Abandoned Cart Recovery in WooCommerce: A Comprehensive Guide
Recovering abandoned carts is one of the most profitable strategies to increase sales in an e-commerce store. Many WooCommerce store owners ask, “How to track abandoned carts in WooCommerce?”
Monitoring such situations allows you to better understand customer behavior and implement actions to recover lost transactions.
In this guide, we will present various methods for tracking and analyzing abandoned carts in WooCommerce: from using plugins to Google Analytics and custom code solutions.
What is an Abandoned Cart?
We consider a cart as abandoned when a customer adds products but leaves the store before completing the purchase. This can be due to high shipping costs, a complex checkout process, or simply getting distracted.
Why Monitor Abandoned Carts?
Monitoring abandoned carts is essential for e-commerce businesses as it helps:
• Recover lost revenue through email reminders and coupons
• Gain better insights into customer behavior and identify drop-off points in the purchasing process
• Increase conversion rates by optimizing the checkout process
How to Track Abandoned Carts in WooCommerce?
1. Using Plugins for Tracking Abandoned Carts
Since WooCommerce doesn’t natively track abandoned carts, using a dedicated plugin is the easiest solution.
Recommended plugins:
• WooCommerce Cart Abandonment Recovery – Tracks carts and sends automated reminder emails
• Abandoned Cart Lite for WooCommerce – Provides detailed reports and customizable notifications
• Retainful – Allows tracking of carts and sending coupon-based recovery emails
How it works:
a. Install and activate a chosen plugin
b. Go to settings (usually WooCommerce → Abandoned Carts or similar)
c. Enable cart tracking and set the time interval for considering a cart abandoned (e.g., 30 minutes without activity)
d. Review reports to analyze data and recover sales
2. Google Analytics: Analyzing User Behavior During Checkout
Google Analytics, with its Enhanced Ecommerce feature, allows you to track the entire checkout process and identify when users leave.
How to set up:
a. Enable Enhanced Ecommerce in Google Analytics
b. Go to Admin → View → E-commerce settings and enable tracking of finalization steps
c. In Conversions → E-commerce → Checkout Behavior, analyze where users are dropping off
This data can help you optimize specific stages, such as simplifying forms or improving delivery information clarity.
3. Tracking Abandoned Carts with Custom Code
For advanced users, it’s possible to add custom logic for tracking abandonments.
Example PHP code:
“`php
function track_abandoned_carts() {
$user_id = get_current_user_id();
if (!WC()->cart->is_empty() && empty(WC()->session->get(‘cart_abandoned’))) {
WC()->session->set(‘cart_abandoned’, true);
error_log(“User $user_id abandoned cart”);
}
}
add_action(‘wp_logout’, ‘track_abandoned_carts’);
“`
This code logs an abandonment event in the log files when a user logs out with products in their cart. You can expand this to write data to your database, send recovery emails, or integrate with CRM systems.
Conclusion
Tracking abandoned carts in WooCommerce is a vital aspect of sales strategy. By doing so, you can:
• Recover lost orders
• Optimize the checkout process
• Enhance marketing campaign effectiveness
You have several options available:
• Plugins – fast and convenient setup
• Google Analytics – behavioral data analysis
• Custom code – full flexibility and customization
If you want to set up an abandoned cart recovery system or improve your WooCommerce store’s finalization process, I’m here to help.
