5 smart ways to address abandoned carts before Black Friday
Most abandoned carts aren’t lost for good, but finding out why shoppers leave takes time most store owners don’t have before Black Friday. This year, many business owners are using AI agents to help.
“AI agents can help you find the shoppers actually worth your time this Black Friday,” says Omer Gerhard, team lead at Wix e-commerce. “Some people are just comparing prices or saving things for later. The ones to focus on hit something small, like an unexpected shipping cost or an unanswered question.”
Here, Symphony by Wix shares how AI agents can help SMBs address abandoned carts, starting now.
1. Know your numbers
Before Black Friday kicks off, find out how many carts shoppers are leaving behind. Most e-commerce platforms have an abandoned carts feature, usually under orders or analytics, where you can see your abandonment rate and know where you’re starting from.
It’s a good number to know, because Black Friday changes everything at once. You’ll get more traffic and bigger discounts, and without a baseline, you can’t tell whether your efforts to win back shoppers are working or the sale just lifted everything. Track the rate as well as the count, since more visitors will naturally mean more abandoned carts.
“Most online retailers check their abandoned carts for the first time mid-sale, when they’re too busy to do anything about it,” says Gerhard. “Ask an AI agent for your numbers now, and you’ll go into Black Friday knowing exactly what to beat.”
2. Make sure your follow-up emails are working
Your abandoned cart recovery emails can only reach shoppers whose email addresses you've collected. Ask for an email early and offer guest checkout so shoppers can finish their purchase without creating an account.
Bar Zuckerman, product manager at Wix e-commerce, sees this as a common blind spot. “Owners turn on recovery emails and figure they're covered. But if the checkout doesn't ask for an email until the payment step, the cart is gone before you have anyone to write to.”
Collecting addresses is only half the job. The emails themselves need to be working, too, and email marketing with AI agents can help you catch gaps. Lora Bryant, who runs Granny Goodwitch Notions & Potions in Missouri, found that some of her automations were missing. She asked her team of AI agents to check. “They checked, came back and said, ‘No, let's set this up,’ and we set up a welcome email and cart notifications.”
3. Give your biggest abandoned carts some personal attention
A $20 cart and a $400 cart shouldn't get the same follow-up. When there's more revenue at stake, taking a few minutes to contact a shopper directly can be worthwhile.
Thiago Guerra, a commerce executive who specializes in B2B sales, recommends including a payment link in the message. It “directs the customer to a checkout already customized with the products left in the cart, making it easier to complete the purchase,” Guerra says. Depending on your store's setup, you may be able to copy the shopper's cart link and send it yourself.
Start with a short list of your highest-value abandoned carts, and let an AI agent help you pull it together as part of your Black Friday strategy with AI agents. Check how long your dashboard keeps them available. If carts remain accessible for several weeks, someone who left in late October may still have a saved cart by Nov. 27. Once your sale prices are live, reach out and let them know they can pick up where they left off.
The response can tell you as much as the sale itself. If several shoppers mention the same concern, you've got a useful lead on what to fix.
4. Make shipping costs and return policies easy to find
Before placing an order, shoppers want to know what they'll pay and what happens if they change their minds. If they need to dig for either answer, some will leave rather than take the risk.
Shipping costs are a common reason. Lisa Kammermayer, chief marketing officer at SimpleSell, says, “High shipping costs are the most common reason for shopping cart abandonment.” A delivery fee that appears at the last step can push the total beyond what someone expected to spend.
Free shipping on every order isn't always realistic, particularly for smaller stores with tight margins. Setting a minimum spend for free delivery can be a more practical way to encourage larger orders without absorbing every shipping cost.
Returns matter, too. “The right of withdrawal is essential for e-commerce, as it protects consumers and builds trust,” says Carsten Foehlisch, VP of legal services at Trusted Shops. In the European Union, consumers generally have 14 days to withdraw from an online purchase, subject to certain exceptions.
Make your own policy easy to understand. Tell shoppers how long they have to return an item, who pays for return shipping and how to start the process. Put those details near the buy button or in the cart, where they'll see them before paying.
Some shoppers will still have questions, and customer support with AI agents can help you answer common ones about shipping and returns while you’re busy with the sale, a common way businesses are using AI agents.
Then, test the checkout yourself. Look for unexpected fees, vague delivery estimates and return information that's difficult to find.
5. Send recovery emails that give shoppers a reason to return
A single abandoned cart email with a discount code is easy to set up, but it won't answer every shopper's concerns. Someone who got distracted needs a different nudge than someone who thinks shipping costs too much.
Start by finding out why people left. AI agents for small businesses can pinpoint where shoppers drop off and whether certain checkout steps are causing problems. To get a better understanding about what’s behind those abandoned carts, look at support conversations and questions shoppers ask before buying. Different use cases call for different actions, and the concerns you uncover can help you decide what to address in your recovery emails. A discount makes more sense for shoppers who seem to have hesitated over the price. There's little reason to give one to everyone, especially if some would have completed their purchase without it.
Marketing consultant André Damasceno says businesses should offer “humanized and customized service according to their needs and behavioral characteristics,” even when using AI and automation. For cart recovery, that means making each message useful to the person receiving it, instead of sending the same offer to everyone.
If you only send one recovery email currently, try adding a second one after a longer delay. Use the first to remind shoppers about their cart. The follow-up can address common concerns or offer a discount when it makes sense.
Set up the sequence ahead of the sale and test every link, delay and discount rule. It's much easier to catch a broken email now than when orders are coming in. Then, keep one question in front of you during the holiday shopping season: Why did they leave?
This story was produced by Symphony by Wix and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
