[intro]When you have installed the Abandoned Cart Statistics feature, the next step is to turn on the Abandoned Cart Emails, which are sent automatically to your customers. In this Guide, you will learn how to switch on and test these emails from your EKM online shop. [/intro]

The Abandoned Cart allows your EKM online shop to automatically send reminder emails to customers who have begun to process a transaction but who have not completed it.  When a customer visits your EKM online shop and places an item in their cart, this begins to create the order within the back end. If the customer clicks Checkout Securely on the Shopping Cart page but does not add any of their details to the first page of the Checkout Flow before leaving your EKM online shop, this becomes an abandoned order. The system has been given no email address to contact the customer, so the order that was begun will be hidden from the Orders page as a matter of good housekeeping. 

This is why sometimes you’ll notice that some of the order numbers may be ‘missing’ - there was an order placed but it was abandoned before the customer could add an email address for your EKM online shop to contact them with a reminder to complete the transaction. However, if the customer adds their email address to the first page of the Checkout Flow, this gives the system a method of contact for the customer and the Abandoned Cart emails will be sent to them in an attempt to retrieve the customer to complete the sale. 

1. You now need to check that the Abandoned Cart functionality is turned on. To do this, click Settings on the left-hand menu:

2. Then click Cart: 

3. On this page, you need to ensure that the checkboxes beneath the Abandoned Cart Saver header have been checked. For your EKM online shop to automatically send Abandoned Cart emails, you need to tick to Enable Abandoned Cart Saver, and then at least one of the boxes below that need to be checked before clicking Save. You can choose whether to only email the customer one hour after the cart was abandoned or to send up to three emails over 48 hours:

[tips]To customise the Abandoned Cart Emails to suit your brand, follow the steps in this Guide. [/tips]

Testing your Abandoned Cart Emails

1. When you are happy with the content in your Abandoned Cart after One Hour email template, you need to test it out to ensure that the formatting is correct. To do this, you need to visit the front end of your EKM online shop as if you were a customer, place a product into the cart, add your email address to the Checkout Flow and then abandon the order. To do this, you will need to use an incognito/in-private browser tab. This is because your usual browser will already have your details stored in it, so you will be unable to replicate the customer’s experience, especially when the browser remembers any previous cart sessions that you’ve created on your EKM online shop. 

When you have opened an Incognito/In-Private browser tab, visit your EKM online shop via the domain name as a customer would, and place the items in the basket before visiting the Cart page. Continue the process as if you were a customer and add your email address in the Checkout Flow before clicking the Delivery Details button (or if you have not yet installed the Customer Login feature, click the Order Summary button at the bottom of the page instead):

2. Then you need to close that browser tab down or go and visit another website entirely to abandon the order. Make a note of the time, as you need to wait around an hour for that email to arrive at your personal email address. If the email arrives and you still need to make some changes, simply repeat the process by editing the content of the Abandoned Cart after the 'One Hour’ email before creating and abandoning another order and waiting for the last edit to be sent to your email address.

[more]

• Features - Back in Stock Statistics
• Features - Password Protect
• Features - Product Attributes

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[contact] If you need our help with your EKM online shop, contact your Ecommerce Expert or the Customer Support Team, who will be able to point you in the right direction. We're open from 8am-6pm weekdays and 9am-5.30pm weekends. If you'd like to suggest a feature or an upgrade on any of the EKM platforms, please let us know on the EKM Suggestions Board. If you have a non-account specific question to ask the EKM Team, join us in EKM Community. If you need some inspiration for your EKM online shop, listen to our podcast on iTunes and Spotify.[/contact]