When you integrate your MailerLite account with WooCommerce, Shopify, BigCommerce, or PrestaShop, you will find e-commerce automation triggers available in your workflow editor. One of these triggers is Abandoned cart.
To create an abandoned cart email automation:
Navigate to the Automations page.
Click Create workflow.
In the left sidebar of your workflow editor, scroll down to the E-commerce triggers.
Select Abandoned cart.
5. Select the amount of time after cart abandonment before you want your workflow to trigger.
6. Drag and drop an Email to add an email step.
7. Edit your email name, subject, and sender information in the sidebar.
8. In the sidebar, click the Design email button.
9. Create your abandoned cart email from scratch, or choose a template from our template gallery.
Note: All abandoned cart emails will be created in the Drag & drop editor and will automatically contain an abandoned cart block that will populate with the items in the cart of each subscriber.
10. Once you’ve finished designing your email, click Done editing.
11. Activate your workflow.
Your abandoned cart automation is active and ready to go! For further insight, check out these 10 amazing abandoned cart examples to increase sales.
Monitoring the status of abandoned cart workflow
When a shopper triggers an abandoned cart workflow, you can track the status of the cart in our Automation Activity. The shoppers that are still in the abandoned cart sequence fall under the Queued or Completed status.
Queued
Subscriber - Subscriber who triggered email;
Next step - The next email to be sent (i.e. Abandoned cart message)
Date/Time - Time when the next step will be initiated.
Completed
Subscriber - Subscriber who triggered email;
Order - Order with a link to the Shopify / WooCommerce order page;
Recovery status - Recovered / Not recovered;
Workflow status - Completed / Not completed;
Date/Time - Time when subscriber completed the sequence.
Since your workflow might have more than one step, we check the status of the cart before each step in the workflow sequence. Don’t worry, your subscribers won’t get a recovery email if the cart was already recovered.
If the order is recovered (shopper bought your product), the subscriber will appear under the status Completed. No further steps in the workflow are triggered. The Recovery status then gets the value Recovered.
If the user completed the order in the middle of the sequence, the Workflow status is Not completed.
If the user completes the sequence and the order wasn’t recovered, the Workflow status is Completed. The Recovery status is marked as Not recovered.
Troubleshooting
If your abandoned cart workflow isn’t triggering as expected, review the following checklist to identify potential issues.
✅ Basic setup requirements
The e-commerce integration (Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, or PrestaShop) must be fully set up before the cart is abandoned.
The Squarespace Commerce integration does not currently have the ability to create Abandoned cart email automations.
The automation must be active when the cart is abandoned.
The customer must enter their email address during checkout. Without an email address, the automation cannot trigger.
📨 Marketing opt-in requirements
To comply with email marketing regulations, shoppers must give permission to receive marketing communications even for abandoned cart emails.
An Accept Marketing checkbox must be visible during checkout.
Shoppers need to either check the box themselves, or leave it checked if it is pre-selected.
If the checkbox is missing or left unchecked, visitors cannot be added to the abandoned cart workflow because they haven’t consented to receive marketing emails.
👤 Subscriber status and eligibility
Only active subscribers on your MailerLite list can receive abandoned cart emails.
Unsubscribed contacts cannot trigger automations.
If a customer uses an email that’s already on your subscriber list, the automation can still trigger immediately.
If a first-time buyer enters their email and opts into marketing, they’ll be added to your subscriber list and become eligible for the workflow right away.
If a customer does not enter their email address before leaving checkout, they cannot trigger abandoned cart automation.
⚙️ Still not working?
Confirm that your integration is synced and sending real-time updates to MailerLite.
If you’re using double opt-in for integrations, ensure the subscriber confirmed their subscription before testing.
🧩 Common abandoned cart scenarios
Check your subscriber against these common scenarios:
| Scenario | Will the automation trigger? | Explanation |
| Customer adds items to cart but doesn’t enter an email address | ❌ No | Without an email, MailerLite cannot identify or send the workflow to the visitor. |
| Customer enters an email but the “Accept Marketing” checkbox is missing or unchecked | ❌ No | Marketing consent is required to send abandoned cart emails. Add or enable the checkbox in your checkout settings. |
| Customer is already a MailerLite subscriber and abandons checkout | ✅ Yes | Existing subscribers who abandon their carts can immediately trigger the automation. |
| Customer checks out as a guest but subscribes to marketing during checkout | ✅ Yes | Once they opt in and their email is added to your subscriber list, they become eligible for the automation. |
| Customer recovers the cart and completes the order mid-workflow | ⚠️ Stops | The workflow ends automatically and no further abandoned cart messages are sent. |
