The Only Abandoned Cart Flow Tutorial You'll Ever Need in 2026

0:00You probably been building your abandoned cart flow wrong, and if you compare this eight-figure cart abandoned flow that I'm about to show you versus your account, if you pull it up right now, you will clearly see the difference. Now, you clicked on this video because you want a quick, no-BS guide on how to master your cart and checkout abandoned flows to recover more sales. So, I'm going to do just that with no and go as fast as possible cuz I know you're busy. I'm busy, too. So, let's take a look at one of my eight-figure brands and what this abandoned checkout flow is pulling in for them. So, we've optimized these

0:23flows. We can see when we started these flows right here, the monthly revenue of flow revenue is now doing over 600 thousand dollars every single month compared to before when we got going. That's a little bit of proof right there. We've built this exact strategy across 300-plus brands, and we generated over 250 million dollars in the process. I show this to show you that I'm not bullshitting. So, let's go into the flow and the exact strategy. First thing to be super clear on is that we have two flows here for abandoned cart and abandoned checkout. A lot of people get them mixed in their head, but they're

0:48actually two separate flows with two separate triggers. We can see the difference in revenue right here of the cart abandoned flow and the checkout abandoned flow. These both go at the exact same time as separate triggers. So, what's the difference between these? We can see right here I have a trigger for added to cart for this flow, and then this trigger right here I have the checkout started. Most brands, unfortunately, only have one, so let's break down the difference. Say I'm on the Nike website and I wanted to buy this product right here. If I were to click to add to bag right here and then

1:13leave, I would trigger the cart abandoned flow. That's because I added an item to cart, but I didn't go to checkout. And that's what this flow is going to be with this trigger. If somebody goes a step further and they go into their cart, they look at this and then they go to the actual checkout page right here, and maybe I'll do guest checkout. That right here is what's going to fire further down the line, which is this checkout abandoned flow

1:34with the trigger of checkout started. Little nuance there, make sure you have flows set up for both. So, let me show you the strategy for each one of them. What we have here is we wait 30 minutes and then we send our first SMS and our first email. A little nuance right here is we have a conditional split based on if somebody's bought from us before or not. If somebody has placed order at least once over all time, these buyers are going to get sent into this text message and then this email. Whereas people who have never bought from us before, they're going to receive this

2:00SMS, and then this email. Before then, each side is going to get the same amount of emails. We wait 1 day in between these emails before we then have this flash offer at the end. Now, why do we split based on buyers and non-buyers? Non-buyers need different things to get them to convert. And specifically, they also have the welcome discount. About 80% of non-buyers who abandon a cart or abandon a checkout, sign up to the email list within 7 days. That means they still have their welcome discount that they got in the pop-up. For massive, easy increase in conversions that everybody overlooks is just remind people, "Hey, you have your welcome

2:30discount." And if you're able to also adjust the content a little bit, that goes a long way as you're being like, "Hey, your first order, here's stuff that you might want to know." And then for your repeat buyers over here, maybe be like, "Hey, come get your next piece." And that is literally how simple

2:42it is. Cart abandon flow, same thing. They actually requested that we didn't want to have the non-buyer split and tell non-buyers of the discount for this one, but the same psychology applies. We have the SMS, and then we split based on buyers and non-buyers right here. We send a daily email right here for the first 4 days before an increased discount at the end. Same thing for the cart abandon flow right here. We have the 30-minute delay. We temporarily turned off the abandoned cart for non-buyers, and everybody's just receiving this cuz we were having some issues. But you can see the placed order down here with email. If somebody's

3:11placed an order, they go over here. If somebody has not placed an order, then look at we're reminding of their welcome discount. We can see right here what this looks like with these emails. And that super simple setup right here is netting this brand over $150,000 every single month. And just to quickly show you the filter that we need to have in our cart abandon flow, our profile filters are going to be checkout started zero times since starting this flow, and then placed order zero times since starting this flow. Cuz if somebody goes to checkout, then we want them to enter the checkout abandon flow. So, that's

3:38why we have these filters set up. So, if anybody at any point goes to checkout or they place an order when they're in this flow, they are going to be removed. And then for the checkout abandon, same sort of thing, but if somebody goes to checkout, and then they place an order at any point, they're going to be removed from this flow and not receive

3:54the remainder of the emails. That is it. I'm going to show you the copy and the creatives right here, but I wanted to show you the functional setup. Wait 30 minutes before your first message, split based on buyers and non-buyers. Tell non-buyers of the welcome discount that they just signed up for. And then emails three and four for both of them, enter a discount. For non-buyers it's going to be a new discount. We don't want to wait two days or three days in between these emails because every single day we wait, the lead gets colder. I've just found across the $250 million I've generated that daily works the best. really need

4:20to go past four emails. If somebody doesn't buy in that period, they usually don't go back to their cart and they're just receiving our regular campaigns. We only have one SMS cuz it's actually illegal in the United States to send more than one SMS in an abandonment flow. So that's why we only have one. Super simple, that is literally it on the structural setup, saving you years of AB testing. Now let's get to the actual creatives of these emails. Real quick, you can see that these flows have generated $6.2 million for this brand since we set them up, doing over $500,000 every single month. This is

