsletter Subscription for Your Customers and Guest Buyers

WooCommerce customers can place items in their shopping cart without having to log in or sign up.  In WooCommerce these customers are called guest buyers.

You can use our abandoned cart feature for signed up customers as well as guest buyers.

A customer, however, only receives an abandoned cart email if 

1. their email address is available and 
2. they are one of your newsletter subscribers. 

Customers and guest buyers can subscribe to your newsletter via a newsletter checkbox on the signup and checkout pages of your shop.

When a customer clicks the checkbox, they receive a notification that they have successfully subscribed and get a confirmation email shortly after.

You can adjust the content of the confirmation email in the Settings of the plugin:

As soon as a customer has clicked on the confirmation button in your Double-Opt-in email, they confirm that they want to receive your newsletter. They are automatically set to active in CleverReach and can be contacted via newsletter.  

Overview of Abandoned Carts in WooCommerce

Go to [Abandoned Cart] - [CleverReach – Abandoned Carts] in our CleverReach plugin for WooCommerce to view a list of all abandoned carts and the status of their abandoned cart emails.

When navigating to [Orders] – [Abandoned Cart orders] in WooCommerce, you also end up on the overview dashboard:

On this dashboard you can see a list of all abandoned carts and it allows you to                                        

• filter (based on the status of the abandoned cart email, the recovery status, and the scheduled time)
• sort (e.g. scheduled time and sent time)
• search customers

You also have the following options on this page:

• Abandoned cart email scheduled time – time you were planning to send the abandoned cart email
• Abandoned cart sent time – the time, your abandoned cart email was actually sent out
• Amount – Total value of the shopping cart
• Customer Email – email address of the customer who filled the shopping cart

• Status of abandoned cart email – The status shows whether the abandoned cart email was sent to your customer or not. There are four options:
  • Sent – email sent successfully
  • Sending – email is on its way
  • Pending – email in queue for sending
  • Not sent – email could not been sent

• Recovery Status – the status shows whether the customer has returned to their cart via the email link or not. There are two options:
  • Recovered
  • Not recovered

• Possible actions
  • Delete (when email status: sent, pending or not sent) – delete the abandoned cart dataset
  • Send now (when email status: pending) – start sending the abandoned cart email
  • Error (when email status: not sent) – view the error message when moving the cursor over the symbol

Setting Up Abandoned Cart Emails in the CleverReach Plugin for WooCommerce 

To use this feature, install our CleverReach plugin for WooCommerce. Browse this helpcenter post and find out how to easily set up the plugin.

After having successfully completed the installation process, navigate to the CleverReach plugin dashboard in your WooCommerce account and click on [Abandoned Cart]:

Activate the feature for your WooCommerce shop: 

After having activated the feature in the plugin, also activate the automation email in CleverReach.

You can adjust and edit your abandoned cart email by clicking on [Edit Email]. The newsletter automatically opens in CleverReach:

Click on the little pen icon next to the green envelope to edit or adjust your newsletter. 

There are several variables in the pre-designed template that are automatically filled with the respective data when sending out the abandoned cart email (e.g. item name and ID, description):

Shop Variables:

{AC_STOREID}- shop ID

{AC_URL} – cart URL

{AC_TOTAL} – Total cart value

{AC_VAT} – VAT

{AC_STORELOGO} – Your shop logo

{AC_CURRENCY} – the currency of the shopping cart

{AC_CARTITEMS} – items in the cart with the following details:

Item Variables:

{LOOP[AC_CARTITEMS]} - Start

{ID} – item ID

{SKU} – Stock keeping unit

{NAME} – item name

{DESCRIPTION} – item description

{AMOUNT} – item quantity

{IMAGE} – item image

{SINGLEPRICE} – Single price

{PRODUCTURL} – Product URL

{ENDLOOP[AC_CARTITEMS]} – End

Adjust the newsletter for your recipients with just a few clicks. When you’re done editing, please save your work. The editor closes after clicking on [Save].

Please note that your items are not yet displayed when taking a look at your newsletter preview:

When the newsletter is triggered, the variables are automatically filled with data.

Go to the plugin dashboard in WooCommerce and decide after how many hours the abandoned cart emails should be triggered and sent out:

• After 1 hour
• After 3 hours
• After 10 hours (recommended)

After 24 hours

You can change the number of hours in the plugin at any time. 

You can activate or deactivate the abandoned cart automation workflow for each shop in the plugin dashboard in WooCommerce at any time:

You can also change the settings in your CleverReach account. Simply navigate to [THEA Automation] in your account and open the abandoned cart workflow.  

Take a look at the top right switch. When switched to [active] your workflow is active and your customers automatically receive your email. By switching it to [inactive] your automation email is no longer sent out to your customers.

THEA Report Data for Monitoring Your Success

The THEA Report allows you to track the success of your abandoned cart campaigns. Take a look at all CleverReach standard figures: „delivered emails, opens, not opened, click, unsubscribes, bounces“.

You can also use the Connect Link Extension which allows you to see all sales generated through your emails.

Evaluate the following data:

• Generated Orders
• Generated Revenue
• Order Rate

Alternatively, you can also use our Google Analytics integration for evaluating your purchases etc.

Please note

• If you’d like to use our abandoned cart feature, you’ll have to deactivate the abandoned cart emails of your WooCommerce shop.
• You can only send abandoned cart emails to active recipients in CleverReach, if you have collected their data in accordance with the GDPR.
• Add a checkbox for a newsletter subscription on your signup and checkout pages.
• The email is automatically sent out when:
  • The defined number of hours since the recipient left the shopping cart has passed, they are active recipients in CleverReach and your WooCommerce recipient list, you have activated for email communication.
  • The total amount of the abandoned cart is higher than 0.
  • Your shop is activated and not in maintenance mode.
• If a customer generates more than one abandoned cart in a row, only the first one is transferred to CleverReach.

Help & Support

In case you have any questions or need further assistance, please contact our service team at any time.