4:46what we do for a living. We build these systems out for brands. And so if you want me to audit your current flows, then click the link in the description below to book a call. One-time project, get all your flows built out like the cart and checkout abandon that you're seeing right here. You can keep watching the video and try to build this out for yourself, but probably going to mess something up. So you may as well skip the time and the opportunity cost and just book a call with us. All right, so I have here pulled up an example of a non-buyer example and then a buyer's

5:07example. Non-buyers, let's go to welcome email number one. Key thing that we want to do here with our copy and our messaging. Instead of just having just like, "Hey, are you forgetting something?" We have this, "Hey, your coffee gear is reserved and ready to ship." to be aggressive with our copy. We don't want to be like, "Forgetting something?" We want to make it seem like this customer already placed their order. That is some serious sauce for you. And then some branded messaging, you can see a dynamic block way up at the top of the email showing exactly what the customer left behind. And

5:32that's going to catch their attention. And then of course, the welcome discount at the top that the customer just signed up for. 10% off right there. When we go to the past buyers, you can see it's literally the same exact thing, but no discount code. Obviously for past buyers, I'd want to customize the content a little bit, but I'm showing

5:46you this that you don't really need to. Literally, just the very least add that non-buyers discount, and that's it. And then we have just a quick social proof section, just being like, "Hey, fast shipping available, warranty." Adding some urgency right here. Then a super quick section on why serious outdoorsmen choose our product. And again, just

6:03maxing out with social proof right here. Same thing for the past buyers. And so then, we like to use this founder text-based email. This is the secret sauce for abandonment flows, rather than drowning people out with crazy designs. Message from a real person. Address it straight up. "Hey, it's Josh here. I saw you made it to checkout, but didn't finish your order. So, I wanted to reach out myself." A little brand story, which tells about how our product is different. Then remind them, "Hey, your welcome discount is still active. Finish

6:26your order." Then some social proof. Then risk reversal of every order here comes with a lifetime warranty. Then also, "Hey, we also donate 10% of our profits." Like, you read this email, reads like it's coming from a real person. It stands out from this graphic stuff, and it makes you feel good about placing an order. That's why we use these text-based emails. You can see this one for the buyers, same sort of layout, but look at how the copy is a little bit different. "I saw you came back, made it to checkout, but didn't finish. You've already bought before, so you know that our gear is designed for

6:52the outdoors." So, it talks about addressing the collection and doesn't give the welcome discount. That's super key. Before we then go to the raised discount. I've found that it does make sense to increase and enter a discount at the end of your abandonment flows. Usually, people just enter a discount right up the front, like an extra discount. I'd rather try to get people at our regular margin instead. And so, we added discount, put the discount right up in their face, dynamic block right up in their face. A little bit of social proof and testimonials, and that's really all you need. You can see

7:19it's the same sort of thing right here. But for the non-buyers, we say, "Hey, instead of 10%, it's 15%." So, really making it feel like an upgrade, because it is. Before finally doing another last chance message from the founder, being like, "Hey, I get it. Here's a little bit more information, and the discount code is expiring right here." That's all that we need to do. I have tested this meticulously. This is the best layout

7:39for cart and checkout abandoned flows. You might be asking me, "Max, I only see one flow. What about the cart abandoned flow versus the checkout abandoned flow? To be quite honest, if you're strapped on time, literally just duplicate the flow. You can have the same exact copy, you're completely fine. Ideally, we would want our checkout abandoned to be a bit different. The psychology doesn't really change too much. A person either added to cart or they went a little bit further. I haven't really noticed massive differences in conversions by adjusting copy. Ideally, you want to customize it, but I'm not going to tell you on this video cuz you I assume

8:07you're strapped on time that like, hey, you have to use this complex sort of system. Nope, let's make our non-buyer and buyer emails as close to each other as possible. And we only have to design really two emails. Other than this, we can just use ChatGPT or Claude to help. And then just duplicate this for your cart abandoned flow. And then just have your different flows set up differently right here with a different trigger. And that's literally it. And just by watching this video, I'm going to give you these templates right here. I have templates for everything. I mapped out this whole flow right here. In email

8:32one, I have a few great examples and then I templatized them right here. Same thing for email two, if you want to do a graphic one versus a text-based one. Same thing for email three, these are all editable templates that you can have completely for free. Right here, email four examples and templates and then some bonus templates if you feel like this better represents your brand as well as some examples from some brands in different niches. All you have to do

8:54is go to wellcopy.net/abandons. Completely for free, you get to use these winning templates that we've used all for yourself. And you can model the copy yourself. Inside of my private community, you can see that I also have this Claude skill file which is going to write copy for you, plan strategy. I have a custom GPT linked in here. I have all these templates and I just showed you the abandoned cart flows. I also have every single flow templatized completely for you. I post in here every single day. There are two live calls every single week and a full email course to go with it. If you're

9:21interested, you should click the link in the description to check it out. That is the simplest tactical no tutorial on the cart and checkout abandoned flows. Now, there's definitely more nuances to this and if you want to see me like actually build this flow out, there's another YouTube video I have where I'm literally showing you as I'm building the emails out into Klaviyo and going from this creative right here first into uploading it into the platform. You can see that whole process. It's a little bit longer of a video. Definitely check it out if you need that end. I will have it linked here for you. But thank you for watching

9:47this video and if you're going to watch this one, I'll see you over there. Peace.